For the purpose of simplicity and to facilitate easy payment of taxes, the income tax act suggests rounding off of income and the income tax payable thereon. The Rounding off of income is governed by Section 288A and rounding off of tax payable is governed by Section 288B.
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Section 288A: Rounding off Incomes
As per section 288A of the Income Tax Act, the total income computed as per various sections of this act, shall be rounded off to the nearest Rs 10. For the purpose of rounding off, firstly any part of rupee consisting of paise should be ignored. Thereafter, if the last digit in the total figure is 5 or greater than 5, the total amount should be increased to the next higher amount which is a multiple of Rs. 10.
If the last digit in the total figure is less than 5, the total amount should be reduced to the nearest lower amount which is a multiple of Rs 10. This rounding off of income should be done only to the total income and not at the time of computation of income under the various heads.
Eg: If total income is Rs. 638944.50 In such a case, firstly the paise would be ignored and total income would be considered as 638944. Thereafter, this 638944 would be reduced/ increased to the nearest multiple of 10. As the last digit is 4 which is less than 5, it would be reduced to the nearest multiple of 10 which in this case would be 638940
Instead of Rs. 638944.50, if this income had been 638945.50, it would have first been rounded off to Rs. 638945 and then rounded off to 638950.
Section 288B: Rounding off Income Tax
As per Section 288B of the income tax act, the total tax computed shall be rounded off to the nearest Rs 10. The rounding off of tax would be done on the total tax payable or refundable and not to various different sub-heads of taxes like income tax, education cess, surcharge etc.
Rounding off would be done in the same manner as above i.e. firstly paise would be ignored and thereafter if the last digit in the total figure is 5 or greater than 5, the total amount should be increased to the next higher amount which is a multiple of Rs. 10.
Eg: If the total tax payable of a taxpayer is Rs. 62923.25, firstly the paise would be ignored and the tax would be assumed to be 62923 and thereafter as the last digit is less than 5, this figure would be reduced to the nearest multiple of Rs. 10 i.e. Rs. 62920.
If instead of Rs. 62923.25, the tax would have been Rs. 62926.25, it would have been rounded off to Rs 62926 and then to Rs 62930
