Strategic tax planning to legally minimize tax liability and maximize savings.
Tax planning is arranging affairs you were going to have anyway so that the tax on them is the lowest the law actually allows — choosing the regime that fits your deductions, timing a capital gain, using the exemptions that apply to your situation. It is not avoidance and it is not a scheme, and the distinction matters: an arrangement with no commercial purpose other than reducing tax can be disregarded under the General Anti-Avoidance Rules, which is a considerably worse outcome than paying the tax would have been.
Who this is for
Legal tax reduction
Deduction maximisation
Investment planning
Year-end review
Documents you'll need
Last two years' ITR
Current year salary or income details
Existing investment portfolio
Loan and insurance details
The process
What we actually do
1
We compute both regimes on your actual figures
The old regime versus new regime question has an arithmetic answer that changes with your deductions and changes again each year as the slabs move. We compute the liability under both on your real numbers and give you the difference in rupees, not a general rule.
2
We look at what you already have before suggesting anything new
Most people are entitled to deductions they have not claimed — 80D for a parent's health insurance, 80TTB for a senior citizen's interest, section 24(b) interest on a let-out property with no upper cap. Claiming what already exists costs nothing and is the first thing to exhaust.
3
We time what can be timed
A capital gain realised in March instead of April moves it a whole assessment year. Advance tax instalments, section 54EC bond investment within six months, and the Capital Gains Account Scheme deposit before the filing due date are all deadlines that only work if they are known in advance.
4
We check the structure, not just the return
For a business, the choice between presumptive taxation and books, between proprietorship and LLP, and the treatment of partner or director remuneration usually moves more tax than any deduction does. These are annual decisions, not one-off ones.
5
We say plainly what we will not do
Bogus rent receipts, donations to entities that refund the money, and income diverted to family members who have no genuine funds are not planning. They are the specific things scrutiny looks for, they carry a 200% misreporting penalty, and we do not do them.
Who this is for
Salaried people who have never actually computed both regimes on their own numbers
Anyone with a capital gain crystallising this year, where timing and reinvestment both have deadlines
Business owners deciding between presumptive taxation and regular books
Families where income can legitimately be split across an HUF or between spouses with genuine funds
Anyone whose income has changed materially this year — a bonus, a property sale, a new business
People approaching retirement, where gratuity, leave encashment and commutation each have their own exemption
How long it takes
A planning review is best done between April and December, while the year is still open and decisions can still be made. A review in March can still catch the section 54EC window and the advance tax instalment; a review in July, after the year has closed, can only compute what already happened.
If you do nothing
Nothing goes wrong, which is why it goes undone. What is lost is invisible: the regime that would have left you better off, the deduction nobody claimed, the capital gain that could have been split across two years. None of it is recoverable once the year has closed, and the amounts are usually larger than people expect.
The law, in figures
Dates, thresholds and sections
Every figure below carries the provision it comes from, so it can be checked.
What
Figure
Source
Section 80C limit
₹1,50,000
Section 80C, Income-tax Act 1961
Section 80D, self and family
₹25,000, or ₹50,000 where the insured is a senior citizen
Section 80D, Income-tax Act 1961
Home loan interest, self-occupied
₹2,00,000
Section 24(b), Income-tax Act 1961
NPS additional deduction
₹50,000 over and above 80C
Section 80CCD(1B), Income-tax Act 1961
Long-term equity gain exemption
₹1,25,000 a year
Section 112A as amended by Finance (No. 2) Act 2024
General Anti-Avoidance Rules
An impermissible avoidance arrangement may be disregarded entirely
Chapter X-A, Income-tax Act 1961
What usually goes wrong
Choosing a regime once and never recomputing, when the answer changes with the slabs and with your own deductions
Buying an insurance policy in March purely for 80C, at a cost far exceeding the tax saved
Claiming HRA without rent genuinely being paid, which is cross-checked against the landlord's PAN
Missing the six-month section 54EC window because the sale proceeds were already spent
Splitting income to a spouse or child with no independent source, which section 64 clubs straight back
What non-compliance costs
Under-reporting: 50% of the tax on the under-reported income under section 270A
Misreporting, which covers false claims and fabricated evidence: 200% of the tax
An impermissible avoidance arrangement can be disregarded and the tax recomputed as if it never happened, under Chapter X-A
Interest under sections 234B and 234C where the shortfall arises from an aggressive estimate
These are statutory amounts, not our fees. What we charge depends on your situation and is quoted before any work starts.
Not to be confused with
These come up in the same conversation and are routinely treated as the same thing. They are not.
Tax avoidance
Planning uses provisions the way they were intended. Avoidance uses arrangements with no commercial purpose beyond the tax outcome, and Chapter X-A allows the department to disregard them entirely.
Tax evasion
Evasion is concealing income or fabricating deductions. It is not a more aggressive form of planning; it is an offence, with a 200% penalty and prosecution exposure.
Common questions
Should I choose the new tax regime or the old one?
The new regime is better for most salaried people, and the break-even sits at roughly ₹4,00,000 of total deductions — below that the new regime wins, above it the old one does. The new regime is now the default and taxes nothing up to ₹12,00,000 of taxable income after the section 87A rebate. The old regime only overtakes it once you are genuinely claiming large 80C investments, a home loan interest deduction and HRA together. Our calculator compares both on your actual numbers.
