Salary its meaning & how to calculate tds on salary easily

@VaibhavJ (Believe!! Live your dreams!)   (33511 Points)

22 December 2012  

Salary its meaning & how to calculate TDS on Salary easily Step by Step:

 

 

Salary!! isn’t it every ones favorite? Its paid once in month & in 5 days or less fully expensed out. We wait eagerly for whole month to receive the same. We work hard & with full efforts to earn this. When it is credited in bank a/c or received check or cash on pay day… see that smile on your face and specially your family.

 

So its your right to know why employer is deducting TDS (tax) while making payment.

 

Employee is aggrieved when less salary is received & higher TDS is deducted by employer.

 

And employer is also confused how much TDS to be deducted and how to make maximum payout.

 

Employee is doing all sort of investment to minimize tax burden then also very year he ends in paying higher tax as compared to last year.

 

So lets go one by one and understand in easy layman way as well as let me clarify some technical nitty gritty to all my readers. Please note this is not outcome of one day fancy I have taken all care to explain lucidly, if any query do ask & if you find any error please notify.

 

What is Salary:

 

Salary is the remuneration received by or accruing to an individual, periodically, for service rendered as a result of an express or implied contract. In short it is your right of remuneration against your full one month efforts.

 

The existence of employer-employee relationship is the sine-qua-non for taxing a particular receipt under the head “salaries.”

 

Does all payout by organization to people working for them is Salary?

 

 

No, the payment made to professional in their professional capacity is payment of “Professional / Technical fees”. the salary received by a partner from his partnership firm carrying on a business is not chargeable as “Salaries” but as “Profits & Gains from Business or Profession”. Similarly, salary received by a person as MP or MLA is taxable as “Income from other sources”.

 

Section 17(1) of the Income tax Act gives an inclusive and not exhaustive definition of “Salaries” including therein:

Wages, Annuity or pension, Gratuity, Fees or Commission, perquisites or profits in lieu of salary, Advance of Salary, Leave Encashment, Compensation as a result of variation in Service contract etc.

 

So what is CTC?

 

Now a days CTC (Cost to company) is new term used by corporate while offering salary to its employee. It is nothing but total cost which an organization end up paying on an employee for the period under consideration. In addition to the wages paid to salary it also includes employer liability towards employee i.e. Statutory liability viz. all taxes like PF, ESIC, LWF and other commitments like Gratuity, Pension, Statutory bonus, Leave Encashment, Employees Accident Insurance, Mediclaims etc.

 

Formula is CTC = Gross Salary (wages) + PF + ESIC + LWF + Insurance + Leave pay + Gratuity

 

Understanding TDS on Salary

 

TDS i.e. Tax deducted at source is nothing but Income Tax on Salary; it is also called as withholding tax.

 

On which amount TDS to be deducted?

 

 

Before determining on which amount lets understand components of salary.

 

When employer pays any amount to employee in form of salary it is bifurcated in to two parts: Salary & Perquisite.

 

Salary is pure cash payouts; however on other hand perquisite which is also called as perks are benefits & facilities enjoyed by employee while providing his services to organization which are generally transportation, car service, canteen subsidy, accommodation in hotels, lodging & boarding, travelling expenses, fuel & gas subsidy, interest free loans etc.

 

So u/s 10 income tax do allows exemptions i.e. some portion of allowances & perquisites are not loaded to your taxable income however same is exempted. E.G. Conveyance allowance upto Rs. 800 pm is exempt, HRA exemptions and in case of perks Interest free loan or advances upto Rs. 20,000-, cost of meal served during office hours etc.

 

So here goes calculation of Taxable Salary for TDS:

 

Step -1 : Calculate Total Gross Salary

 

Gross salary is sum total of all salary components which employer has agreed to pay under terms of contract which are Basic + Dearness Allowance + House Rent Allowance + Conveyance / Transport Allowances +  Special Allowances + Other allowances

 

Why so many salary components & not few?

 

Income Tax is evolving with change in time & various other laws related to labor requires employer to pay some allowances. So Basic salary is kept as low as Minimum wages of that particular state & above that allowances are paid.

 

EG. Maharashtra State requires mandatory payment of HRA to the extent of 5% of Basic Wage. If we segregate Basic in to Basic & HRA, employee can enjoy HRA exemption benefits if they are staying in rented property and so on.

 

So lets take example of Mr. A, he is CA and Finance Manager and drawing Monthly Gross Salary of Rs. 70,000/- (Basic = 40000, HRA = 20000, Travel Allowance = 800, Child education allowance =200, Medical Allowance = 1250, Other allowance = 7750)

 

 

Step - 2: Give exemptions to Allowances

 

Allowances paid are exempt u/s 10 as mentioned earlier. So we need not consider that portion to the extent it is exempt, and balance to be taxed.

Refer link for details: /forum/summary-of-exemption-u-s-10-to-salaried-employee-232114.asp

 

So in case of Mr. A, Travel allowance Rs. 800, CEA Rs. 200 & Medical allowance Rs. 1250 is fully exempt assuming he will submitting bill of Rs.1250 pm. No HRA assuming he is living in owned property taken on loan. So total exemption for him is Rs. 2,250.

 

 

Step – 3: Calculate annual taxable Gross Salary for the financial year.

 

Net of Step 1 Less Step 2 gives monthly taxable gross salary. We have to project annual taxable gross salary same can be done by multiplying monthly taxable gross salary with 12 if we are calculating TDS from the month of April else we need to multiply the said amount with number of month remaining in the financial year.

 

So we will be arriving at annual taxable gross income taxable under the head Salary by doing this exercise.

 

Why to project salary for 12 months or full financial year?

Since income tax is payable on annual taxable income we have to project salary payout.

 

So in case of Mr. A, Rs. 67,750 x 12 (70000 – 2250) which amounts to Rs. 8,13,000.

 

 

Step - 4: Add any Income / Loss reported by employee

 

In step 3 value add any other income earned by employee which is reported to employer. Such includes Income from house property or Loss from house property (Interest paid on Housing loan taken), Interest Income on bank deposits etc.

So Step 4 plus/minus Step 4 will give us Gross Total Income of employee.

 

So in case of Mr. A suppose he declared Loss on House Property for Interest he paid for loan taken on purchase of his house Rs. 150000. So his Gross total income will be Rs. 6,63,000/-

 

Step - 5: Calculate deductions available to employee against gross salary

 

Chapter VI-A of income tax act mentions deduction that can be allowed from taxable gross salary by way of investments. So From Gross total income calculated above we have to deduct all total of

 

Refer link for details: /forum/deductions-under-chapter-via-of-income-tax-act-231661.asp

 

So Step 4 Less Chapter VI-A deduction will give us Total taxable income of employee.

 

So in case of Mr. A, if he declares investment of Rs. 1 lakh u/s 80C & Rs. 30,000 u/s 80D. Total benefit available Rs.1.30 lakh under Ch. VI-A. So total Taxable Income will be Rs. 3,33,000/ (663000-130000).

 

Step - 6: Calculating net Taxable Income & Tax amount

 

Section 2 of the Finance Act gives maximum amount not chargeable under Income Tax Act. So while calculating of net taxable income we have to deduct maximum amount not chargeable under income tax act from

 

For FY 2012-13 it is Rs. 2 lakh, so end result after subtraction will be net taxable income. So we have to calculate Income tax liability as per given slab under Chapter II of finance Act.

 

Current slab are as follows:

 

For Individula below 60 years:-

Upto Rs. 2,00,000 – Nil
From Rs. 2,00,000 – Rs. 5,00,000 10%
From Rs. 5,00,000- Rs. 10,00,000 20%
Above Rs. 10,00,000 30%

 

For Senior Citizens (from 60 years to 80 years): 

Upto Rs. 2,50,000 – Nil
From Rs. 2,50,000 – Rs. 5,00,000 10%
From Rs. 5,00,000- Rs 10,00,000 20%
Above Rs.10,00,000 30%

 

For Citizens Above 80 years: 

Upto Rs. 5,00,000 – Nil
From Rs. 5,00,000 – Rs. 10,00,000 10%
Above Rs.10,00,000 20%

 

So in case of Mr. A, on Rs. 5,33,000 tax liability will be as follows:

 

First 2 lakh = Nil, on balance Rs. 300,000 @ 10% = Rs. 30,000/-and on balance Rs. 33,000 @ 20% Rs. 6,600. Total annual tax Rs. 36,600 add Edu. Cess & Higher Edu. Cess @ 3% on it Rs. 1098 would be Rs. 37,698/-.

 

So monthly TDS amount will be Rs. 3,142/-

 

Source: Self

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