Taxpayers may gain up to Rs 44,000 per year

The increase in tax slabs in undoubtedly great news for the salaried. The news gets even better for those in the higher tax brackets. The adjustment for the income tax slabs has been done in such a way that people in the high income category – say above Rs 2.5 lakhs per annum - stand to gain even more. To put this in numbers, a person who had a taxable income of Rs 5 lakhs would have be paying a tax of Rs 99,000 – before any cess on his income in the income tax slabs that prevailed till now. However, under the new income tax slabs, his tax liability would come down to Rs 55,000 translating into cool tax savings of Rs 44,000 per year. That is a huge amount of money. So, how has this magic come about? To consider this, look at the tax slabs. The minimum exemption limit has gone up by Rs 40,000. That’s good enough. What is better is that the next slab of 20% which earlier kicked in from Rs 1, 50,000 and extended till Rs 2, 50,000 will now only kick in from Rs 3 lakh onwards. The good news does not end here; in the prevailing regime the 30% tax bracket started from Rs 2.5 lakh onwards. In the latest budget, the 30% tax bracket only starts from Rs 5 lakhs onwards. This is the revision that will do the magic for the high income earners. And, all this is not taking into account the impact of deduction on account of Section 80C. The huge jump in interim slabs means that many people will just fall out of the highest tax slab into the tax slab below after they start claiming deductions they are entitled to under Section 80C. This is one budget middle class salary earners are unlikely to forget. So what does the revision in the tax slabs mean for various tax payers. For a person whose taxable income after all deductions was Rs 2.5 lakh, tax savings could be around Rs 14,000; for someone with an income of Rs 5 lakh, it could be around Rs 45,000; for someone with a salary income of Rs 7.5 lakh, tax saving would be Rs 44,000. Taxpayers having salary of above 10,00,000 will have to pay the surcharge of 10% and the education cess of 3%. When these are put together the gain will come to Rs.49,852.

The old tax slabs were:
Upto Rs 1,10,000 – Nil
Rs 1,10,001 – Rs 1,50,000 – 10%
Rs 1,50,001 – Rs 2,50,000 – 20%
Above Rs. 2,50,000 – 30%
The new tax slabs are:
Upto Rs 1,50,000 - Nil
Rs 1,50,001 – Rs 3,00,000 – 10%
Rs 3,00,001 – Rs 5,00,000 – 20%
Above Rs 5,00,000 – 30%

(source:economictimes.com)