Leave Travel Assistance (LTA)/ Leave Travel Concession (LTC) received from employer to proceed on leave to any place in India for himself and his family is exempted such exemption is limited to the extent of actual travel costs incurred by the employee.
For example, where an employer provides LTA of Rs. 35,000/-, but an employee spends only Rs. 30,000/- on the travel cost, then the exemption is limited to only Rs. 30,000/-.
TRAVEL COST means the cost of travel and does not include any other expenses such as food, hotel, stay etc.
Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) is eligible for income-tax exemption subject to the conditions prescribed under section 10(5), read with rule 2B of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The conditions for exemption are :
Essential Conditions [Rule 2B]
(i) The exemption is permissible under this section, only to an individual. Actual journey is a must to claim the exemption.
(ii) The employee is entitled to exemption under section 10(5) in respect of value of any travel concession (travel expenses) or assistance received by, or due to, him from his employer or former employer for himself and his family, in connection with his proceeding—
Ø on leave to any place in
India i.e. Travel should be while the employee is on leave;
Ø from his employer or
former employer for himself and his family, in connection with his proceeding
to any place in India after retirement from service or after the termination of
his service.
(iii) The exemption is admissible
in respect of actual expenditure incurred for journeys performed, not only by
the assessee but also by his family.
(iv) Two trips in a block of four
years for travel within India can be claimed as deduction (Block Year 2018-21
onwards).
(v) The exemption relating to Leave Travel
Concession (LTC) shall not be available to more than two surviving children and
also in case of multiple birth after one child of an individual after 01.10.1998.
In other words, this restriction
does not apply in respect of children born before this date and also in cases
where an individual, after having one child, begets multiple children (twins or
triplets or quadruplets, etc.) on the second occasion. The term “child”
includes a step-child and an adopted child of the individual.
“Family” in relation to an
individual means -
Ø the spouse and children
of the employee; and
Ø the parents, brothers
and sisters of the employee or any of them, who are wholly or mainly dependent
upon him.
Leave Travel Concession – When Taxable
(i) Leave Travel Concession encashed without
performing journey is fully taxable.
(ii) Expense reimbursed other than the fare like
boarding or lodging is fully taxable.
(iii) Amount received
from employer in excess of the cost of travelling on the shortest route.
“Travel expenses”
Travel
expenses refer to the cost of travel (ticket fare etc.) alone. Expenses on boarding, lodging, sightseeing
etc. should not be considered for the purpose of tax exemption. In addition,
travel expenses should pertain to leave travel within India. Expenses on
overseas travel cannot be considered for the calculation of tax exemption.
CBDT’s Circular No. 413 [F. No. 194/9/79-IT(A-I)], dated 04.03.1985
Subject : How exemption is to be allowed qua value of leave travel concession where employee is entitled to more than one LTC in a block of 4 years
1. Section 10(5) provides for grant of exemption from income-tax to the value of leave travel concession granted by an employer to an employee. In regard to assessment for the assessment year 1971-72 and onwards this concession is dealt with in section 10(5)(ii) which spells out two situations, the first is where an employee receives travel concession or assistance from his employer for himself and his family in connection with his proceeding on leave to any place in India. The second is where an employee receives travel concession or assistance from his employer or former employer for himself and his family in connection with his proceeding to any place in India after retirement from service or after the termination of his service. A proviso to this sub-clause spells out that the amount exempted under either of these situations shall not, except in the case of circumstances prescribed by rule 2B of the Income-tax Rules, exceed the value of the travel concession or assistance which would have been received by or due to the individual in connection with his proceeding to his home district in India on leave or, as the case may be, after retirement from service or on the termination of his service. Under rule 2B, the following cases are specified as being exceptions to the ceiling laid down in the aforementioned proviso :
(a) where the individual is entitled to such travel concession or assistance once in a block of four calendar years commencing from the calendar year 1974, the value of such travel concession or assistance availed of in each such block;
(b) where the individual is entitled to such
travel concession or assistance more than once in any such block of four
calendar years, the value of the travel concession or assistance first availed
of by him in each such block;
(c) where such travel concession or assistance is
not availed of by the individual during any such block of four calendar years,
the value of the travel concession or assistance, if any, first availed of by
the individual during the first calendar year of the immediately succeeding
block of four calendar years.
2. It has been represented that Income-tax Officers are interpreting section 10(5), read with rule 2B, to allow exemption in respect of leave travel concession for visiting any place in India other than the home town once in a block of four years and if more than one leave travel concession is allowed to an employee in this block, no exemption under section 10(5) in respect of the second concession is allowed. The Board have examined the matter. Under section 10(5), read with rule 2B, the value of leave travel concession is exempt completely in a block of four years. However, if the employee is entitled to more than one leave travel concession in a block of four years, then full exemption is to be given for the first concession under rule 2B and subsequent concession in the same block is limited to an amount that would have been admissible had the employee visited his home town. It is only the excess of the concession over the fare to the home town that has to be treated as perquisite and taxed as part of salary income in respect of the second leave travel concession for going to any place in India in the same block of four years.
Assessee-in-default for short-deduction of TDS on LFC/LTC claim relating to foreign leg of the travel of its employees being not eligible for exemption under section 10(5) r/w Rule 2B
ITO(TDS)
referring to the provisions of Section 10(5) of the Income Tax Act and Rule 2B
of Income Tax Rules, 1962 held that the exemption for LTC/LFC is available only
for visit to any place in India, provided that the amount exempt under this
clause shall in no case exceed the amount of expenses actually incurred for the
purpose of such travel. Therefore, the assessee-bank was held as
“assessee-in-default” for not deducting the TDS on the reimbursement to the
extent of journey performed by these five officers outside of India.
It was held that order of the ld CIT(A) is hereby affirmed where he has held the assessee-bank to be assessee-in-default for short-deduction of TDS on LFC/LTC claim relating to foreign leg of the travel of its employees being not eligible for exemption under section 10(5) r/w Rule 2B. (Related Assessment Year : 2013-14) – [State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (Now SBI) v. ITO (TDS), Date of Judgement : 07.01.2019 (ITAT Jaipur)
Assessee-employer is under no statutory obligation to collect evidence to show that its employee(s) has actually utilized amount(s) paid towards leave travel concession(s)/ conveyance allowance for purpose of TDS under section 192
The beneficiary of exemption under section 10(5) is an
individual employee. Further, there is no circular of the CBDT requiring the
employer under section 192 to collect and examine the supporting evidence to
the declaration to be submitted by an employee(s). For the above reasons, it was
to be held that the assessee-employer was under no statutory obligation to
collect the evidence to show that its employees had actually utilized the
amounts paid towards leave travel concession/ conveyance allowance. – [CIT
v. Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (2009) 313 ITR 1 : 221 CTR 620 : 181 Taxman 71 (SC)]
ITAT was justified in allowing the appeal of the assessee holding that declaration filed in the prescribed proforma by the employees was having full details of journey undertaken and the expenses incurred by them, whereas, no such details are required to be filled in the proforma prescribed for filing the claim and hence were not available with the DDO to hold it to be exempt under section 10(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 read with rule 2B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962
Assessee,
a Government of India enterprise, had reimbursed expenses incurred by its
employees for LTC on strength of certificates furnished by respective employees
and treating same as exempt under section 10(5) did not deduct TDS. Assessing
Officer observed that as no evidence was obtained by employer regarding actual
performance of journey, assessee-company could not treat LTC as exempt under
provisions of Act and accordingly treated LTC amount as part of salary and
worked out TDS and passed an order under section 201(1) and also levied
interest under section 201(1A). Tribunal, after going into detailed certificate
furnished on prescribed proforma by employees, found that full details of
journey undertaken by them along with expenses incurred had been given and
Assessing Officer had failed to point out any specific instance where expenses
had been reimbursed to an employee on basis of a fraudulent or wrong
certificate given by him/her. Tribunal, accordingly, reversed order of
Assessing Officer – No question of law would arise out of categorical finding
of Tribunal. – [CIT
v. Semi-Conductor Complex Ltd. (2007) 292 ITR 636 : 208 CTR 462 : 160 Taxman
384 (P&H)]
An employer, discharging his statutory obligation under section 192, is not only required to satisfy himself that payment made by him to his employees in respect of leave travel concession is not taxable, as envisaged under section 10(5) but also has to preserve evidence in relation thereto so as to demonstrate and establish to satisfaction of officer, to whom return prescribed under section 206 has been filed, that he has not neglected to discharge his statutory obligation of deducting tax at source
In order to avail of the benefit of travel concession
under section 10(5), three ingredients are required, namely, receipt of the
travel concession or assistance from the employer, for the purpose of
proceeding to his home-district in India and on the occasion of the leave. All
the three ingredients, if available, can entail the benefit of exemption. He
is, therefore, required to establish that he does proceed to whom district in
India by producing appropriate evidence to that effect, e.g., railway ticket
actually availed of. In order to allow benefit of section 10(5), while
deducting tax at source under section 192, the employer is not only required to
be satisfied as to the three ingredients of the said sub-section, but also to
keep and preserve evidence in support thereof to establish that, in the matter
of discharging his statutory obligation under section 192, he has not failed. –
[C.E.S.C. Ltd. v. ITO (2003) 183 CTR 110 : (2004) 134 Taxman 511 (Cal.)]
Fixed leave travel allowance is not subject to exemption
Fixed amount paid to
employees by way of leave travel allowance on the basis of self-declaration
made by employees would not be exempt under section 10(5), since such
self-declarations are not amenable to verification for purposes of ascertaining
the actual expenditure incurred - [Dr. Reddy Laboratories Ltd. v. ITO (1996)
58 ITD 104 (ITAT Hyderabad)]
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