5 sure shot ways to Ace Business Communication

Picture this, you’ve mulled for more than a week and worked hard to build the project map before your client meeting. It’s a great app and it does everything your client said he wanted. In your head, this is ‘manna from heaven’ as far as your client’s problems are concerned. But you fail miserably to impress. You run short of words and the project never takes off. Sounds familiar?

Do not lose heart. Trust me, you’re not the only one struggling with business communication.

Business Communication is an art you need to master for entrepreneurial success and it can take a while to learn. As an entrepreneur, you’re needed to make solo decisions on a daily basis. Some will come easy and some will be hard. Effective communication is the only way to speed up your decision making and will help you jet to success.

Here are 5 points that will help you scale-up your business communication.

1) Speak your client’s language

Remember your client and you don’t share the same expertise. That’s why he’s hired you right?
You need to be precise and very careful with your choice of words. For example, if he’s hired you to design a website, make sure to communicate how you will bring his ideas to life. Speak to him in a language that he understands. Talk about the brand appeal, the visibility it will generate rather than throwing technical jargons that sound Latin and Greek to him.

But you need to bring in the technical stuff to present the complete idea. Wondering how to do that?

The key here is to LISTEN. Listen to your client while he talks. Use his words and in a clear concise manner interject the technical information only when necessary. You also bring in warmth to the communication when you repeat his words. He knows your listening.

2) Never Lie

When a requirement is being discussed never leave it hanging to maybe or I think so and never ever make a promise you can’t deliver. Leaders don’t lie. If you don’t deliver on your word, your breaking your client’s trust and tarnishing your credibility. Also, don’t hesitate to take the blame when things go wrong.

3) Ownership

Most of us have had situations where we are not able to make it to important meetings and in grave scenarios, missed delivery deadlines. While you never want such a situation to arise, if it does take complete ownership of the situation and offer an alternative solution. Transparency in business communication is key to a long-term relationship.

4) Record conversations

Never depend on your memory to remember every conversation with your client. You want to record those video calls, save all the emails and send out minutes when you’ve had an e-meeting, in-person conversation or a teleconference with your client.

Be sure to highlight the points discussed so that either party doesn’t deviate from what was discussed. You don’t want to write an essay here. Keep it crisp and to the point. Here again, remember to choose the words your client understands.

5) Read, read and READ some more
A sure shot way to up your written and verbal communication is to read. It will broaden your mind, widen your vocabulary and boost your confidence. Most entrepreneurs devote a major chunk of their time to developing their business idea and often don’t have time to read. But the success of your business lies mostly in how well you can communicate your idea.

Reading opens up doors you never knew existed and as entrepreneur you sure as heck want that. Pick up self-help books and business books as they always have the most articulate and precise words you can incorporate in your business communication.

Take out half an hour every day and soon it will be a habit. On that note have you read ‘The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg? That’s a great read for an entrepreneur.

Now that the key points to effective communication are revealed to you, always remember that you’re trying to communicate your ideas not just to be understood by your client but more importantly, you don’t want to be misunderstood.

P.S. Need more insight to improve your Business Communication or help with a reading list? Subscribe to our updates and get exclusive access to connect with me or Deepa on our Facebook Homepreneur® Community.

#AskDeepa #AskMisha #BusinessCommunication

July 12, 2015October 11, 2018

Reviewing DareBoost: A Web Performance and Quality Testing Tool

Not long ago, I reviewed the tools for testing website performance. In that I listed some well-known tools through which a beginner as well as an expert can test their website.
Last week, I got an opportunity to review another online tool for website testing. Yes, I am here with a review of DareBoost, a Web Performance and Quality Testing Tool.
Before starting, I would like to thank the CEO of DareBoost, Damien in providing me with a free Premium account for some days. The premium account helped me in analyzing and reviewing the product perfectly.
You may have come across with some other well-known website testing tools such as PingDom, Web Analyser, etc, and may have found them awesome. Another website testing tool is here and with a perfection to match the capabilities of fineness. Let us see what it actually has and what it provides to the users.
Around the web world, some people still don’t have an idea about the importance of faster loading of pages and the need of website testing tools. Especially when a user visits an ecommerce website, the developers and owner of these websites should really take care of the loading time. There is always a risk of losing your customer to another faster loading website.
Here are some statistics, that show the significance of fast loading pages:

8% of potential buyers cite extremely slow loading web pages as the primary reason for abandoning their purchase.
Over 75% of online customers opted for a competitor’s site instead of suffering inordinate delays at peak traffic time.
If page load time is 3 seconds or more, 57% of your website visitors will abandon your page.
75% of users exit within 4 seconds.
When compared to business websites that load in 1 second, websites that load in 3 seconds experience a 50% higher bounce rate, 22% fewer page views, and, most significantly, 22% fewer conversions.

Keeping this as the topmost priority, the website has provided an apt stat on the Home Page itself. It says the following:

Additionally, Web Performance impacts are also briefly described on the website.
Have a look!

Let’s start with the review.

Test your website from another location

Let’s say you want to test your website from another location. What will you do? Surely, you will search for a tool which will give you a result on the basis of your required location.
I requested an Asian location and DareBoost notified of the same through an email, ”now your location is available”. That means now I can test my website from an Asian location and DareBoost can provide a new location according to your needs, as a paid option.
You can also request to analyze your website from another location by just filling the below given details:

Performance Metrics

As we all know Metrics is a system or standard of measurement. Here, an area for performance metrics is also defined which looks into the weight, number of requests and other things. As stated on the website,

The delay before reception of the first byte by the browser and the delay before the first paint of the browser, meaning the beginning of the page rendering.

These details are available with an access to the “Performance Timings”. Experts would surely get benefit from these metrics.
Note: For reviewing the tool, I’ll be testing linkedin.com for further analysis.

Monitoring: Weekly and daily digests

What if you wake up in the morning and find a glitch on your website, which is not notified to you from any other source. Generally, this is not a good thing if you’re a developer or a tester of the website. DareBoost has a solution for this. They will notify you of these kinds of issues:

We have detected some issues for your monitoring

Additionally, detailed report will also be sent daily.
Here is the sample of the email received, I kept the test name as Amit Test1:

They also sent a complete weekly report on the registered email. This includes the following:

Average values of the last 7 days.
Distribution of loading time.
Alerts, etc.
Furthermore, other details are provided by them on the dashboard.

Best Practice checks: Accessibility, W3C standards and others

For the first time when you’ll analyze a website, it will say “analyzing web page and checking best practices compliance”.
This is a feature which was not part of my previous review on 5 website testing tools. I should have included it. Here is an image showing the checks done under Best Practices:
Note: Only registered users have access to this feature.

It also checks whether the pages on your website matches the web standards or not. This is possible due to the HTML validation W3C and CSS validation W3C. The same is shown in the following image:

Test from mobile and desktop

Just change the DropDown (Desktop or Mobile) and analyze the page, here you can also change the browser options by selecting from Chrome or Mozilla.

Rewards
In its launch of less than 2 years, they’ve received the following 2 rewards:

Ecommerce Award (technology category – Paris 2014).
Crisalide numérique 2014 Jury and Audience Award in the category “usages of tomorrow”

Pricing

Avail a discount of 10% by using R-AMIT10 as the coupon code.

The Analysis

This is a general review and it may vary person to person.
Note: The images are taken from DareBoost website itself.
I have the following review for this product.

Status: Available

Launched: 2014

Checking for multiple devices	Yes
Checking for multiple browsers	Yes
Accurate Reports	Yes
Timely delivery of reports	Yes (daily, weekly, etc.)
Request and approval of new location for testing the website at another location	DareBoost can provide a new location according to your needs, as a paid option.
Loading Time	The website loads the result at a pace equivalent to other web testing tools website
integrates the best practices of Yahoo YSlow?	Yes
Use Google Page Speed	Yes
W3C Validation	Yes
Accessibility check (Best Practices)	Yes
Dareboost website is responsive?	No

I hope that DareBoost will grow apparently in coming years as they’ve almost all the features to test a website. In its initial year, they’ve provided some exceptionally awesome features for developers, testers and customers. Additionally, I also think the website should be responsive. As we all know, responsive websites are easier to access.

December 3, 2014October 11, 2018

Invoicing for freelancers – ShimbiMyBilling

Accounting Nightmares happens every billing cycle. Unless a professional accountant, these nightmares grow only scarier as the business prospers. Here is a Guest post written for Shimbi Mybilling, an online Invoicing tool at its simplest best. For a non-accounting work from home / freelance professional, things cannot get any better than this.

April 16, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – Make an Informed Start

Income Tax for Freelancers

make an informed start

Catchy Title… eh !… (…Ahem.!!.. Scary would be more appropriate isn’t it?…)
Well, Don’t we all dread the this time of the year, when every publication (print, online or otherwise) is flooded with write-ups (.. shout-outs..) on Income Tax planning, Income Tax savings, Income Tax computations, Income Tax Returns etc etc. It so seems, the universe wants us to explicitly remember that it is TAX-Time, and no escaping at it.

Short Intro :

“Any income derived by way of freelancing job is taxable under the provisions of Income Tax Act. 1961 as “Profits and Gains from Business / Profession”.

There is not much information directed at freelancers (from India) on how to do Income Tax Computations. So, I have put together this ebook so as to enable a freelancer to make an informed start at handling Income Tax Issues. Please register to download the Ebook, or , you may read it entirely online starting here, which includes the Table of Contents, as separate posts.

Long Intro:

You might wonder that, why am I writing this piece? Am I tagging along the content-bandwagon to get some extra traffic here? After all, Why should someone “working from home” (Homeprenuer) worry about taxes?… The answer to this is an emphatic Y-E-S. Extra-traffic would certainly be nice. But that would happen only if the content is useful and relevant. So, this brings us back to the question of, How is “Income Tax” relevant to someone working from home?
NOTE: By “working from home”, I am referring to those who do freelance work, from home, and not those employees who chose the work-from-home-option provided by their companies (IBM, Dell, HCL, Accenture etc)
“Working from home” is only a shift in premises from the traditional “Office Space”, and not job-description. Payment made to such freelance professionals / consultants is not referred to as “Salary”, but as “payment for services rendered”.
There it is. “Payment for services rendered” is the catch.

Income From Freelancing Is Indeed An INCOME, however small / marginal. And, “Any income derived by way of freelancing job is taxable under the provisions of Income Tax Act. 1961 as “Profits and Gains from Business / Profession”. – Refer this post written way back in 2009, thanks to Ranjit Xavier.

Since then (2009), I have been trying to collect Tax related information for freelancers both online and offline. My finance-knowledge is limited to HoursWork(ed)*$pay/hr = $$MyPay$$. As a non-finance person the information thrown at me made no sense at all. In fact, it scared the hell out of me for the first few months. It is then I realised that, we freelancers (from India) don’t have a handbook to understand Income Tax, lest should we be reprimanded for “not paying taxes”…(which is a punishable offence). That is how this ebook started
So, here you go…
Start Reading .. Income Tax for freelancers : make an informed start

April 14, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – eBook Disclaimer and Acknowledgements

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

Disclaimer, before you begin :

This eBook is ment to give you, THE Freelancer(YOU), an informed start.
DeepaGovind

I can understand how mindboggling it can get while trying to make sense of all these information in one go. Patience & perseverance is the key. Read again, google for things that doesn’t make sense, Shamelessly ask for explanation (from CAs / financial experts/ forums you might discover on the WWW). There is no greater source of information than the online-community. Use it wisely.
You can find me stalking here : http://www.caclubindia.com/
That said, it is always recommended to engage the services of a CA.

Acknowledgements

Writing about Income-Tax is as knotty assignment. Writing about the same for a non-finance person like me is nothing less than arduous. I have had sleepless days& nights trying to process the information Google threw at my face. Finally, when it did make “little sense”, I was not so sure about it anymore. That is when I turned to few trusted friends, and friends of friends. Without their timely guidance this e-book would not have been published at all.

Table of Contents

April 13, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – Foreword & Introduction

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

Foreword

Albert Einstein once said “The toughest thing in this World is to understand Income Tax”. But he said this in the 20^th Century. Had he been living in the 21^st Century, he could have never said that because 21^st Century is the era of content that is being created by Bloggers from across the globe.

And the same is the case with taxes as well. There is a lot of information present on the internet regarding Income Tax. However, most of them are giving generalised information and not specifically pointing towards Income Tax for Freelancers.

But after reading this book which has been authored by Deepa Govind, I’m sure that no blogger would say what Albert Einstein said. This book has been written in the simplest possible language so as to make it easy for non-finance people to understand taxes. I’m impressed to note the hard work and dedication that has been put in by Deepa to ensure that this book is simple to understand while ensuring that the book is comprehensive in all aspects.

Benjamin Franklin once said “The only thing certain in life is death and taxes”. We can’t do anything about the 1st thing but we surely can do a lot about the 2^nd thing i.e. taxes. I hope this book will answer all your tax related queries.

Regards
CA Karan Batra

INTRODUCTION

Freelancing is fondly referred to as “extra income” for reasons galore. Some want their hobby to pay for itself, while for someone else, it is about “test the waters” before taking the big-decision. But, that is beside the point. The point is – Income From Freelancing Is Indeed An INCOME, however small / marginal. And, “Any income derived by way of freelancing job is taxable under the provisions of Income Tax Act. 1961 as “Profits and Gains from Business / Profession”. – Refer this post written way back in 2009, thanks to Ranjit Xavier.
So, how do we actually go about filing our Income Tax? While at office, the designated CA takes care of this.
As a freelancer, not all of us have the affordability of hiring a CA… not to mention the fact that… we freelancers are wary of disclosing our income sources to someone else, unless the person is family, or, a very very very very trusted friend. Eventually, that leaves us to ourselves to do our taxes and do the paper work… doesn’t it? So, roll up your sleeves and let us get started.

Our Check List will be as under

Tax Payee or not ? Where do you fit in?
Know your Income Sources – Calculate TOTAL Income.
Business Related Expenditure – Isolate work related expenditure (Remember to save the bills and receipts)
PROFIT & LOSS – Compute NET Income
Know your Tax Deductions and Exemptions – Calculate Total Deductible Amount.
Calculate TAXABLE INCOME.
Understanding Income Tax Slabs – Compute Tax Amount on your TAXABLE INCOME.
Pay Income Tax – Advance Tax
Due Dates to remember.
Example
Book of Accounts & Auditing.
File your Income Tax Return *

* Not included in this ebook. Hope to have it as a separate ebook.

Table of Contents

April 12, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – 1. Tax payee or not? Self Evaluation

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Table of Contents

1. Tax payee or not?

Where do you fit in?

We must know where we stand, this makes our tax computation easier.

PS: Do not think that you can get away with hiding your freelance earnings (unless it is made in cash). These days, all transactions are online, and they definitely leave a trail. Trust me, no one wants to be on the bad-books of the tax-man. Sooner or later, IT-Dept is going to catch up. Remember Paypal-RBI issue???

Income Tax Rates/Slab for Assessment Year 2013-14	Rates %
Up to ₹ 2,00,000 Up to ₹ 2,00,000 (for women) Up to ₹ 2,50,000 (for resident individual of 60 years till 80 years)	Nil	No, you do not have to pay income tax
₹ 2,00,001 – ₹ 5,00,000 Up to ₹ 5,00,000 (for resident individual of 80 years and above, Tax is nil)	10% Nil	Yes, you have to pay tax
₹ 5,00,001 – ₹ 10,00,000	20%	Yes, You have to pay tax
₹ 10,00,001 upwards	30%	Yes, you have to pay tax

Question Bank from Govt. of India’s Income Tax Department Website.Each section has additional questions. So, take your time to read and understand.

General
Taxable Income
Tax on Income
Return of income
PAN
Salary Income
Income from House property
Income from business and Profession
Capital Gains
Tax Deduction at Source
Assessment

Table of Contents

April 11, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – 2. CALCULATE TOTAL INCOME

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Table of Contents

2. Calculate Total Income

Know your income sources

Freelancers typically tend to handle multiple clients to have a steady stream of income. So, let us chart out a typical freelancer’s likely income source(s) and payment-received structure.
Assuming, One or Many from the following is true ,
You (The Typical Freelancer)

Accept funds in multiple currencies.
Use multiple payment gateways to accept payments (Paypal, Xoom , Stripe, Skrill (previously known as MoneyBookers), Payoneer etc).
Use multiple freelance marketplaces to source for clients, and then get paid into these sites (eg :Elance, oDesk, Twago , Freelancer.com etc).
Payments received into your acct in (2) and/or (3) are later transferred to YOUR bank account in INR.
Payments are directly made to your bank account by clients electronically, via cheque etc.
You have one or more bank accts into which you pool your freelancing income. Obtain bank statement for the period 1-April-2012 to 31-March-2013, and isolate income transactions.

Freelancer’s income will fall under the head
“-income from business and profession-“

TABLE 1 – Income Sources FROM 1–April-2012 TO 31-March-2013
Income from freelance work, consultations etc.
Referral commission
Interest from bank Deposits – FD / RD etc
Interest from Post Office Monthly Income Schemes
Insurance commission
Rent (received) from plot / land

(Gross Income) TOTAL INCOME

Not sure about the list of Income Sources ?

INCOME TAX / Heads Of Income– A Comprehensive List , put together by RC Jain & Associates.
Download and read for each section.

Table of Contents

April 10, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – 3. BUSINESS RELATED EXPENDITURE

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Table of Contents

3.1 Business Related Expenditure

Business Related Expenditure means, any expense incurred by you towards establishing and providing the services you do as a freelance professional (provided, it is exclusively used for professional purpose).
In other words, we are allowed to deduct Business Expenditure (work related expenses) from the TOTAL INCOME, to compute our “PROFIT & GAINS”. It is this balance amount (a.k.a NET INCOME) that is credited to the Bank Account in Indian Rupee.
Some freelancers subcontract their client’s-work, (or), pay other freelancers to do some of their personal-tasks (Graphic work / marketing materials etc). You might wonder where does this expense fit in? Especially,

What if the subcontractor / contracting agency is also from India, & get paid in INR.
What if the subcontractor / contracting is a foreigner, and the Freelancer(Indian) pays him via Paypal / elance / odesk in USD / Euro / AUD etc ?

It so seems, we can deduct these expenses as well. But ensure that you have all the documents related to such an expense.

Rishi Trivedi says:

“Entire income you receive is not taxed. It is the profit you make that is taxed. To compute the profit, you are allowed to deduct business expenses against the income. In case of freelancer on the net, some of the expenses could be internet charges, website/domain fee, mobile charges, electricity etc. Basically, all those expenses that you have spent to earn this income is deductible.”

Note

This query cannot be generalized. You may want to get in touch with a CA with your specific scenario and heed his/her recommendations.

3.2 Depreciation of Assets

Depreciation of Assets :

“Depreciation as per law of lexicon is defined as positive decline in the real value of a tangible asset because of consumption, wear and tear or obsolescence. The concept of depreciation is widely used for the purpose of writing off the cost of an asset against profit over an extended period (its depreciable life), irrespective of the real value of the asset. Depreciation is charged against income or the profit and loss account”

–Source : http://wirc-icai.org/wirc_referencer/
An oversimplified translation of the concept of depreciation is akin to “selling your car”. The value of the vehicle decreases over time / miles covered/ availability of newer models in the market etc.. Computing the depreciation-value is not a DIY issue. To be safe, try to get in touch with a CA.

Alok Patnia puts this in perspective for a freelancer. He says,

“In case of assets used partly for business and partly for personal uses, depreciation can be claimed on proportionate value of the asset. For instance depreciation can be claimed by a freelancer on his Laptops, notepads, iPads, mobile phones, computers, modems and other related electronic devices, furniture and electrical equipments, which he uses for his profession, even though the same may be used at home or while travelling or any other place; Similarly, depreciation can also be claimed on owned conveyances, may it be two wheeler or four wheeler.”

—Source : Yourstory.in

Depreciation if handled correctly, can help save a sizable chunk of our earnings. The trick is to do it right. But given calculations involved, it is supremely recommended to connect with a CA and discuss this on a case by case basis.

So, technically we get to deduct our work-related-expenses from our TOTAL INCOME, such as

TABLE 2: work-related-expenses

Do make sure to keep the bills safe, and ready to be produced in the event of an enquiry

Internet Charges

Website / domain charges

Mobile charges

Electricity charges (reasonable proportion)

Depreciation on Computers & peripherals (60% of Book Value)

Expenses on any training , seminars etc you may have attended for the purpose of Freelancing services

Processing / Administrative Fees deducted by the Freelance website (such as 8.75% by ELANCE; 10% by oDesk etc)

Membership fees spent on professional networking, such as LinkedIN etc.

Expenses on Stationary , printer cartridges etc

Payments made to other freelancers / contracting Agencies towards business related tasks *

Total Amount NET Income = TOTAL INCOME – Total Amount

So, what remains is the “NET INCOME”
*convert all payments to INR, using the exchange value as on the date of transaction

Table of Contents

April 9, 2013October 11, 2018

Income Tax for Freelancers – 4. LIST OF DEDUCTIONS & EXEMPTIONS

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Table of Contents

4. Deductions and Exemptions

Certain investments related expenditure are allowed to be deducted from the NET Income, upto a maximum if 1,00,000/- Rs

Source :Times of India – Guide to Income Tax planning
Also Read : Times of India – Tax Saving Goofups to avoid.
So, this puts forth our next task of listing out the deductions that are applicable to YOU.
Smiley80C

Do pay attention to the options listed, and if need be, double / triple / quadruple check them before putting it down on your computation sheets. After all, it is your hard-earned-money, and you are eligible to keep every single paisa allowed on you.

TABLE 3 – Deductions
Deductions allowed from Gross Income.
PPF Investments.
NPS Investments.
Insurance Policies Premium payments.
Mutual Fund investments.
NSC investments.
NSS Investments.
SCSS investments.
Post Office/Tax saving Bonds investments.
Children Tution Fees paid.
Tax saving Fixed deposits for 5 yrs.
Pension Fund (80 CCC) investments.
Housing Loan – Principal portion of the EMI is eligible for deduction.
Total deductions allowed in respect to 1 -12 is restricted to a combined total of ₹ 100000 /- only ..ie Rs 1 Lakh.
Total Amount 1
Housing loan interest upto ₹ 1,50,000 /- Rs is exempted.
Total Amount 2
Other Deductions
Medical treatment of self / dependents upto ₹ 40,000/-
Interest on loan taken for pursuing higher studies.
Donations to approved charitable institutions.
Physically handicapped – ₹ 50,000 / – to ₹ 1,00,000/- depending on disability.
Total Amount 3

Total amount deductible from Gross Income	Total Amount 1 + Total Amount 2 + Total Amount 3

Table of Contents

Test your website from another location

Performance Metrics

Monitoring: Weekly and daily digests

Best Practice checks: Accessibility, W3C standards and others

Pricing

Avail a discount of 10% by using R-AMIT10 as the coupon code.

The Analysis

Status: Available

Launched: 2014

Income Tax for Freelancers

make an informed start

Short Intro :

Long Intro:

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

Disclaimer, before you begin :

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

Foreword

INTRODUCTION

Our Check List will be as under

Tax Payee or not ? Where do you fit in?

Know your Income Sources – Calculate TOTAL Income.

Business Related Expenditure – Isolate work related expenditure (Remember to save the bills and receipts)

PROFIT & LOSS – Compute NET Income

Know your Tax Deductions and Exemptions – Calculate Total Deductible Amount.

Calculate TAXABLE INCOME.

Understanding Income Tax Slabs – Compute Tax Amount on your TAXABLE INCOME.

Pay Income Tax – Advance Tax

Due Dates to remember.

Example

Book of Accounts & Auditing.

File your Income Tax Return *

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

1. Tax payee or not?

Where do you fit in?

General

Taxable Income

Tax on Income

Return of income

PAN

Salary Income

Income from House property

Income from business and Profession

Capital Gains

Tax Deduction at Source

Assessment

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

2. Calculate Total Income

Know your income sources

Accept funds in multiple currencies.

Use multiple payment gateways to accept payments (Paypal, Xoom , Stripe, Skrill (previously known as MoneyBookers), Payoneer etc).

Use multiple freelance marketplaces to source for clients, and then get paid into these sites (eg :Elance, oDesk, Twago , Freelancer.com etc).

Payments received into your acct in (2) and/or (3) are later transferred to YOUR bank account in INR.

Payments are directly made to your bank account by clients electronically, via cheque etc.

You have one or more bank accts into which you pool your freelancing income. Obtain bank statement for the period 1-April-2012 to 31-March-2013, and isolate income transactions.

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

3.1 Business Related Expenditure

Rishi Trivedi says:

This query cannot be generalized. You may want to get in touch with a CA with your specific scenario and heed his/her recommendations.

3.2 Depreciation of Assets

Alok Patnia puts this in perspective for a freelancer. He says,

Depreciation if handled correctly, can help save a sizable chunk of our earnings. The trick is to do it right. But given calculations involved, it is supremely recommended to connect with a CA and discuss this on a case by case basis.

Table of Contents

Download complete Ebook

Table of Contents

4. Deductions and Exemptions

Do pay attention to the options listed, and if need be, double / triple / quadruple check them before putting it down on your computation sheets. After all, it is your hard-earned-money, and you are eligible to keep every single paisa allowed on you.

Table of Contents