what is marginal relief

EXPLAINATION PART

It is relief given as per Income tax and wealth tax act. Let us take case of income tax. It is given to the persons whose taxable income exceeds certain limit marginally but tax on the income brings his after tax balance below the lower level slab. In that case he his given relief so that his after tax balance does not go below the lower tax slab

EXAMPLE

Person X has income of Rs.10 lakhs and person y has income of Rs. 10,10,000/-. X will pay tax of Rs.255000/- and after tax balance in his hands will be Rs.745000/-. Whereas Y will be taxed Rs.283500 which will leave an amount of Rs. 716500/- as after tax balance in normal course.. Which means he is virtually penalised for earning 10000/- more.In other words by earning 10000 more he is charged with additional 28500/-, which is not fair. This happens due to the surcharge which is applicable only if income exceeds Rs.1000000/-. So to give him( to Y) little relief, he is charged tax of Rs.265200/- which will leave after balance amount of Rs.744800/- in his hands. This thing happens till the income of Rs.1030000+.(little over).

After that there remains no necessity of giving any relief. The relief explained above is called "Marginal Relief". I have included Education cess on tax in total tax above. The EC is not covered under scheme of marginal relief. It is covered for original tax plus surcharge only. Hence there is very little difference.

ya as surcharge is not applicable now........it don have much relevance

It will have relevance if at all the FM levies a surcharge or cess for an income above a certain limit in between 2 budgets. When this provision was not there many tax payers earning marginally higher were affected. Therefore this provision remains. If say FM decides to levy a surcharge for anyone earning more than say 20 lakhs, the provision of marginal relief is existing. If they delete it, it will have to be re inserted in a next budget and people will suffer in emergency situation.