New ITR Utility: Is landlord’s PAN card needed for claiming HRA while filing income tax return?

Every salaried employee who has an HRA component in salary and who wants to claim house rent allowance (HRA) income tax benefits need to submit the PAN number of the landlord if the annual rent is above Rs 1 lakh. Failing to submit the landlord’s PAN to your employer for claiming rent HRA tax exemption, will result in losing the tax exemption.

Also submitting a false PAN number of landlords will result in you getting a tax notice and also losing the HRA tax exemption altogether. Earlier, the online ITR form or its utility did not have field to give details regarding the HRA. However, it has changed now, the income tax department has revised the utility, and it now requires taxpayers to give more details of the HRA claim by salaried employees. So does this mean that you have to give the landlord’s PAN card details while filing ITR?

Read below to know more about the importance of landlord’s PAN for your rent HRA tax exemption claim and what are the new compliance requirements for rent HRA tax exemption introduced in ITR filing of this year.

When do you need to get the PAN number from the landlord for claiming rent HRA tax exemption?

If the annual house rent is above Rs 1 lakh, then you need to share your landlord’s PAN with your employer. The yearly rent of Rs 1 lakh comes to Rs 8,333 per month. Moreover, Rent HRA tax exemption benefit is available only under the old tax regime, such benefit will have to be necessarily forgone if you want to opt for the new tax regime.

To summarise, there can be four possible scenarios where a landlord’s PAN number is important and required for claiming HRA rent tax exemption. The scenarios are:

1. Rent is Rs 8,333 per month (Rs 1 lakh/year) or below: You don’t need to submit landlord’s PAN number for claiming tax exemption of rent HRA.
2. Rent is above Rs 8,333 per month (above Rs 1 lakh/year) or above but up to Rs 50,000 per month: You need to get the PAN number of the landlord.
3. Rent is above Rs 50,000 per month: You need not only to get the PAN number of the landlord but also deduct TDS on house rent.

So, there are two income tax compliances to watch out for- 1. Is the rent above Rs 8,333 per month? And 2. If it is then is it above Rs 50,000 per month? If the answers to the first or second or both the questions are yes, then you need to get the landlord’s PAN number.

“If annual rent paid by the employee exceeds Rs 1,00,000 per annum, it is mandatory for the employee to report the PAN of the landlord to the employer. In case the landlord does not have a PAN, a declaration to this effect from the landlord along with the name and address of the landlord should be filed by the employee. In cases where the landlord has a PAN but refuses to furnish it to the tenant, the tenant may not be able to claim HRA benefit altogether,” says Jain.

The idea behind this exercise of getting a landlord’s PAN is to enable the government to track the rental transactions by matching the landlord’s PAN with your HRA. This is because if you are claiming HRA tax benefits then the landlord has to offer this income for tax purposes, if he doesn’t then there is an incident of income tax evasion.

What’s changed in rent HRA reporting in ITR for FY 2024-25?

Under the new income tax return (ITR) excel utility for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26), there are notable changes in the way taxpayers need to report house rent allowances (HRA). Failure to report all the necessary information in the ITR, will also result in you losing the rent HRA tax benefits.

In the new excel utility for ITR filing some of the new reportings which have been added are:

● Place of work
● Actual HRA received (A)
● Actual rent paid
● Details of salary as per Section 17 (1)
● Basic salary

The image below is a screengrab of the ITR-1 excel utility for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26), notice the changes in red:

Source: ITR-1 excel utility

Shubham Jain, Associate Director, Nangia Andersen India, says: “As of now, the landlord’s PAN and his details are not required to be populated in the income tax return form but only submitted before the employer for consideration of tax deduction (TDS) on salary. The Income tax Department in its recent tweet has mentioned the need for enhanced disclosures in case of taxpayers claiming HRA. However, the same has not yet been incorporated in the income tax forms notified by the government yet.”

Sujit Sudhakar Bangar, Founder, TaxBuddy.com, agrees with Jain and adds: “While filing ITR and for claiming HRA benefit, landlord details are not required to be given in ITR excel utility yet.”

When is rent HRA tax exemption available for employees?

Only salaried employees who have a rent HRA component in their salary structure can claim tax exemption under Section 10 (13A). Non-salaried have to use Section 80GG to claim benefit of house rental payments made, but its conditions and rules are different from rent HRA tax exemption (Section 10 (13A))

The tax exemption for HRA benefit under Section 10 (13A) is the minimum of:

• The total amount of HRA received
• 50 per cent of salary (Basic salary + Dearness Allowance) if living in metro cities or 40 per cent for non-metro cities
• Actual Rent Paid – 10% of (Basic salary + DA)

Who can claim HRA tax exemption under Section 10 (13A)?

According to chartered accountant Abhishek Soni, co-founder, Tax2Win, here’s who can claim HRA tax exemption under Section 10 (13A):

1. You should be a salaried employee: The tax benefits related to HRA exemption are available only to salaried individuals. A self-employed person cannot take advantage of this exemption.
2. Receive HRA as a part of your salary package/CTC: The CTC or salary package includes basic salary, allowances, perquisites, etc. You must ensure that HRA is included in your CTC to take advantage of this exemption.
3. Stay in rented accommodation: This exemption can only be claimed if you are staying in a rented accommodation, i.e., paying rent. No tax benefit is available if you reside in a self-owned house, as one cannot pay rent to oneself.

Soni says: “If you are a self-employed individual or an employee not qualified for HRA, you might be eligible for alternative deductions under provisions like Section 80GG if you’re paying rent and meet certain conditions.”