WHAT IS SALARY INCOME TAX RETURN?

Filing Income tax return is important for every salaried employees, even if you don't have any tax liability towards the Government. The tax return act as proof of Income, which helps you to get access to various financial products like loans.

Any person employed in a public or private enterprise, drawing monthly remuneration in the form of salary needs to file income tax returns. If you are confused or don't know why to file income tax returns online, then you are on right place.

Here I am explaining the various components of salary and their Taxability including but not limited to form-16, employer, employee, relationship, taxfree salary, deductions, dearness, deputation, rent, entertainment, transport, child education, foreign, Gross Salary, allowances

​When we think about tax savings, the first thing that comes to our mind is Section 15, 16 and 17 of the Income tax act, 1961 deal with the computation of income under the head Salaries. To understand the computation of Income under the head Salaries, the following important concepts must be understood.

Employer and employee relationship

Basis of charge (section 15)

Place of accrual of salary (section 9(1))

Tax-free salary

Salary paid by foreign govt. / enterprises

Allowances

EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP

Any Income can be taxed under the head "salaries" only if there is a relationship of an employer and employee between payer and payee. Any income would be deemed to be income from salary only if relation of employer and employee exist. Their relationship should be of master and servant. A master is a person who directs what is to be done and how it is to be done, and the servant is one who is required to conduct the work in manner prescribed by master.

BASIS OF CHARGE [SECTION 15]

Important Points:

Place of accrual of Salary [sec. 9(1) (ii)]

The Golden Rule is that salary will be deemed to accrue or arise at a place where services are rendered.

EXAMPLES:

EXCEPTIONS:

In case of a citizen of India who is a government employee and renders any service outside India, salary received by him would be treated as income deemed to accrue or arise in India although the services are rendered outside India. As per section 10(7), allowances and perquisites received by him in the foreign country from the Indian government are exempt from tax.

TAX-FREE SALARY

When the employee receives tax-free salary from his employer, it means employer himself pays the tax which is due on salary of such employee and for the purpose of computation of Income from Salaries under Income Tax act 1961, such amount will be added to his salary.

SALARY PAID BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENT/ENTERPRISES

Salary paid by foreign Govt. /enterprises to its employees serving in India is taxable under head Salaries, unless it is specifically exempt under section 10.

ALLOWANCES

Payments in cash made by the employer to his employees usually at regular intervals, other than salary are known as allowances. In other words, it is defined as a fixed quantity of money given regularly in addition to salary for meeting specific requirements of the employees. From Income Tax point of view, there are 3 types of allowances which are as under:

TAXABLE ALLOWANCES:

Are those allowances which are fully taxable under Income tax act, 1961. While computing taxable salary whole amount is added into the salary. Following are the allowances which are fully taxable

DEARNESS ALLOWANCES :

This allowance is given to employees on account of high prices. Sometimes Dearness Allowance is given as Dearness pay. Normally these 2 words are synonyms, but in actual they have different treatment. Dearness Allowance is an allowance granted to the employees to compensate for the cost of inflation. However, when certain portion of the Dearness Allowance is converted into Dearness Pay, then the applicable allowance would get calculated on (Basic Pay + Dearness Pay).

For instance normally Dearness Allowance is calculated as a 0/0 of Basic Pay. In cases where there is Dearness Pay, then the Dearness Allowance would get calculated on (Basic Pay + Dearness Pay). To that extent the employee would get increased amount in absolute terms.

Such DP is also taken into account at the time of arriving at the pension benefits etc from doing private practice. This allowance is given to them to compensate this ban.

DEPUTATION ALLOWANCE:

When an employee is sent from his permanent place of service to some other place or institution or organization on deputation for a temporary period, this allowance is given to them.

CITY COMPENSATORY ALLOWANCE:

This allowance is paid to employees who are posted in big cities. The idea is to compensate the high cost of living in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and other metropolitan cities. However, it is a fully taxable allowance. i.e. the amount of this allowance will be taxed with the salary received.

ALLOWANCES EXEMPT UPTO THE SPECIFIED LIMITS:

HOUSE RENT ALLOWANCE (HRA):

HRA is given to meet the cost of a rented house taken by the employee for his stay. The Income Tax Act allows for deduction in respect of the HRA paid to employees. The exemption on HRA is covered under Section 10(13A) of the Income Tax Act and Rule 2A of Income Tax Rules.

HRA is exempt to the extent of the minimum of following 3 amounts:

ENTERTAINMENT ALLOWANCE:

It is an allowance given by an employer to his employee. It is first included in income from salary under section 15 and then deduction is allowed to a govt. employee under sec 16(ii).

Excess of Rent paid by the assessee over 10% of salary due to him for the relevant period.

1. Amount Actual received
2. 1/5th of the salary , where salary = Basic Salary
3. Rs. 5000

EPF is taxable if we withdrawn within 5 years.

EPF can be withdrawn only if he is unemployed for more than 2 months. However EPF can be withdrawn after 5 years for purchase of Site (for construction of house/flat) or for purchase/construction of house/flat.
















Foreign Allowance :

There are certain allowances which are fully exempt under Income Tax Act,1961.

Sumptuary Allowances :

These allowances are given to High Court / Supreme Court Judges and are fully exempt from tax.

Allowance from UNO :

Allowances paid by United Nations Organization to its employees are fully exempt.