Career Search

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

No Income Tax on Gratuity of up to ₹ 10 lakh

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online

Buy Gold Mutual Funds

Leave a missed Call on

94 8300 8300

 

No tax on Gratuity of up to 10 lakh

 

Generally, benefits received at the time of retirement are taxable under the Indian Income tax law as profits in lieu of salary in terms of section 17( 3) of the Income Tax Act (' Act'). However, one can avail various tax benefits on the amounts received on retirement from the employer, subject to provisions contained in the Act.

Let us take a look at some of the provisions that can help retirees claim tax benefits.

Gratuity

Gratuity is a part of salary that is received by an employee from his/ her employer in gratitude for the services offered by the employee in the company. Gratuity is paid when an employee completes five or more years of full time service with the employer. Taxability of gratuity depends on the recipient. In case of government employees there is no tax on the gratuity In case of private sector employees, if they are covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, then the gratuity is exempt from tax subject to a maximum of 10 lakh or 15 days salary for each completed year of service ( or part thereof) Where the gratuity is received in any of the previous years and if any exemption was allowed for the same, then the exemption to be allowed during the retirement year gets reduced to the extent of exemption already allowed, subject to the overall limit of 10 lakh.

Commuted Pension

Pension received by government employees, is exempt from tax. In case of private sector employees, if he/ she receives gratuity, the commuted value of one third of the pension is exempt. Otherwise, the commuted value of half of the pension is exempt Pension received from LIC pension fund is entirely exempt

Leave encashment on retirement

Leave encashment during service is fully taxable in all cases. However, such payment received by government employees at the time of retirement is fully exempt. In case of other employees ( including employees of local authority and public sector undertakings), leave encashment at the time of retirement, whether on superannuation or otherwise, is exempt from tax to the extent of least of the following amounts: Actual leave encashment received; 10 months of leave encashment, based on last 10 months average salary; Cash equivalent of unavailed leave calculated on the basis of maximum 30 days leave for every year of actual service rendered. The cash equivalent is calculated on the basis of average salary; 3 lakh Leave encashment received by the family of government employees, who died while in service, is not taxable. Similarly, leave salary paid to legal heirs of a deceased employee in respect of privilege leave standing to the credit of such employee at the time of death is not taxable.

Voluntary retirement payments

Payment received on voluntary retirement, by employee of a public sector undertaking is exempt from income tax subject to a limit of 5 lakh. Such an exemption is available only when such compensation is received in accordance with the scheme of voluntary retirement or in the case of a public sector company, under a scheme of voluntary separation.

The scheme governing the voluntary retirement payment should be framed in accordance with guidelines as prescribed in Rule 2BA of the Income Tax Rules. The benefit is also available to employees of authority established under State, Central or Provincial Act; Local Authority; Co- operative Societies; Universities; IITs and Notified Institutes of Management.

It may be noted that such an exemption is available to an employee only once and if it has been availed for any assessment year, it shall not be allowed to him for any other assessment year. Further, if relief is availed by an employee under section 89 of the Act in respect of any payment on voluntary retirement, termination or voluntary separation, no exemption can be availed by him further.

Superannuation funds

In terms of section 10( 13) of the Act, any payment received by an employee from an approved superannuation fund is exempt from tax, if it is made in lieu of or in commutation of an annuity on his retirement at or after a specified age.

Provident funds

Any payment made to an employee from a provident fund to which Provident Fund Act, 1925 applies or from any other provident fund set up by the central government and notified by it in this behalf, is exempt from tax. The Public Provident Fund ( PPF) established under the PPF Scheme, 1968 has been notified for this purpose.

Other than these exemptions, employees can also invest in any of the instruments under Section 80 C to the extent of 1.5 lakh to save on tax. These include senior citizen deposit schemes, PPF, National Savings Schemes, National Savings Certificate, National Pension System, life insurance policies and Equity Linked Saving Scheme of mutual funds.


For further information contact Prajna Capital on 94 8300 8300 by leaving a missed call

Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write back to us at

PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

---------------------------------------------

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Invest Any Mutual Fund Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Any Fund Application Forms

---------------------------------------------

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Franklin India Bluechip
      4. ICICI Prudential Top 100 Fund

B. Large and Midcap Funds Invest Online

      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
      4. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
      5. Franklin India Prima

C. Mid and SmallCap Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
      5. Birla Sun Life Dividend Yield Plus
      6. SBI Emerging Businesses Fund
      7. HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund
      8. ICICI Prudential Discovery Fund

D. Small and MicroCap Funds Invest Online

      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
      2. Franklin India Smaller Companies

E. Sector Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
      3. ICICI Prudential Banking and Financial Services Fund

F. Tax Saver Mutual Funds Invest Online

1. ICICI Prudential Tax Plan

2. HDFC Taxsaver

      1. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund
      2. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund

G. Gold Mutual Funds Invest Online

      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund
      4. Birla Sun Life Gold

H. International funds Invest Online

1. Birla Sun Life International Equity Plan A

2. DSP BlackRock US Flexible Equity

3. FT India Feeder Franklin US Opportunities

4. ICICI Prudential US Bluechip Equity

5. Motilal Oswal MOSt Shares NASDAQ-100 ETF

No comments: