Few facts about LTA

Some nice to know things about the LTA component of one's salary -

1. If you do not wish to claim LTA in one particular year you can have your employer carry forward your LTA for the next year.
2. You don't need to submit a proof/bills for the travel undertaken to the employer now. This has been termed in a judgement by Supreme Court in 2009. check this out. But this doesn't mean that you need not keep the bills. The taxation department might still want them from you directly.
3. The current block of LTA is 2010-13. You can claim tax benefits twice during these 4 years.
4. The bills can be any domestic travel. You cannot show fuel bills of the personal vehicle though.
5. You and your working wife can both claim LTA but not on the same travel.
6. LTA covers only travel and not the stay, which is weird. 

You can find details in my old post on LTA here.

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Can Holiday Package be claimed as LTA?

Found this article on the above topic. Thought to spread the word. Do check out - [one mint].

The answer is - Yes, it can be as far as it is a domestic travel, another thing to be noticed is that LTA is for spouse, dependent children, dependent brothers or sisters only, so if you have taken a holiday with your extended family or children who are no longer dependent on you, then you can’t claim LTA exemption on that part of the expense.

Since LTA can be claimed only for travel – if your holiday package included hotel and sightseeing (which it normally does) – you won’t be able to take an exemption for that.

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