Home » Working Women » Money Planning » Other Tax Concessions Domestic help. If your domestic help (sweeper, watchman or gardener) has been engaged by your employer, regardless of the amount spent by the employer, the taxable value of such a perquisite will be Rs.120 per month per helper.

Contribution to provident fund and gratuity. The contribution made by your employer to a recognised provident fund (PF) is exempt to the extent of 12 per cent of your salary. Similarly, gratuity received by you on retirement - at the rate of 15 days' salary for every year of employment - is also exempt up to Rs.3.5 lakhs. Contributions made by an employer to a recognised superannuation fund are also exempt. Although such contributions are generally mandatory, they are taken into account while computing an employee's 'cost to the company'.

Interest-free loans. A loan taken by you from your employer for any purpose on which you don't pay interest, or pay a concessional rate of interest, is not a taxable perquisite. However, if your employer pays part of the interest cost on a loan taken by you from an external agency, such interest subsidy may be regarded as a taxable perquisite in your returns.