Budget 2018 to bring income tax cheer? Here's why this EY survey thinks so

Budget 2018

The government is likely to tweak income tax slabs and rates in Budget 2018-19 to bring down the burden on individuals, while there is unlikely to be any change in the current taxation of dividends, according to a survey by EY.

In a pre-Budget survey by tax consultant EY, a wide majority of 69 per cent of the respondents felt that the threshold limits for taxation would increase further in order to boost disposable income in the hands of the people.

About 59 per cent of the respondents were of the view that multiple outdated deductions would be replaced with a standard deduction in order to reduce the tax burden of employees.

The survey includes the views of 150 CFOs, tax heads, and senior finance professionals and was conducted in January.

About 48 per cent of the respondents said they expect the finance minister to lower corporate tax rate to 25 per cent but the surcharge would continue.

Most of the respondents (65 per cent) do not anticipate a change in the current taxation of dividends at this stage. About 24 per cent of the respondents feel that with a view to lowering the overall burden on the corporate sector, the government may lower the rate to 10 per cent.

"The pre-Budget 2018 EY Survey with business decision makers reveals a consensus amongst India Inc for stability and consistency in tax policies and a moderate tax structure. There seems to be little expectation of any major direct tax overhaul after the transformative introduction of GST earlier in the year," EY India National Tax Leader Sudhir Kapadia said.

There have been reports that Budget 2018 could bring a huge relief for the middle class, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley increasing the personal tax exemption limit and tweaking tax slabs. This is the last full Budget of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) govt in its present term.

The finance inistry has received proposals that the tax exemption limit should be increased to at least Rs 300,000 per year, if not Rs 500,000, from the existing Rs 250,000.

A tinkering of the tax slab, should that happen, would also give a substantial relief to the middle-income group, especially the salaried class, which has been hit by the impact of retail inflation lately.

Business Standard takes a look at the likely scenarios of a change in the personal income tax exemption limit and how your wallet would be impacted in each of those scenarios.

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