06 Nov, 2012 08:50 PM

Can a pensioner claim rebate for House rent paid ?

To claim HRA rebate first a major condition (Read : Things You Should Know About HRA and Tax Benefits) is assessee should have received House Rent allowance from employer and he should have paid rent for House taken on rent. The amount of HRA exempted under section 10(13A) read with rule 2A is least of the following.

HRA received.
House rent paid in excess of 10% of salary
50 % of salary if rented house is situated in Bombay,Madras,Culcutta,Delhi in any other city 40 % of salary

Salary here means:salary includes dearness allowance, if the terms of employment so provide, but excludes all other allowances and perquisites.plus fixed % commission on sale .

This is general condition,now for pensioners .

As Pension is covered under the definition of salary and taxable in the Head salary. There is no separate treatment given for HRA paid to pensioners .
As per section 10(13A) it is required that HRA should be paid by employer to the employee ,Pension is also covered under this, as the relation of employer and employee is existed between pensioners and employer also.
other condition as applicable to employee also applicable to pensioners

So HRA exemption is available to pensioners also if.

HRA is received by the pensioner from employer. and
House rent is being paid by the pensioner actually.

For pensioners, no HRA is being paid and hence no question of exemption arises at all even house rent is being paid. But still you have got an option.

Deduction under section 80GG for house rent paid: Deduction u/s 80GG is available if following condition are satisfied
Deduction is available to Individual Assessee only.

He has not received HRA(house rent allownace ) from his employer if he is a salaried person otherwise he should be self employed.
He has paid house rent for his own residence.
He or his spouse or his minor child or HUF(of which he has a member) should not have a residential house where he ordinarily resides or performs duties of his office or employment or carries on his business or profession;
He should not have a house owned by him, which is under his occupation and value of that is not being taken as nil under section 23(2)(a) or 23(4).
A declaration on Form 10BA should be submitted .

so if conditions are satisfied then he can claim deduction u/s 80GG for house rent paid

Amount of deduction:Least of the following is deductible u/s 80GG

Rs 2000 per month for the Assessment year 1987-88 onwards.
25 % of total income
the excess of actual rent paid over 10 % of total income

Total Income means income excluding long term and short term gain under section 111A and income referred to in section 115A or 115D but before making any deduction under section 80C to 80U.

Hence as you are not receiving the HRA as a Government pensioner, like other pensioner then you can claim deduction under section 80GG details as given above .

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