How are you saving taxes on 1Cr+ income?

Easier way is to work and make it 2Cr+ and not care about taxes. Focus on the cash coming in hand and ignore deductions to get peace of mind.

Since you are making 1 cr+ I assume you are on top management team. You could ask them to make you a consultant on paper so that you'll have to pay taxes on only 50% of your income. I know it's not that easy and not every company agrees to it, but that's the only way for you to save taxes. Another is political donation, but that also you shouldn't do more than 10L-15L. So it's only gonna save you additional 3-5L.

I'm no expert however, If it all comes from sallary and you are not able to become your own business (claim many things as business expense and base yourself virtually in Estonia) your choices are limited. The biggest deductables are options involve buying a house in a few metros and putting max into tax free investment schemes like PF. Im just about able to keep my earning below 1 CR and avoid the surcharge by taking stock sku or ESOP (at a 1.5x multiple) in lieu of cash bonus.

Can’t do much on this. 1) no point playing around with rent - exemption gets mixed because of high base 2) maximise employee of contribution - up to 7 lakhs 3) don’t fake political donation 4) can take house loan for interest exemption Hurts here as well…. Can’t do much except move to dubai