The dominant motivation of taxation in developing country like India is to finance public administration and the public provision of economic and social services. The appropriate level of taxation depends on a country's desired role for the state, the efficiency and equity of its public spending, and the efficiency and equity of its structure and administration. In the present paper, an attempt is made to evaluate recent reforms in the sphere of individual income taxation. During the period under study, the major reforms in the era of individual income taxation have resulted in restructuring tax rates, increase in exemption limit, and rationalization of tax incentives for investments and introduction of some new taxes. The present paper concludes that main objective of individual income tax reforms is to broaden the tax base, rationalize the tax incentives, curb the tax evasion, provide greater flexibility to taxpayers and simplify the tax laws. But there is still a long way to go. Individual income taxation system in India should be rationalized so as to have strictly limited objectives of raising revenue for the Government in a fair and efficient manner and achieve redistribution.
