Budget 2023 and the effect on salaried employees

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, the honorable Finance Minister, presented the Union Budget 2023 in Parliament on 1st February 2023. This is the last full-year budget to be presented by this government before the national elections in 2024. The Budget has been widely welcomed by all sections of society and has been hailed as growth-oriented, forward-looking, and one that will support inclusive growth. In this article, we shall analyze how the 2023 budget would affect the salaried class.

The Budget has several proposals for the benefit of taxpayers in the lowest and highest tax bracket.

The proposals also include several proposals for the benefit of salaried individuals, senior citizens, and pensioners. In her budget speech, the Finance Minister has some important announcements for hardworking middle-class citizens who pay taxes. This tax regime called the new income tax slabs is set to be the default regime in the future.

However, the old tax regime has not been abolished and taxpayers now have the option to choose between these two regimes when paying taxes.

Major changes in Income Tax slabs & rates as proposed in budget 2023.

The first change made in the budget 2023 relates to the rebate on Income tax. Rebate limit of Personal Income Tax to be increased to ₹ 7.0 lakh from the current ₹ 5.0 lakh in the new tax regime.  Thus, persons in the new tax regime with income up to ₹ 7.0 lakh need not pay any tax.

The tax structure in the new personal income tax regime, introduced in 2020 with six income slabs to change by reducing the number of slabs to five and increasing the tax exemption limit to ₹ 3.0 lakh.

The tax rates as per the Old and New regimes are given hereunder.

Old Income tax regime: (Existing & Continuing)

New Income tax regime (Existing and applicable for FY 22-23)

New Income tax regime (Revised in Budget 2023)(For FY 23-24)

The tax payers still have the option to choose between these two regimes when paying taxes.

In addition to the above, there is a reduction in surcharge on the rate of the highest tax rate in the country of 42.74%, which is the highest in the world, from 37% to 25%. With this reduction, the maximum rate would be 39%.

The Finance Minister has also proposed to extend the benefit of standard deductions to the new tax regime. Each salaried person with an income of ₹15.5 lakhs or more will thus benefit by ₹ 50,000.

Under the old tax regime, these are some of the income tax deductions that you can claim:

• Standard deductions
• HRA and Leave Travel Allowance
• Interest on Home loans
• Medical Insurance Premium
• Interest on Education loan

The new tax regime is different in two aspects:

• The government has reduced the income slabs accompanied by lower tax rates.
• All tax exemptions and deductions claimed under the old regime will not be available under the new regime.

The advantage here is that the taxpayer has the liberty to decide where and how to save/invest their money. This means you no longer have to rush to tax-saving schemes or investments that may not be in line with your financial needs.

PAN is to be used as a common identifier!

The Finance Minister has announced that the Permanent Account Number (PAN) will be used as common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies. PAN is the 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the Income-tax Department to a person, firm, or entity. This move would assist in further promoting ease of doing business in the country.

KYC process to be simplified

The Finance Minister has announced that a system of unified filing process will be set up to enable agencies to get all data from a common portal as per the choice of those filing returns.

For individuals Digilocker and Aadhar will serve as a “foundational identity” and with this facility changes in address or identity will be reflected across other platforms. This means that the government is working to synchronize citizens’ data across multiple portals when just Aadhar is updated. As of now when you update your Aadhar it does not update the changes say in the Income Tax portal. This is now set to change.

The Digital India program by the Government of India has introduced the Digilocker initiative where citizens can get authentic documents/certificates in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates. The aim is to eliminate or minimize the use of physical documents to enhance the effectiveness of service delivery paving the way for hassle-free and friendly service to the citizens.

Conclusion

These announcements made in the Union Budget 2023 will benefit the salaried employees and leave more disposable income in the hands of individuals thus enabling higher investments. We at GetifyHR are fully prepared to handle these changes and support our clients in seamlessly running their statutory compliance requirements and keeping them fully compliant always.