Someone asked me about finance as a freelancer in India.
I am not an accountant so take this with a grain of salt but here’s what I have learned in my time freelancing(contracting).
India is one of the best countries for a freelancer because of the 44ADA scheme and no self-employment tax.
The 44ADA scheme allows you to deduct your taxable income in half.
So if you made 30 lakhs, the final taxable income comes down to 15 lakh on which you only pay 2.75 lakh tax.
And you can reduce the above tax even more by using section 80 deductions (ELSS, PPF, Insurance). You can use them to save an extra ~52k in tax (so tax on 30 lakhs = 2.23 lakhs).
If you are worried about health and life insurance as a freelancer, don’t, because insurance in India is quite cheap.
So don’t take a job for just those.
And as far as deductibles are concerned, the same rules should apply as everywhere. I don’t know much here since I let my CA handle that.
If you are doing >= 20 lakhs, I would strongly suggest getting a CA as you will be saving money overall in the form of tax savings.