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From 1 April 2026, salaried employees will see a reset in how company cars, meal cards, gifts, staff loans and HRA are treated for tax.
The trigger is official, not advisory. The CBDT notified the Income-tax Rules, 2026 on 20 March 2026 through Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), and the new rules take effect from 1 April 2026. The notification is hosted on the Income Tax Department website under Tax Laws & Rules > Rules > Income-tax Rules, 2026, with the PDF upload dated 20/03/2026.
For salaried taxpayers, this changes the tax treatment of common workplace benefits. Some benefits now get wider relief, while company cars can push up taxable salary.
Payroll teams are watching 5 key changes. The official rules raise the tax-free cap for employer loans to ₹2,00,000 in aggregate from the earlier ₹20,000 threshold cited in news reports. Meal voucher relief moves to ₹200 per meal from ₹50 per meal.
Gifts and vouchers get a higher annual exemption ceiling of ₹15,000 from ₹5,000. HRA gets a wider 50%salary-linked category in 8 cities. Company car valuation becomes steeper.
The sharpest change is the company car rule. Under the new rules, for employer-owned or hired cars used partly for personal use, the monthly perquisite value is ₹5,000 for cars up to 1.6 litres or EVs, and ₹7,000 for cars above 1.6 litres, plus ₹3,000 where a chauffeur is provided. ET reported the earlier figures at ₹1,800 + ₹900 and ₹2,400 + ₹900.
This did not arrive overnight. Draft income-tax rules circulated in February had already signalled a rework in salary perquisites, especially motor cars. On 20 March 2026, the final rules were notified.
Over the next 10 days, Mint, India Today, Economic Times, Deccan Herald and Indian Express all flagged the same broad pattern: relief on meal cards, small staff loans, gifts and wider HRA eligibility, but tighter valuation for cars. ET also estimated that meal cards could now deliver annual tax-free benefit of ₹1,05,600, up from ₹26,400, depending on usage.
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CA Nitin Kaushik, quoted by Mint, said the changes amount to a “massive mathematical makeover” for salary perks. Tax experts cited by ET said company car users may face higher taxable perquisites, while employees using meal cards, HRA in newly added cities and smaller employer loans could see better tax efficiency from April.
The new tax year opens with a clear split. Relief is stronger for food cards, loans, gifts and HRA in more cities, while company cars are set to cost more on paper and in payroll.
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