List of employee benefits not included under the head of Salaries for the tax treatment
Perquisite may be defined as any casual emolument or benefit attached to an office or position in addition to salary or wages. In the following cases the value of benefits are not treated as perquisites for the purpose of income tax assessment of an employee. Hence, they will not be included under the ‘head of Salaries’ for assessment of tax of an employee:
Medical facility: The value of any medical treatment provided to an employee or any member of his family in a hospital, dispensary or a nursing home maintained by the employer. This rule applies to medical treatment provided in Government or any local authority or any other hospital approved by the Government for the purposes of medical treatment of its employees.
Reimbursement of medical bills: Any sum reimbursed by the employer in respect of any expenditure incurred by the employee on his medical treatment or treatment of any member of his family subject to maximum of ₹15,000 in a financial year .
Health Insurance premium: Health Insurance Premium which borne by an employer in relation to an employee, or member of his family under any scheme approved by the Central Government or the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.
Medical Treatment abroad: Any expenditure incurred or reimbursed by the employer for medical treatment of the employee or his family member outside India to the extent of Travel and stay abroad of patient and attendant exempt to the extent of RBI permission. However, the expenditure on travel should be excluded from perquisite only in the case of an employee whose gross total income does not exceed two lakh rupees.
Recreational facilities: Any recreational facility provided to a group of employees (not being restricted to a select few employees) by the employer. Similarly, use of health club, sports and similar facilities provided uniformly to all employees by the employer is not treated as perquisites.
Telephone bills/mobile bill paid or reimbursed by the employer.
Training: Any expenditure incurred by the employer, for providing training to the employees or by way of payment of fees of refresher courses attended by the employees.
If the employee is the workmen Director of the company, reimbursement of expenses to him as a director by a company will not be regarded as a taxable perquisite.
Leave Travel Concession or Assistance (LTC/LTA), extended by an employer to an employee for going anywhere in India along with his family(exemption shall be limited to fare for going anywhere in India along with family twice in a block of four years)
Rent-free official residence and conveyance facilities provided to a Judge of the Supreme Court/High Court is not a taxable perquisite
The accommodation provided by the employer shall be a tax-free perquisite if the accommodation is provided to an employee working at a mining site or an onshore oil exploration site or a project execution site, or a dam site or a power generation site or an offshore site which being of a temporary nature and having plinth area not exceeding 800 square feet, is located not less than eight kilometers away from the local limits of any municipality or a cantonment board; or accommodation in a remote area.
Where the educational institution itself is maintained and owned by the employer and free educational facilities are provided to the children of the employee or where such free educational facilities are provided in any institution by reason of his being in the employment of that employer, there shall be no perquisite value if the cost of such education or the value of such benefit per child does not exceed Rs.1, 000 p.m.