Income tax exempted on employee’s Covid treatment

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The government on Friday extended the deadlines for various income tax compliances and said the amount paid by an employer to employees for Covid-19 treatment would be tax exempt.

Also, ex-gratia payments received from employers by family members in case of employees’ death due to COVID would be exempt from income tax in fiscal 2019-20 and subsequent years.

The limit for such tax-exempted payment would be Rs 10 lakh in case it is received from any other person. “In view of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, taxpayers are facing inconvenience in meeting certain tax compliances and also in filing response to various notices.

“In order to ease the compliance burden of taxpayers during this difficult time, reliefs are being provided…,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.

“In order to ensure that no income tax liability arises on this account, it has been decided to provide income-tax exemption to the amount received by a taxpayer for medical treatment from employer or from any person for treatment of Covid-19 during FY 2019-20 and subsequent years,” it added.