Income Tax

Warning: This is a lengthy post.

Filed some salaried ITRs during this tax period. Following are some of the common mistakes which can be avoided

1. If you have changed jobs ensure that income from previous job is disclosed to the current employer and TDS gets deducted correctly. One basic check you can do is the TDS deductions made by new employer should not be lesser than monthly deductions done by your previous employer unless you have lower CTC compared to your previous job or have additional deductions.

2. During Feb/March take your bank statement, trading account statement and declare the income from capital gains, dividends and interest to your employer, so TDS can be deducted accordingly. Helps in avoiding surprise cash outflow in July and saves from paying interest @ 1% per month on this tax

3. If you have ESOPs/RSU from Foreign Companies this should be disclosed in Foreign Assets and liabilities schedule. Some employers would have opened bank accounts in that country to settle your ESOP transactions. This is also required to be disclosed under foreign bank accounts. If the ESOPs and RSUs are from unlisted Companies then it also has to be disclosed under unlisted shares held. Additionally if you are Indian resident as per the Income tax law (most of you will be) your global income becomes taxable and any dividend received on these ESOPs or capital gain on sale of ESOPs of foreign Companies has to be offered to tax. However, if there are taxes deducted on these transactions the same can be claimed by filing Form 67.

4. For current year if you are in salary bracket above 20 lakhs then new regime will be beneficial mostly unless you have housing loan interest from Self occupied property. Under new regime Employer contribution to NPS up to 10% of basic salary can be claimed as exemption.

5. Get a good consultant today itself and plan the your finances accordingly. In case of salaried individuals there are very less avenues to save tax after March