Personal Tax Report Card

Annual superannuation contributions by employers up to Rs100,000 per employee are now not subject to FBT. Indirectly, this is a respite for employees entitled to such benefits. Last year, FBT was introduced on superannuation contributions with no exemption, which forced companies to evaluate whether they at all wanted to continue with such schemes.

Further, the finance minister has not made any amendments to move towards an EET regime for the present. This is a big respite for individual taxpayers.

Consumer Items
As a consumer, the following became cheaper for you:

And the following became expensive:

Investments Long term capital gains on equity shares are still exempt. However STT rates have been increased by 25 per cent. The new STT Rates are as under:

Investments in fixed deposits in scheduled banks for a term of five years or more are now eligible for a deduction (up to the overall limit of Rs100,000) under section 80C.

Investments in specified pension funds under section 80CCC are now entitled to deduction up to Rs1,00,000 (against Rs10,000 last year). But the overall cap on total deduction up to Rs100,000 for investments in instruments under section 80C along with section 80CCC has been kept intact.

Tax return filing
The one-by-six scheme has been abolished, which means that persons without a taxable income who were earlier required to file tax returns under the scheme, will not be required to do so now. The government also proposes to introduce the 'Tax Returns Preparers' scheme, which should simplify tax filing for individuals.