* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Individual taxpayers with annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh will now get full tax rebate: Piyush Goyal Individual taxpayers with annual income up to 5 lakh rupees to get full tax rebate.Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities. * Tax slabs for those with income over Rs 5 lakh remain unchangedStandard tax deduction for salaried persons raised from 40,000 rupees to 50,000 rupees.TDS threshold on rental income raised from 1.8 lakh to 2.4 lakh rupees. "Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers will get tax exemption due to this measure," the finance minister said.Gratuity limit increased from 10 lakh to 30 lakh rupees. * TDS on interest income from deposit in banks and post-offices up to Rs 40,000 against Rs 10,000 earlier.Benefit of rollover of capital tax gains to be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains up to 2 crore rupees; can be exercised once in a lifetime.Benefits under Sec 80(i)BA being extended for one more year, for all housing projects approved till end of 2019-2020. "We are poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next five years, we aspire to become a 10 trillion dollar economy in the next eight years," Goyal said.Businesses with less than Rs. 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly returns.Direct tax collections from 6.38 lakh crore rupees in 2013-14 to almost 12 lakh crore rupees; tax base up from Rs 3.79 crore to Rs 6.85 crore. 99.54% returns have been accepted without any scrutiny. In January 2019, GST collections has crossed 1 lakh crore rupees.GST has been continuously reduced, resulting in relief of 80,000 crore rupees to consumers; most items of daily use for poor and middle class are now in the 0%-5% tax bracket.Two per cent interest subvention on loan of 1 crore for GST registered MSME units.Group of Ministers examining how prospective house buyers can benefit under GST.GST is the undoubtedly the biggest taxation reform implemented since Independence; through tax consolidation, India became one common market; inter-state movements became faster through e-way bills, improving Ease of Doing Business.Within almost two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymized tax system without any intervention by tax officials. "Cost of data and voice calls in India is now possibly the lowest in the world; mobile and mobile part manufacturing companies have increased from 2 to 268," he said.Single window clearance for filmmaking to be made available to Indian filmmakers, anit-camcording provision to be introduced to Cinematography Act to combat film privacy.Allocation for North Eastern region proposed to be increased to Rs 58,166 crore in this year a rise of over 21% from the previous year.Increased allocation for Rashtriya Gokul Mission to 750 crore in current year.Two per cent interest subvention to farmers pursuing animal husbandry and fisheries. "Urgent action needed to increase hydrocarbon production to decrease imports; change in bidding procedure and exploration procedure being implemented," Goyal added.Committee under NITI Aayog to be set up to identify and denotify nomadic and semi-nomadic communities; Welfare Development Board to be set up under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for welfare of these hard-to-reach communities and for tailored strategic interventions.Mega Pension Yojana, namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, to provide assured monthly pension of 3000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, for workers in unorganised sector after 60 years of age. "(This) will benefit 10 crore workers in unorganized sector, may become the world's biggest pension scheme for unorganized sector in five years," Goyal said.Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, 6000 rupees per year for each farmer, in three installments, to be transferred directly to farmers' bank accounts, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land holding.This initiative is likely to benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers, at an estimated cost of Rs 75,000 crore. * The 4R approach has been implemented to ensure clean banking -1. Recognition2. Resolution3. Recapitalisation4. Reforms"We controlled double-digit inflation. Inflation is a hidden and unfair tax; from 10.1% during 2009-14, inflation in December 2018 was just 2.1%. We have broken the back of back-breaking inflation," Goyal said.Fiscal deficit has been bought down to 3.4%; CAD (current account deficit) likely to be 2.5% of GDP this year.The finance minister laid out vision for 10 most important dimensions in 2030, including job creation, physical and social infrastructure building, pollution-free nation and clean rivers. * Soon after presenting the Budget in Lok Sabha, the finance minister, in a press conference, elaborated on the incentives and initiatives announced by his government — "Those sitting in AC rooms cannot understand the plight of the small farmers. Keeping this in mind, we have introduced Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme. This is a historic decision," he said on the cash incentive scheme launched for the country's farmers. "This is just a trailer of the Budget, which after elections, will take India on the path to development," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said shortly after finance minister Piyush Goyal presented the Budget in Lok Sabha.<doc-sep>If you were thinking that Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal just played Santa and doubled the income tax exemption ceiling to Rs 5 lakh, we have to play party pooper. According to experts, what he has proposed is a full tax rebate on taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh under Section 87A. So, if your taxable income is over Rs 5 lakh, the current tax rates will continue to apply to you, although you still have the hiked up standard deduction and TDS thresholds to look forward to. The Section 87A of the Income Tax Act currently offers a rebate to individuals with a net taxable income of Rs 3.5 lakh to reduce the tax burden of the lower income bracket. According to Cleartax, the rebate currently is limited to Rs 2,500 - reduced from Rs 5,000 for those earning between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh in Budget 2017. In other words, if the total tax payable is lower than Rs 2,500, then that amount is the rebate under Section 87A. This rebate is applied to the total tax before adding the Education Cess (4%). Also read: PM Modi addresses the nation; says Budget 2019 was only a trailer of the 'new India' to come Here is the pre-Budget and post-Budget tax outgo of the salaried class and senior citizen. What the Interim Budget 2019 proposes is to widen the eligible base for this rebate. So while taxpayers with net taxable annual income up to Rs 5 lakh now stand to save Rs 13,000. In other words, individuals with gross incomes under Rs 10 lakh making the most of the various deductions that can be claimed under the Income Tax Act, like those under Sections 80C, 80D, 80EE, are likely to benefit from this proposal. The bad news is that the regular tax slabs will apply to those whose net taxable income - after availing all the permitted deductions - falls above the Rs 5 lakh threshold. Also read: Budget 2019: TDS limit on interest from deposits hiked to Rs 40,000 Also read: Budget 2019: Piyush Goyal hikes tax-free gratuity limit to Rs 30 lakh Salaried class? Here are key tax announcements in Piyush Goyal's speech you need to know<doc-sep>New Delhi: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his budget speech on Friday declared a complete tax rebate for those earning upto Rs 5 lakh per annum, leading to widespread cheer among the middle class. However, there is a catch. The operative word here is rebate. This is not an exemption limit that has been raised, and therefore, does not apply to everybody. It only applies to those earning upto Rs 5 lakh a year. Those making more than Rs 5 lakh a year will continue to pay taxes as they were earlier. Shalini Jain, Partner at EY India told News18, “This means that anyone with net taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh will not be required to pay any taxes. However, anyone with net taxable income above Rs 5 lakh will not be able to avail this tax benefit and only get standard deduction benefit.” In the Finance Bill, 2019 the maximum amount of tax rebate under section 87A of the Income Tax Act has been proposed to increase to Rs 12,500 from the existing Rs 2,500. Currently, income up to Rs 2.5 lakh for resident individuals (age below 60 years) is exempt from tax. Similarly, for senior citizens aged 60 years and above but below 80 years, income up to Rs 3 lakh is exempt from tax. Income up to Rs 5 lakh is exempt from tax for super senior citizens (age 80 years and above). For those earning upto Rs 6.5 lakh in a year can also opt to invest Rs 1.5 lakh in a year and thus pay no income tax due to 80C deductions. It was widely expected that the government would raise the exemption limit, but the government took the rebate route to reach out to the middle class in the election year budget. The NDA has dangled the carrot of more cuts in a full-year budget, essentially signaling to the middle class that vote us to power again if you want a higher exemption limit. "It is essentially a move for those earning on the lesser side. One needs to understand that tax rates remain absolutely the same for those earning taxable income above Rs 5 lakh. This is not an increase in exemption limit, therefore there is no blanket applicability of it. This is rebate under section 87A," said D K Srivastava, chief policy advisor, Crisil. In Budget 2017, Jaitley slashed the tax rate for income between Rs 250,001 and Rs 5 lakh to 5 per cent from 10 per cent earlier. This rate cut gave a tax relief of Rs 12,500 to every taxpayer. Simply put, if your net taxable income after availing all the deductions under section 80C to 80U of the Income tax act does not exceed Rs 5 lakh, then you will not be required to pay any tax. However, if your net taxable income (after availing deductions under section 80C to 80U), exceeds Rs 5 lakh then taxes will be calculated as per the current tax structure.<doc-sep>Making a big populist push in its final budget before elections, the Narendra Modi-government Friday exempted people with an earning of up to Rs 5 lakh from payment of income tax, announced an annual cash dole-out of Rs 6,000 to small farmers and provided a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to workers in the unorganised sector. Following are the key highlights of the interim Budget 2019-20 presented by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha on February 1, 2019.<doc-sep>
Individual taxpayers with annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh will now get full tax rebate: Piyush Goyal NEW DELHI: Finance minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said tax payers with annual income up to Rs five lakh will get full tax rebate. However, tax slabs have not changed. "Individuals with income up to Rs 5 lakh will not be required to pay any tax," Goyal said while presenting the Budget for 2019-20 in Lok Sabha.Individuals with gross income up to Rs 6.5 lakh will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities that are tax-saving schemes, while it may move up further with additional avenues like NPS, medical insurance and home loan interest payment, the finance minister said.Around three crore middle class taxpayers will get tax exemption due to this measure, Goyal stated while presenting the Budget proposals.Goyal said the standard tax deduction for salaried persons is raised from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000, while the TDS threshold on interest on bank and post office deposits is raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000.The Budget also proposed to exempt tax on notional rent for unsold housing units for two years. Goyal also said the benefit of rollover of capital tax gains will be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains up to Rs 2 crore, the finance minister announced. He said this can be exercised once in a lifetime.Doubling the threshold exemption limit will increase the burden on the exchequer by Rs 18,500 crore.Ahead of the Budget, tax benefits were expected for the middle class -- a key constituency for the Modi government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this spring/summer.The government was in 2018 also widely expected to tweak tax rates but refrained from doing so due to fiscal implications.