What you really want to know about the budget: How it affects your taxes. So here goes:
Base Slab Upped by 50K to 250K
Your income upto Rs. 250,000 is exempt. (Earlier, Rs. 200,000).
If you’re above 60 years of age, the exempt limit is 300,000.
Above that, in a progressive manner:
- 250K (or 300K) to 500K is 10%
- 500K to 10 Lakh is 20%
- 10 lakh plus is 30%
I.E. Nothing has changed. But this saves you about Rs. 5,000 in taxes from last year.
Housing Loan Interest Upped by 50K to 200K
Interest on your self-owned property gets an interest exemption of Rs. 200,000 per year. This was 150,000. Again, another unnecessary housing exemption (why don’t I get it for a car loan?) .
But that’s good for those of you who own houses and live in them. Rental houses can continue to deduct all interest, of course.
At the top bracket this saves you about Rs. 15,000.
80C Limit Hiked to 150K
The speech talked about your investment limits under section 80C hiked from Rs. 100K per year to Rs. 150K. We don’t know if this covers children’s education also.
If you’re in the top bracket, you save Rs. 15,000 more this way.
Our View: Okay, Better than we expected
We didn’t expect big tax changes. And we got some, however minor. So this is a good thing.
At the highest tax bracket you’ll save Rs. 20,000 at least. If you have a housing loan for owned property, you get another Rs. 15,000.
You basically get Rs. 1500 to Rs. 3000 per month extra to spend. Spend it wisely.