Tips to save Income Tax on Salary

Below is the list that can help you plan and save the taxes:-

It is important to understand the salary components and the deductions provided to you. It can help you save on taxes.

• Basic Salary: This is the fixed amount of your pay slip which is the basic pay that your employer promises you apart from the other salary benefits. The basic salary is also used to calculate the employer's contribution to the provident fund (EPF), as the contribution is expressed as a part of the basic salary.
• Dearness Allowance: Dearness allowance (DA) is an allowance allowed to you for factoring in inflation, increasing the cost of living.
• House rent Allowance: If you are employed and live in a rented apartment or house, you can claim HRA to lower your tax amount. There is an option to partially or completely exempt the amount of rent paid from the taxable income. You need to follow the guidelines set by the income tax department in the computation of the HRA amount.
• Leave Travel Allowance: Under LTA, you can apply for tax exemption for the costs incurred while traveling within India. This exemption can be availed on the shortest distance during the trip. The allowance claim also includes costs for spouses, children, and parents if traveling together. To avail of the exemption, you need to provide all the related documents associated with travel, so you must take a trip before making the claim. LTA is allowed twice in a block of four years.
• Bonus: The bonus declared by the company differs from one company to another. Generally, a performance bonus is given once or twice a year. The bonus comes under the tax slab as it is an income. 100% of the bonus amount is taxed.
• Employees’ Provident Fund contributions: The Government of India has initiated the social security scheme for salaried individuals, where the employee and the employer contribute 12% of the basic salary and dearness allowance every month towards the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF). The amount attracts 8.55% of the interest on the accumulated amount. All the companies employing above 20 employees must contribute towards the PF amount under the EPF ACT 1952. The EPF contributions create a retirement corpus for you when you retire.
• Standard deduction: Medical allowances and the conveyance allowance have been replaced by standard deductions in the 2018 budget. Now you can claim INR 50000 from your total salary income as a standard deduction, thereby reducing the amount of taxable income.As per budget 2023 this deduction is now available under the new tax regime also.
• Professional Tax: This tax is levied by the State Government and is similar to the income tax which is levied by the Central Government. The maximum amount that can be claimed as deduction under income tax act is INR 2500. This is usually deducted by the employer only and deposited to the State Government.

What is the difference between the CTC (Cost to Company) and take-home salary? The company may entitle you to several r benefits like food coupons, pick and drop facility, rent-free accommodation, gratuity, etc. These benefits add up and form part of the total amount of hiring you for the company, which is known as the cost to the company. So, the CTC would include the salary paid every month, the retirement benefits payable when you retire or leave the organization, and non-monetary benefits like free meals, free transport, etc.

Compared to CTC, the basic take-home pay would include the gross salary paid to you after deducting the tax-free allowances like HRA, LTA, etc., and the income tax payable by you.

The salary also includes the retirement benefits which are payable to you. Let’s understand these benefits -

Retirement Benefits

In the calculation of taxation on your salary income, a lot of tax benefit is given on the amount of money spent on planning for retirement. These benefits are known as retirement benefits. Let’s discuss all retirement benefits in detail:

Leave Encashment Exemption:

As an employee, you should always check with the employer regarding their leave encashment policy. The policy varies from company to company, some allow you to carry forward the leave days, and some give you the option of encashment of leave days. The amount that you receive comes under the taxable slab. There are certain exemptions where no tax is charged on the amount you receive by encashing the leaves that are not taken. These instances include the following:

• Central and State Government employees are not charged tax on the leave encashment amount.
• In the case of non-Government employees exemption is allowed for the lowest of the following amounts:
  • Average salary of the last 10 months before retirement
  • Leave encashment amount received provided it is limited to INR 25 lakhs as per budget 2023 update
  • Amount equalling the salary for the earned leaves

Taxable amount would be the leave encashment received after deducting the tax exemption using the rules mentioned above.

Advance Salary:

Under Section 89(1) tax exemption is given if in case you have received a certain portion of your total salary in advance, or got a family pension in advance.

VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme):

Under section 10 (10C), the exemption is given on the amount received at the time of voluntary retirement if certain criteria are followed. These criteria state that the compensation amount should be received on voluntary retirement, it should not exceed INR 500000, the receipt should follow the rule 2BA, and you should be an employee of an authority that is formed in compliance with certain rules. The employees who have already taken benefits under section 89 are not eligible for this exemption.

Pension:

Any amount received under pension comes under the tax slab in the year that the pension is received. Pension is usually paid in the form of annuities. You can also commute 1/3rd of the accumulated pension and receive the amount in a lump sum. This lump sum amount would be tax-free under Section 10(10A) but the annuity payments would be taxed in your hand at your tax slab when it is paid.

Gratuity:

Gratuity is a benefit given by the employer to its employee at the time of retirement. When you complete 5 years in the company then you would be entitled to receive gratuity from the employer. But the amount is received only at the time of resignation or retirement. The tax calculation is different and it depends on whether you are covered under the Gratuity Act or not. The amount received by a family member in case of your death is exempted from the tax slab.

Income Tax Calculation

Once you are aware of the tax deductions available for you in the salary component, you can calculate your tax liability. However, the following should be kept in mind while calculating the tax -

• Salary income is not the only taxable income that you have. There are various sources that also contribute towards income besides salary for example it can include income from property, stocks, interest, etc. All these incomes are added together and then on the accumulated amount tax is charged depending on the slab that the income falls in.
• You also get deductions and exemptions from the gross taxable income calculated from all the heads of income. You have to deduct such tax-free deductions and exemptions to arrive at the net taxable income.

The net taxable income would then be taxed as per the given slab rates -

Age less than 60 years

For age above 60 but below 80 years the basic exemption limit is Rs 3 lakhs and for age above 80 years the basic exemption limit is Rs 5 lakhs under the old tax regime. There is no such benefit of increased basic exemption limit for taxpayers opting for the new tax regime.

Income tax computation requires good knowledge of taxation laws. Thus, looking at the hardships faced by people, Tax2win created a simple online tax calculator tool to help you easily estimate your tax refund or tax payable to the government. Our income tax calculator calculates taxes, on the basis of the latest provisions of the income tax act and rules issued by the Income Tax Department.

Tax deduction at source of the salary:

Every employer deducts a certain amount of money from your basic salary and pays it to the tax department on your behalf if you have taxable income after all deductions and exemptions as reported by you to your employer. The employer calculates the tax amount on your total salary income minus deductions for eligible investments made, and thus deducts TDS from your salary to deposit it to the government. The employer will provide you with the TDS certificate also known as form 16 containing all the details about the TDS deductions. These deductions should be factored in to know the tax liability

FORM 16 :

Form 16, typically known as TDS certificate, contains all the information regarding the tax deductions made by the employer from your salary during the given financial year. The form is typically divided in two parts. Part A contains details about the employer like the name, address, Pan Details etc. Part B contains details about the salary paid, deduction, other income etc.

Form 26AS :

This form is provided by the income tax department containing details about the tax deducted on your behalf and also the amount of tax paid. The form is available on the website of the IT department.

Deductions :

Section 80 and section 10(10D) includes all the deductions that can be availed by you from your gross taxable income. By utilizing these deductions you can reduce your tax liability thus reducing the amount of the tax to be paid to the government.