GST on fees and charges. Every fee quoted on this page excludes GST. The ₹500 joining fee bills as ₹590 and the ₹500 renewal as ₹590. GST also applies to interest, late payment fees, cash advance fees and the forex markup — it is not a one-off on the fee alone.

Are the reward points taxable? Points or cashback earned in proportion to your own spending are treated as a post-purchase discount rather than income, so a salaried individual does not pay tax on them. The same applies to the points here, valued at ₹0.5 per point on redemption. Two exceptions matter: benefits received from a business relationship (not from your own spending) can attract TDS at 10% under section 194R where the value exceeds ₹20,000 in a year, and a gift or voucher received from the bank with no link to your spending can be taxable under section 56(2)(x) if total gifts from non-relatives cross ₹50,000 in a year.

Is the annual fee deductible? Not for a salaried cardholder — it is a personal expense. If the card is genuinely used for business or professional spends, the ₹590 renewal is an allowable business expense under section 37(1), and a GST-registered business billed in its own name can claim the ₹90 GST as input tax credit.

Foreign spends, TCS and the LRS. The 3.5% markup attracts 18% GST, making it about 4.13% effectively. TCS under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme runs at 20% above ₹10 lakh of remittances in a financial year; international credit card spends have so far been kept outside the LRS pending notification, so no TCS is deducted at the till today. Where TCS is collected on any remittance, it is not a sunk cost — it is creditable against your tax liability and refundable through your ITR.

Spends the tax department can see. Aggregate credit card payments of ₹10 lakh or more in a financial year (₹1 lakh or more if paid in cash) are reported by HDFC Bank in the Statement of Financial Transactions and show up in your AIS. That is not a tax by itself, but the spending should be consistent with the income you declare.