Tax and social security

[tufguy]

"Tax evasion and social security are at their highest in India". Is it correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Tax evasion might be at its highest but I don't see how social security can be. Maybe you mean "social security payments".

 

[Tdol]

Are you really trying to say that people are avoiding tax but paying social security? I would imagine that they would try to avoid both.

 

[emsr2d2]

I assumed it meant that the government were paying out social security benefits at a higher volume than ever before. In the UK, when we refer to "social security", it's the payments that go from the government to certain sectors of the public, not the other way round. People in the UK don't make social security payments, they receive them.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Tax evasion and social security fraud are at their highest in India.

(This is very popular in France, BTW)

 

[emsr2d2]

I didn't see anything in the original to suggest fraud, though that might be what the OP meant.

 

[Tarheel]

Tax evasion and social security fraud pair up well. What do you say, tufguy?

 

[tufguy]

Yes, I wanted to say "Social security fraud" sorry. My sentence is correct, right?

 

[Tarheel]

Re:

Tax evasion and social security fraud are at their highest in India.

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Not only is that grammatical, but it also makes sense. A twofer!

 

[Tdol]

You could also put In India at the start, which would make it clear that you were only talking about India and not comparing India to other countries.

 

[Tarheel]

You could also put In India at the start, which would make it clear that you were only talking about India and not comparing India to other countries.

But isn't that exactly what is being done here is comparing India to other countries? The statement is that in India tax evasion is at its highest. That means that no country has a higher tax evasion rate. The same applies to social security fraud. The statement says that it is at its highest in India, meaning that no country has more. (Of course, I don't know how accurate the statistics are. I am only talking the statement itself.)

 

[SoothingDave]

It's unclear whether he means this activity is higher in India than in other countries or if he is saying that the numbers are at an historical high in that country.

 

[emsr2d2]

But isn't that exactly what is being done here is comparing India to other countries? The statement is that in India tax evasion is at its highest. That means that no country has a higher tax evasion rate. The same applies to social security fraud. The statement says that it is at its highest in India, meaning that no country has more.

Interestingly, I feel the statement "In India, XXX is at its highest" means solely that the level is the highest it has ever been in India.

 

[Tarheel]

There are, as it has been pointed out, a couple of possibilities.

1. The rates are at the highest they have ever been in India.
2. Of all the countries for which data is available, the rates are the highest in India.


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