Thursday, December 27, 2007

Tax slabs for senior citizen

Tax slabs for senior citizen

How much tax will you pay?

If you are a senior citizen the first Rs 1.85 lakh of your total income (from all the sources except short-term capital gains) will be tax-free. Beyond that, the following tax rates would apply:

Income slabTax rate %
Rs 1,85,001 to Rs 2,50,00020
Rs 2,50,001 and above30


In addition, you will have to pay an education cess of 2%. This will be calculated on your tax amount. If you are earning an income of over Rs 10 lakh, you will also have to pay a surcharge of 10%, over and above the education cess.

Will you file a return of income?

One by six is a criterion that needs to be met when you file your returns. In simpler terms, if you fulfill any one of the six criteria, you will have to file a return of income tax even though your income maybe below the tax-free limit of Rs 1 lakh. At the moment the six criteria are mobile phones, travel abroad, credit card, car, immoveable property, and club membership.

In this Budget, the finance minister has replaced mobile phones with electricity bill exceeding Rs 50,000 per annum. So if you had been filing tax returns because you own a cell phone, even though your annual income is below Rs 1 lakh, you need not do so in the future. As against that, if your electricity bill exceeds Rs 50,000 every year, you will be brought under the net of filing returns.

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