Now you can get higher gratuity without paying taxes. The Government is going to increase the limit for tax-free gratuity.
The union cabinet has decided to increase the tax-free gratuity limit to Rs.20 lakhs. As of now, it is Rs.10 lakhs. This decision would benefit the employees of the private sector and PSUs. The central government employees have already got this relaxation through the Seventh Pay Commission.
The decision to increase the tax-free gratuity limit is taken by the union cabinet. But the government can’t implement it immediately. As it requires the change in gratuity act.

The new gratuity act – The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill, 2017- would be presented in the parliament. After the parliament approval, the bill would go to the president. The approval from the president would make it a law. Hence, you can expect the new law after the winter session of 2017. The final implementation might be in early 2018. In this act, the formula and rules of the gratuity are the same as earlier.

What is Gratuity

Gratuity is a lump sum payment to the employees.  Every organization who employs 10 or more people pay gratuity to its employees. It is mandatory by law.
You get gratuity at the time of leaving the job. This can be at the time of retirement or before that. To get the gratuity you must be in a job minimum for 5 years.
The amount of gratuity is decided on the basis of a formula. This formula takes account of your last basic salary and years of service. As a thumb rule, you get 15 days basic salary for every year of the service. The formula is given below.
Basic salary X Years of service X 15/26

Download Automated Gratuity Calculator in Excel

 Why is There A Limit on Gratuity

You get gratuity at the time of leaving the service. Like any other income, this amount should be taxable. But the government gives the concession to the gratuity payment. No tax is charged on the gratuity payment to employees.
However, the gratuity can’t become a way to avoid the taxes. Hence, the government has fixed a limit for Tax-free gratuity. By this limit, the government tries to restrict tax-free payment of a very high amount. That is why the limit is fixed considering the median salary of the employees.
Till some years back, most of the employees got the gratuity of less than Rs. 10 lakhs. Therefore, Rs 10 lakh limit was justified. But now, with the increase in salaries, the limit of Rs 10 lakhs was hurting to some.

Who Would Benefit

It is good that the government has increased the tax-free limit of gratuity. But, very few people would benefit immediately from this change. You would agree that a few lucky people get a gratuity of more than Rs.10 lakhs.
To get a higher gratuity amount, your last drawn salary should be high. Also, longer duration of service would give you the higher gratuity. Our calculation shows that immediate beneficiaries of this change will be very senior-level employees. Most of the employees are not going to benefit from this move immediately.
However, in the long run, this change would benefit the younger employee. As, after long service duration, your gratuity may exceed the Rs.10 lakh limit.

Decoding The benefit of Higher Limit of Tax-free Gratuity

Your gratuity depends upon two factors.  i) last drawn the basic monthly salary and, ii) a number of years in service.
Further, the limit for tax-free gratuity is for the lifetime. It means the gratuity from different jobs would be considered for this limit.
Suppose, you have got a gratuity of Rs.6 lakhs in the previous job and getting a gratuity of 5 lakhs in the current job. If the tax-free limit is only Rs.10 lakhs, the gratuity of Rs.1 lakh (5 lakhs+6 lakhs -10 lakhs) would be taxable. Hence, if the tax-free gratuity limit increases to 20 lakhs, there would not be any tax liability in this case.
I have prepared a gratuity table which shows the amount of gratuity you would get. I have marked those cells blue which have the gratuity of more than Rs.10 lakhs. Only these people would benefit from the new tax-free gratuity limit.