Funnycontrol | Barbenheimer and other I-T deductions on July 31, to give your rich CA heartburn

Tip: Claim "lesson learnt" deduction for losses made in F&O by listening to finfluencers, if the Rs 499 course you signed up for ended up costing you Rs 49,000 instead of making you richer by Rs 4.99 lakh. (Photo by Disha Sheta via Pexels)

It’s that time of the year when you file your income-tax returns (I-T returns) without hope of any returns on your taxes. But at least your CA has a more fancy office and the roads have more fancy potholes. In the spirit of the season, here are 5 ways to save tax that are not listed in the laws.

1) Claim Leave Travel Allowance when you travel to a Spa to discover yourself: Tell the I-T authorities that the journey is the destination. Even when the journey is to a Thai spa in Andheri East. Simply getting there in this monsoon will be a discovery of yourself.  Because you’ll be lucky to reach on time even twice in a block of 4 years.

2) Claim "lesson learnt" deduction for losses made in F&O by listening to finfluencers: Tell I-T that you cannot be blamed if the Rs 499 course did not deposit Rs 4,99,000/- profit in your account as promised but depleted it by Rs 49,000/- instead. Therefore, in all fairness, you should be allowed to claim 4,99,000/- as a deduction for walking on this boulevard of broken F&O dreams.

3) A special bravery deduction for the guts to order ketchup with your fries in 2023: Whenever I ask my lunch lady for salad, I have almost given up hopes that even a slice of tomato will accompany the onions. This is a far cry from the days when you hoped for a slice of onion to accompany the tomatoes. But at least I have the courage to ignore the judgemental look at McDonalds when I ask for extra ketchup with my fries. Such bravery should be rewarded with a special deduction… or at least with an extra tomato slice in my income-tax refund

4) A "standing out from the crowd" deduction if you did not open an Insta/Meta Threads account despite FOMO: Full disclosure: I have an Insta threads account, but I am not actively posting on it. For having at least this last shred of self-respect, a deduction is surely due. I will be happy to Tweet about it on my X account while tagging the I-T department and Elon X.

5) A Barbenheimer deduction for deciding between the 2 movies: There has been no more difficult question in these inflationary times than to decide which movie to watch in the theatre. One movie is a complete bomb. The other one is Oppenheimer. I have gone one step further, by writing both films without watching either movie. Surely such audacity deserves an income tax deduction... or at least complimentary tickets to both movies.. with complimentary tomato slices to accompany the overpriced popcorn.

Now it is possible that claiming these deductions while filing your ITR will bomb very badly for you while further enriching your CA. But I have a special course to make you ready for this journey…even if you never reach your destination...It’s only Rs 499/- (Plus GST@18%).