Did an email from HR land in your inbox asking you to opt for or reset salary reimbursements before a deadline? The one that lists conveyance, phone bills, food vouchers, training expenses?
If you ignored it, here’s what you need to know. That email is where you decide how much of your salary gets taxed.
Let’s keep this simple.
A part of your salary can be structured as reimbursements or benefits. When you opt for these reimbursements, that portion is not treated as regular taxable salary in the same way.
So your taxable salary comes down.
If you do nothing, the system does the default thing. It pays that amount to you as salary. And that means full tax. Same money. Different tax outcome.
That’s the entire point of that email.
Now look at what’s inside it. Conveyance, broadband, food vouchers, training.
This is not extra pay. It is already part of your salary. You are just choosing how it gets structured. Opt for reimbursements where applicable, and you reduce the portion of your income that gets taxed. Ignore it, and you pay more tax on the same money.
Now take food vouchers, because that’s where many people miss the opportunity. We had reported earlier that the meal exemption limit has , making this option more relevant again.
Personal finance expert Ritesh Sabharwal . “You are probably going to spend this money on food anyway. The only question is whether you pay tax on it first.”
Under some company structures, you can allocate up to around Rs 8,800 a month towards meal benefits. That adds up to about Rs 1,05,600 a year.
For someone in the 30% tax bracket, that could translate into savings of roughly Rs 31,680 annually. But don’t assume this applies to everyone.
It depends on whether your company offers these options, how your salary is structured, and whether you actually use the benefit.
The timing also matters. These emails come with a deadline for a reason. This is your window to choose how your salary is split. Miss it, and the system locks in. Whatever you did not allocate gets paid as taxable salary.
That is why experts keep repeating the same thing. “Most people ignore the declaration email. But that is exactly where you decide whether part of your salary will be taxed or not,” Sabharwal said.
So if that email is still sitting in your inbox, open it. Because this is not about saving extra money. It is about not paying unnecessary tax on money you are already earning.