Income tax perspective - whether LTA tax exemption can be given on the basis of web check in

Hi, I would like to know whether LTA tax exemption can be given on the basis of web check-in (instead of the original boarding passes) along with the invoice copy.

Thanks

Hi Partner,

When you conduct a web check-in, there is an option where your boarding pass gets generated online, and you can print out the boarding pass for presenting to the airline's staff before actually boarding your flight. So, this should be fine for the LTA exemption.

Now, if one were to consider the unfortunate situation where you had checked in online but could not board the plane, then any verification of the boarding pass with the airline in the event of a tax return audit could land you in trouble, as their records would indicate a check-in but no boarding.

So, yes, as long as you have actually boarded the flight, the boarding pass generated via web check-in would be valid for LTA exemption, provided all other conditions of the LTA policy have been abided by.

Thank you so much for your appropriate response on this, Nelson. As you rightly pointed out, on the web check-in (unless those are stamped), we have no way to verify whether the flight is boarded or not.

Additionally, I wanted to check, does the Income Tax Act state that web check-in passes are allowed for LTA tax exemption?

Thanks,
Shibani

Hi Shibani,

With the web check-in option being a recent development, still in the process of being adopted by all airline services, I don't think the income tax act would have been updated to include this reference.