More than 10% of Vikram Thakur’s total income goes in tax. The Goa based manager is not able to claim full exemption for his house rent allowance because his rent is very low. His tax saving investments are also not optimised.
TaxSpanner estimates that Thakur can reduce his tax by almost Rs 73,000 if the pay structure is rejigged, he saves more for retirement and also takes a home loan to buy a house. Thakur should start by asking his company to reduce his special allowance and instead put that amount in the NPS on his behalf under Sec 80CCD(2d). Save tax beyond 80C, Optimize Tax Now!
If Rs 70,724 is put in NPS, his tax will be cut by about Rs 22,000. If he invests Rs 50,000 more in the NPS under Sec 80CCD(1b), his tax can be cut by another Rs 10,300. The big savings will come from taking a home loan and claiming tax deduction for the interest paid. Though his HRA will become taxable, Thakur will still save Rs 35,000 in tax (if the deduction claimed is the maximum Rs 2 lakh).
INCOME FROM EMPLOYER (All figures are in Rs)
(As Published in ET Wealth on Mar 06, 2017)
