Budget 2021 Tax Highlights: In a major tax relief for senior citizens, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting Budget 2021 announced that citizens aged 75 years and above, who only have a pension and interest income are now exempted from filing the tax returns. In last year’s budget, a major cut in the tax rates for the salaried class was announced, which, Ms. Sitharaman said, was to simplify the tax regime in the country. However, this year, no major changes in corporate or personal income tax rates were announced.
While presenting Budget 2021 in the Lok Sabha on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced no new changes to corporate or personal income-tax rates. Last year, a major cut in the tax rates for the salaried class was announced, which, Ms. Sitharaman said, was to simplify the tax regime in the country.
In order to ease the compliance burden on senior citizen pensioners aged 75 years or above, the government exempted them from filing income tax if the full amount of tax payable has been deducted by the paying bank. The exemption is available to those senior citizens who have only interest income apart from the pension income.
The government extended the eligibility period for a claim of the additional deduction for the interest of 1.5 lakh paid for a loan taken for the purchase of an affordable house to March 31, 2022. The government also extended the eligibility period for claiming tax holiday for affordable housing projects by one more year to March 31, 2022.