Salaried class have always complained of raw deal year after year in due to laws related to income tax on Salary. But the good news is you can still manage to pay Zero (NIL) income tax on salary of up to Rs 20 lakhs (Salary here means cost to company). All you need to have is right salary structure and invest in RIGHT Tax saving plans! We give you details below.
Salary structure is very important to keep taxes low. The good news is most employers are partially flexible with salary structure. We give you one such sample salary structure for CTC (Cost to Company) of Rs 20 lakhs.
We have kept following points in mind:
There are components in salary which are fully or partially tax exempt. For example HRA is tax exempt if you satisfy certain conditions. You can have the complete list in the post: Must have Tax Free components in Salary.
Tax Efficient Salary Structure Example | |||
Salary Components | Annual | Monthly | Remarks |
Basic Salary | 10,60,000 | 88,333 | Fully Taxable |
House Rent Allowance | 5,30,000 | 44,167 | Partially Tax Exempted |
Car Maintenance | 28,800 | 2,400 | Tax Free if bills submitted |
Meal Coupons | 26,400 | 2,200 | Tax Free up to Rs 50/meal (22 working days) |
NPS (Employer Contribution) | 1,06,000 | 8,833 | Tax Free up to 10% of basic salary |
EPF (Employer Contribution) | 1,27,200 | 10,600 | Tax Free up to 12% of basic salary |
Phone & Internet Bill Reimbursement | 36,000 | 3,000 | Tax Free if bills submitted |
Uniform Allowance | 24,000 | 2,000 | Tax Free if bills submitted |
Children Education/Hostel Allowance | 4,800 | 400 | Tax Free if bills submitted |
Newspaper/Journal Allowance | 12,000 | 1,000 | Tax Free if bills submitted |
Gift voucher | 5,000 | Tax Free up to Rs 5,000 | |
LTA (Leave Travel Allowance) | 30,000 | Tax Free if bills submitted | |
Gratuity | 50,962 | Paid while Leaving company | |
Cost to Company | 20,41,162 | 1,62,933 |
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Below is the income tax calculation for above salary.
S. No. | Calculating Income Tax on Salary | FY 2021-22 |
1 | Total Cost to Company | 20,41,162 |
2 | Tax Free Components
| 400,200 |
3 | HRA (Rent Paid is Rs 53,000 and in Metro City) | 5,30,000 |
4 | Standard Deduction (increased to Rs 50,000 in Budget 2019) | 50,000 |
5 | Gratuity (Not part of Salary but part of CTC – Non Taxable) | 50,962 |
6 | Tax Deductions
| 3,10,000 |
7 | Home Loan Exemption | 2,00,000 |
8 | Income after Deductions [1 – (2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6)] | 5,00,000 |
9 | Basic Tax Exemption | 2,50,000 |
10 | Taxable Income [8 – 9] | 2,50,000 |
11 | Income Tax [5% of 10] | 12,500 |
12 | Rebate u/s 87A | 12,500 |
13 | Tax Payable [11 – 12] | 0 |
There can be several situations when we look for regular income. This is especially true for people after retirement without any pension. Also there would be new entrepreneurs who need regular income until their start-up stabilises. We tell you 13 investments which can generate regular income for you along with their pros and cons.
You can claim following tax deductions.
Section 80C/80CCC/80CCD (Rs 1,50,000): Investment in EPF, ELSS, PPF, FD, NPS, NSC, Pension Plans, Life Insurance, SCSS, SSA and NPS. Also includes Home Loan Principal repayment, Tuition Fees, Stamp Duty (Best Tax Saving Investments u/s 80C)
Section 80CCD(1B) (Rs 50,000): Investment in NPS (Should you Invest Rs 50,000 in NPS to Save Tax u/s 80CCD (1B)?)
Section 24: Interest paid on Home Loan for Self occupied homes. No Limit for Rented house.
Section 80E: Interest paid on Education Loan. No upper/lower Limit! (Tax Benefit on Education Loan (Sec 80E))
Section 80CCG: 50% of investment in RGESS approved stocks & mutual funds. Max investment limit is Rs 50,000 (RGESS – Save Taxes up to Rs 25000) (No more applicable from FY 2017-18 on wards)
Section 80D: Premium payment for medical insurance for self and parents. Also includes Rs 5,000 limit for preventive health checkup (Making Sense of Tax Benefit on Health Insurance u/s 80D)
We have shown the tax deduction on both HRA and Home Loan. There are people who think that both cannot be used simultaneously. This is NOT true. You can take benefit of both HRA and Home Loan even if your home and rented place is in the same city.
Many employer (& employers) are confused if they can take advantage of both HRA and Home Loan for saving tax. This seems intuitive as how can you pay for home loan and also live on rent. However just for your information its completely legal to take advantage of both HRA & Home Loan as there are multiple situations where you need to live on rent but still pay home loan. You can read more about this our post – Can I claim Tax Benefit on both HRA & Home Loan?
We have seen the salary structure and how you need to pay 0 income tax even when the CTC (Cost to company) is Rs 20.41 lakhs. Now lets look at how your Monthly Salary Slip would look like.
Gross Salary – Rs 1,32,500
Deductions – Rs 30,033
Net Salary = Rs 102,467 [1,32,500 – 30,033]
Food/Gift Coupon – Rs 2,200 monthly
Reimbursement (on submission of bills) – Rs 1,35,600 (Yearly)
Everyone hates Taxes and go out in full force to save it – sometime legally and sometimes beyond the law. Fortunately there are still some tax Free incomes & investments. Learn about them here and use it to your advantage.
As you can see the monthly payout is not high and a lot of components are reimbursement. To balance this a lot of employers pay all reimbursement monthly and deduct taxes at the end of year if the bill is not submitted.
The good thing about the above salary structure is a lot of contribution goes to long term savings of NPS & EPF. Every Month Rs 31,167 contribution goes to your retirement savings as follows:
Component | Employee Contribution | Employer Contribution | Total Contribution |
NPS (10% of basic salary) | 0 | 8,833 | 8,833 |
EPF (12% of basic salary) | 10,600 | 10,600 | 21,200 |
Total | 10,600 | 19,433 | 30,033 |
The drawback of the entire salary structure is that the monthly payout would be lower. In case you plan to have high monthly income, you’ll need to pay more taxes.
We hope this would help you to restructure your salary (CTC) in a way that you can balance your Income Tax on Salary and monthly payout.
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View Comments
Is there any tax exemption being a spouse physically challenged where SADARAM Certificate is available?
Dear Amit,
please explain about Sec-24.
House loan principle 1.5L (80c)
Interest on house loan 2L(sec 24)
will i get same benefit to rented house also
Hi, I am a salaried employee in ahmedabad received HRA of 5000/- besides i also received rent of my own house at Rs.15000/-pm and i also paid 8000/- pm to my landlord in which i resided,may i claim 80GG or any other deduction or exemption related to rent?
please advice
EPF is already accounted in 80C, so we will not be able to realize complete 1.5L deduction mentioned by you in row 6 of calculation. Let me know if I am wrong. Thanks
Amit
Tax Free Components are not part of Salary still can be claimed during ITR like Gift voucher, Newspaper/Journal Allowance?
The Form 16 shows what components are tax free and what not. These components can be claimed only if they are part of salary else NOT.
How to save tax when you have a consolidated salary (no bifurcation) and get a lumpsum every month?
If my parents in law (senior citizen) are fully dependent on me and I am paying premium for their medical policy, can I claim benefit for me against 80D
Unfortunately No. Its for parents not in laws
Can gpf employee also claim tax deduction under 80ccd(1B),if he invests in nps
yes
i used to pay tax even i had salary of 6 lakh this article changed me thank you for such an informative article
rebate is only up to
2500 ( or) 100% of income tax whichever is lower then in case of above computation (9-10) 2500 is a tax payable. Am i right.
Yes you are right. This was changed in Budget 2017. I have updated the post now to reflect these changes.