Bonus Tax & Meal Card Calculator

India has no special "bonus tax rate." A one-time bonus — whether it's an annual performance bonus, a joining bonus, or a festival bonus — is simply added to your total annual taxable income and taxed at your marginal slab rate, not your average rate. Since your regular salary already fills up the lower tax brackets, the entire bonus typically falls into your highest applicable slab, which is why a bonus can feel taxed much more heavily than your regular monthly pay.

For example, under the new regime for FY2026-27, if your salary already puts you in the 20% bracket, every rupee of your bonus is also taxed at 20% (plus cess) — even though your overall effective tax rate across your full salary might only be 12-15%. This calculator shows you the exact marginal tax on your specific bonus amount, so there are no surprises.

A meal card (like Sodexo or similar) works differently — it's a tax exemption, not a bonus. Under the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (effective 1 April 2026), meal vouchers are tax-exempt up to ₹200 per meal for two meals a day across working days, which works out to approximately ₹1,05,600 per year — available under both the old and new tax regimes. Adding a meal card to your salary structure doesn't increase your CTC — it converts part of your existing taxable special allowance into a tax-free component, which means less TDS is deducted and your monthly in-hand salary goes up slightly for the same CTC.

This calculator uses the official FY2026-27 tax slabs from the Finance Act 2025 (Budget 2025) and the ₹1,05,600/year meal card exemption limit under the Income-tax Rules, 2026.