E-Paper
Union Budget 2021: FM announces exemption from filing tax for elderly
Those above 75 who have only pension income exempt from filing tax tax returns, says finance minister Sitharaman
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced exemption from filing tax for the elderly and the senior citizens. Announcing the exemption, Sitharaman said, "In the 75th year of Independence of our country, we shall reduce compliance burden on senior citizens. For senior citizens who only have pension and interest income, I propose exemption of filing of income tax returns."
Following this, senior citizens who only have pension income are exempt from filing income tax returns. "We shall reduce the compliance burden for those 75 years and above. Senior citizens above 75 years of age with only interest income will not have to file income tax returns," the finance minister said.
To reduce instances of tax harassments of the elderly, the government has also announced halving of the time frame for reopening of income-tax assessment cases from 6 years to 3 years. For reopening of serious tax evasion cases up to 10 years, the government has put in a monetary limit of cases involving over ₹50 lakh in a year.
The tax slab until now for senior citizen aged 60-80 years:
Up to ₹300,000 - Nil
₹3,00,001 to 5,00,000 - 5 per cent
₹5,00,001 to 10,00,000 - ₹10,000 + 20 per cent of total income exceeding ₹5,00,000
Above ₹10,00,000 - ₹1,10,000 + 30 per cent of total income exceeding ₹10,00,000
A senior citizen is an individual resident between the age of 60 to 80 years. A super senior citizen is an individual resident who is above 80 years. Most senior citizens rely on fixed-income investments but have been adversely hit by the pandemic. This happened as the preferred choice of investment for senior citizens has been bank fixed deposits (FDs) that offer a rate of interest of less than 6 per cent per annum across different tenure. But the drop in interest rates has hit the income of most senior citizens.
