Bytes - Your weekly dose of
investments, taxes, finance & more.
Bytes - Your weekly dose of
investments, taxes, finance & more.
Hiral Vakil
LTA (Leave Travel Allowance) is an allowance paid by employers to their employees when they are on leave and traveling alone or with family within India. Subject to certain conditions, it is tax-free in the hands of the employees.
LTA is an allowance received by the employee from his employer for travelling on leave. There are many situations that need to be considered before planning a trip for the purpose of claiming LTA.
Section 10(5) of the Income Tax Act along with and Rule 2B have prescribed the conditions and amount of exempt leave travel allowance. Subject to these conditions, Leave Travel Allowance is tax-free in the hands of the employees.
The LTA exemption is available only on the actual travel costs. Expenses such as sightseeing, hotel accomodation, food, etc are eligible for this exemption. It is also limited to the LTA provided by the employer.
Employees can claim Leave Travel Allowance exemption by submitting details in Form-12BB. With the newly introduced Form 12BB, employees can provide detail of their travel during the financial year. They should also submit the proof in support of their claim. Employees can submit boarding passes, air tickets, train tickets, invoices of travel agents, etc, as documentary proof to their employers.
No. LTA can be claimed only for domestic travel. You can only claim LTA if the Employer provides it as part of your salary structure. You can claim an exemption on LTA under section 10.
No. You can claim LTA only twice in a block of 4 years. The current block of four years is 2018-2021. However, you can claim LTA reimbursement every year from your employer.
Employees do not have to submit any proof to Income Tax Department while filing ITR on IT Portal. However, employees are advised to maintain proofs such as flight tickets, invoices from travel agents, passes, etc.
Employees can know exempt Leave Travel Allowance amount from Form 16 issued by the employer at the end of the financial year. It is exempt u/s 10(5) of the Income Tax Act.
Since Leave Travel Allowance is a part of salary income. An employee can file ITR-1 while claiming exempt HRA. However, salaried needs to file ITR-2 if income is more than Rs. 50,00,000.
Hey @sushil_verma
There are a wide range of deductions that you can claim. Apart from Section 80C tax deductions, you could claim deductions up to INR 25,000 (INR 50,000 for Senior Citizens) buying Mediclaim u/s 80D. You can claim a deduction of INR 50,000 on home loan interest under Section 80EE.
Hey @Dia_malhotra , there are many deductions that you can avail of. Your salary package may include different allowances like House Rent Allowance (HRA), conveyance, transport allowance, medical reimbursement, etc. Additionally, some of these allowances are exempt up to a certain limit under section 10 of the Income Tax Act.
For eg,
Tax on employment and entertainment allowance will also be allowed as a deduction from the salary income. Employment tax is deducted from your salary by your employer and then it is deposited to the state government.
The benefit Section 80EEB can be claimed by individuals only. An individual taxpayer can claim interest on loan of an electric vehicle of up to INR 1.5 lacs u/s 80EEB. However, if the electric vehicle is used for the purpose of business, the vehicle should be reported as an asset, loan should be reported as a liability and the interest on loan can be claimed as a business expense irrespective of the amount. (We have updated the article with the changes).
Thus, if you have a proprietorship business, you should claim interest amount as a business expense only if the vehicle is used for business purpose. However, if it is used for personal purpose, you can claim deduction of interest u/s 80EEB in your ITR since you would be reporting both personal and business income in the ITR (under your PAN).
As per the Income Tax Act, the deduction under Section 80EEB is applicable from 1st April 2020 i.e. FY 2020-21.
Hey @Sharath_thomas , we have updated the content according to the appropriate assessment year. Thanks for the feedback.
No issues. You’re welcome!
Hey @shindeonkar95
In case of capital gain income (LTCG/STCG), transfer expenses are allowed as deduction, except STT.
However, in case of business income (F&O, intraday), all expenses incurred for the business (including STT) are eligible to claim deduction in ITR.
Hope, it helps!
Hello,
Is it possible to claim deductions under S. 80CCF for Infra bonds bought in the secondary market and held to maturity?
There were a number of 10 year infra bonds issued in the 2010- 2013 period, which will start maturing soon. These are all listed on the exchanges (although hardly any liquidity or transactions in them). If I were to buy some of these bonds in the open markets and hold them in my demat to maturity (<3 years), is it possible to claim tax deductions (upto 20k per year) under 80CCF for buying?
I couldn’t find anything on this. Any help is appreciated.
Hello @Veejayy,
Yes you can claim deduction under 80CCF for investment made in specified infrastructure and other tax saving bonds bought in the secondary market and held to maturity.
Deduction under Section 80CCF can be availed only through investment in certain tax saving bonds, issued by banks or corporations after gaining permission from the government which shall be restricted upto 10,000 per year.
These bonds are generally long term bonds, having tenure of more than 5 years with a lock in period of 5 years in most of the cases. These bonds can be sold after the lock in period!
Also, interest earned on these bonds will be taxable.
Hope this helps!
Hey @Sheirsh_Saxena, yes, the investment amount needs to be added under 80C.