Income Tax Slabs: Here Are New Tax Rates Applicable From April 2017

Bringing some cheers to the individual tax payers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley halved the income tax rate to 5 per cent for individuals having taxable income between Rs 2.5-Rs 5 lakh compared to 10 per cent earlier. Meanwhile, Mr Jaitley increased the tax burden of people having taxable income between Rs 50 lakh-Rs 1 crore by imposing an additional surcharge of 10 per cent on the 30 per cent tax amount which was already there to offset the revenue loss to the exchequer.  

Here are the new tax slabs post Budget 2017-18 which will come into effect from April 1, 2017(Assessment Year 2018-19): 

General Category (for person up to 60 years age) 

In the general category- person up to 60 years of age- tax will be applicable if income is more than Rs 2.5 lakh. For income of Rs 0-Rs 2.5 lakh no tax will be applicable. A tax of only 5 per cent will be applicable if income is between Rs 2.5-5 lakh. Further, the income tax rebate of up to Rs 5,000 which was earlier given for taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh, has been reduced to Rs 2,500 and it will be available for taxable income of up to Rs 3.5 lakh. It means if an individual has a taxable income of Rs 3 lakh, his net tax liability will be zero (tax @5% on Rs 50,000 is Rs 2,500 minus rebate of Rs 2,500). 
 

For income between Rs 5-10 lakh, a tax of 20 per cent will be applicable and for income above Rs 10 lakh a tax rate of 30 per cent will be applicable. However, people having taxable income of more than Rs 50 lakh but less than Rs 1 crore, a new surcharge of 10 per cent will be imposed along with the a tax of 30 per cent. For example, if an individual has a taxable income of Rs 55 lakh, his tax liability will now increase from Rs 15.19 lakh earlier to Rs 16.57 lakh now (income tax of Rs 14.62 lakh plus surcharge of Rs 1.46 lakh and education & higher education cess of Rs 48,263). If taxable income is more than Rs 1 crore, then the surcharge will increase to 15 per cent of tax plus education and higher education cess of 3 per cent. However, on taxable incomes where surcharges are applicable, tax payers get the benefit of marginal relief, if applicable. (Check your tax liability here)

Senior citizens (for person between 60-80 years age) 

For senior citizens falling in the tax bracket of Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh, no tax will be applicable. For income between Rs 3-5 lakh, a tax rate of 5 per cent will be applicable. The tax rate and surcharge will be same as general category for income between Rs 5-10 lakh and above Rs 10 lakh. 

Super senior citizens (for person above 80 years age)

For people aged above 80 years no tax will be applicable for income up to Rs 5 lakh. A tax rate of 20 per cent and 30 per cent will be applicable for income between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh and Rs 10 lakh and above respectively as in case of general category.