Work from home may increase your tax burden: Experts

The Income-tax paid by the people in the country might increase as more and more people are shifting to their hometowns amid the changing face of work-culture due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to experts.

“A lot of people, because of the lockdown, have shifted base to their hometowns and are living with their families. There is no rent that they will be paying. This is obviously going to increase the taxes as the exemption is no longer applicable. The same goes for other components, which are linked to a reimbursement kind of model,” Aarti Raote, Partner, Deloitte India said during the DH Sparks webinar on taxation.

The panel discussion was moderated by Mrin Agarwal, Founder Director at Finsafe. Other panelists were N Nityananda, Chairman, Central Taxes Committee, FKCCI, and Srivatsan Chari, Co-Founder, ClearTax.

House Rent Allowance (HRA) is a part of the salary provided by an employer to his employee for his rented accommodation. HRA exemption can be claimed only if the employee is residing in a rented house.