The government had announced in Budget 2009-10 that FBT on perks provided by employers would be abolished. Now, youll have to pay tax on club membership unless it is specified in your work contract that it is for official purpose.

The CBDT notification should have come just after the Budget to make it easy for employees to spread their tax outflow over the entire fiscal.

However, it has come towards the end of the year, leaving just three months for the entire tax to be calculated and deducted at source. This is likely to result in employees having to suffer the pain of significantly lower take-homes for these months.