India, July 24 -- The government is nudging salaried income taxpayers to move to a new regime, which it says is simpler and offers lower rates of taxes. The new regime was announced in the Union budget for 2020-21 and it co-exists with the old tax regime. Salaried taxpayers are free to choose either regime when they file their returns but for those with income from business or profession, the new regime is the default regime from this assessment year (2024-25).

To make the new regime more popular among the salaried, the government announced an increase in the standard deduction and tweaked the tax slabs. These changes can result in additional savings of up to Rs.17,500 for salaried taxpayers who have migrated to the new tax regime.

The ...