Today I will share with you some tips to save tax on your fixed deposits in Bank.
Most of you would already know that, currently banks are offering Fixed deposits as high as @9.75% p.a. that is compounded annually to give you an annual yield of 10.11% p.a. Some banks are also offering 10.25% annual interest on your fixed deposits. This amount is subjected to tax deduction at source (TDS) @10.3%. Further as per your tax slabs, you need to pay the balance tax amount as self-assessment tax. Lets see how and under what conditions this tax can be saved.
Always make a fixed deposit in the name of those family members who satisfy all the following conditions:
1. The person should be at least 18 years old (Adult).
2. She should not be your wife.
3. The person is either
a. Not earning OR
b. Whose income, after adding such interest income is within the exempted tax range.
So, the ideal candidates, in the name of whom you can open fixed deposit accounts are your parents and your children above 18 years of age satisfying the above 3 conditions. You can gift the amount for fixed deposit to such members. The members need to then open a fixed deposit account in their name. Gifting money to your family members does not attract any gift tax. Gifting to wife and minor children also does not attract any tax but the income from such gifted amount is clubbed with your income. Hence you will not be able to save tax on that interest earned. That is the reason of conditions 1 and 2 above.
Lets see this by an example.
Suppose you have a child, who is 18 years of age and is studying. You gift an amount of 10 lakh to that child and open a fixed deposit in his/her name @9.75% p.a. After 1 year, he/she will earn Rs.101123 as interest on this fixed deposit. As the child was not earning, this entire amount is tax free in the hands of your child. Make sure to deposit for 15G with your bank to avoid TDS, else the bank will deduct TDS @10.3% and you will need to get refund of that from IT department.
In case of earning children e.g. earning Rs.1.2 LPA and the exemption limit is for example 1.9 lakhs. The difference of Rs.70000 (1.9L – 1.2L) can be earned as tax-free interest. So assuming like the above example, the interest of Rs.101123 will not be completely tax-free. The amount Rs.31123 (101123-70000) will be taxable unless and until the tax saving investments are done. In case you do the tax saving investments, then you can use that range also to earn tax-free interest.
Hope you like this post and get some benefit out of this.