Taxes on employment-related benefits replace FBT

Bangalore, Dec 21: If you are one of those employees who enjoys the perquisites awarded by the employer or the company, get ready to pay taxes as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued rules regarding the valuation of employment related benefits.

As per these guidelines notified on Friday, Dec 19, benefits such as using a company provided car, chauffeur, accommodation, concessional loan, and even the Employee stock options (ESOPs) will be subject to tax.

The foundation for these guidelines were laid in Budget 2009 when the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced the discontinuation of the fringe benefit tax (FBT). Before this, the perquisites were taxed as FBT.

Therefore the new guidelines for perquisite-based taxation is simply a substitution for what was earlier the FBT.

The experts who have welcomed this move point out that the basic difference between the FBT system and the current one is that taxes were earlier being picked by employers and now employees are picking up the tab, as the taxation of perquisites will be collected as tax deducted at source (TDS) from employees.

OneIndia News