Ten Tax savings options for Salaried Employees

I got my first job. I cant still forget my joy when I saw the offer letter in my hand and the
first salary amount being credited in my bank account. At that time whatever was
credited in my bank account was great I did not care about how much tax got deducted
out of my gross salary its relationship with my net cash salary. However, very shortly I
realised that something is going horribly wrong. I was paying a good part of my salary to
the tax man which could be easily prevented should I tax some easy and quick steps.
An online tax advisory and compliance site. Aashish is passionate about Indian taxes and
loves to write articles on the Indian tax system. He has worked with KPMG and
JRC advisory in international and domestic taxation with a cumulative experience of 6
years in taxation. He shares some of those easy to implement tax tip to prevent the
money being handed out to the tax authorities and is specially geared towards salaried
people.
An employee is offered many options to structure his salary to ensure maximum tax
benefit. As a part of his salary an employee can receive various allowances (either
completely exempt or partly exempt) to reduce his eventual tax liability.

1. An example of such an allowance is leave allowance. An employee can use such an

allowance to cover his domestic travel and can be used for air, rail, and road transport.
2. Gratuity paid to an employee also has taxation benefits. To determine the taxability of
gratuity, it is important to understand whether an employee is covered by payment of
gratuity act. If an employee is covered by this act, lower of the following will be exempted
from tax:

15 days salary based on salary drawn for each year of service.

Rs. 10,00,000/-

Actual gratuity received.

If an employee is not covered under the gratuity act then, the lower of the following will
be exempted from tax:

months salary for each completed year of service.

Rs. 10,00,000/-

Actual gratuity received.

3. New pension scheme (NPS) is applicable to salaried employees to reduce their overall
salary. In this scheme an employer contributes an amount to the NPS which is the same
amount that is contributed by the employee. Both of these contributions are eligible for
deduction u/s 80 CCD (2) of the act. Thus such contributions reduce the overall tax
liability of the employee.
4. House rent allowance (HRA) is paid by an employer to an employee to pay any rental
towards his house property. An exemption is available under such HRA. The exemption
is based on the least of the following:

An amount equal to 50% of the yearly salary received (applicable to major Indian
metros and 40% in other cases)

Actual HRA received

Rent paid in excess of 10% of the salary received in a year

5. An employee should structure his salary to receive travelling allowance. Such an

allowance is paid by the employer to the employee to meet his cost of travel on tour or on
transfer from his work. This allowance can be completely exempt if the employee utilizes
an amount equal to or more than the allowance.
6. Another option that is available to the employee is transport allowance. Such
allowance is exempt up to Rs. 800/- per month i.e. 9600/- per year as a maximum
deduction is available against this allowance.
7. In case a salaried employee has children, he should ask his employer to pay him
children education allowance. A deduction of Rs. 100/- per month per child up to a
maximum of two children is available.

8. In addition to the above allowances, an employee is entitled to receive

perquisites from his employer. The tax saving on such perquisites is generally borne by
the employer and is tax exempt for the employee. Perquisites include payments by the
employer to the employee such as car conveyance, free food and beverages, interest free
or concessional loan, sweeper/gardener/cook allowance, leave travel concession etc.
These options are generally available as a part of salary structuring which an employee
can provide to his employer.
9. Other general deductions u/s 80 C is also available to the salaried employee. Under
this section, he can make investments in approved FDs, Equity oriented MFs, PPF etc.
He can also pay his life insurance premiums. The total benefit available under this
section if Rs. 100000/-.
10. An employee can also make several donations u/s 80g and use that to reduce his total
income. Such donations offer either 100% deduction or 50% deduction depending on the
institution to which the donation is made.
Source: http://www.idbi.com/suvidha-tax-saving-fixed-deposit.asp