The employer pays the employee a certain amount regularly in consideration of his past service. These periodic payments are Pension. Pension is taxable under the head “Income from Salary“. Further, the pension received by a family member of the deceased employee is taxable under the head “Income from other sources.”
Pensions received from UNO by its employees or their family is exempt from tax. Pension received by family members of the armed forces is also exempt.
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As per Section 194P of the Income Tax Act, a specified senior citizen of age 70 or more is exempted from ITR filing provided they do not have any other source of income except pension income and interest income from the bank. They have to give such declaration to the specified banks so that the bank can deduct TDS on their income.
Commuted and Uncommuted Pension
- Employees may choose to receive a certain percentage of their pension in advance at the time of retirement. Such pension received in advance is called commuted pension. This is payable as a lump sum amount.
For example, a person has entitled to INR 10,000 pm as a pension. They may decide to receive 25% of their monthly pension in advance for the next 10 years worth INR 10,000. Therefore, 25% of INR 10000x12x10= INR 3,00,000 is the commuted pension. - Commuted pension is fully exempt for a government employee. However, for a non-government employee, it is partially exempt.
- Uncommuted pension refers to periodic payments received by the individual. In the above-mentioned example, INR 7,500 p.m. (10,000*75%) will be their uncommuted pension which they will continue to receive for the next 10 years post that full pension of INR 10,000 p.m. will be paid.
Tax treatment of Commuted and Uncommuted Pension
- Uncommuted pension or any periodical payment of pension is fully taxable under the head Income from Salary.
- Commuted or lump sum pension received may be exempt in some cases.
- For a government employee, commuted pension is fully exempt.
- For a non-government employee, it is partially exempt.
- If gratuity is also received with a pension – 1/3rd of the amount of pension that would have been received, if 100% of the pension was commuted, is exempt from commuted pension and the remaining is taxed as salary.
- And in case the only pension is received and gratuity is not received – 1/2 of the amount of pension that would have been received, if 100% of the pension was commuted, is exempt.
Income Tax on Pension received by Family Member
Pension received by the family member of the deceased employee is taxable under the head income from other sources. Commuted or lump-sum payment of family pension is not taxable.
Uncommuted pension received by a family member is exempt to the extent of INR 15,000 or 1/3rd of the uncommuted pension received – whichever is less.
For example, a family member receives a pension of INR 50,000/-. So the exemption will be INR 15,000/- [lower of INR 15,000/- or INR 16,665/- (INR 50,000*33.33%)]. Thus, the taxable family pension will be INR 35,000/- (50,000 – 15,000).
How to report income from Pension in ITR?
- While filing ITR-1 you have to choose the category of Pensioners in the field ‘Nature of Employment’ under the general information section. There are four categories of Pensioners: CG- Pensioners, SG- Pensioners, PSU- Pensioners and Other Pensioners.
- Whereas in other ITRs, Nature of Employer as “Pensioners” is to be selected from the salary schedule. Therefore, pension income taxable as ‘salary’ has to be reported by mentioning the name, address, tax collection account number (TAN) of the employer and the TDS thereon.
- The amount of the pension to the extent tax-exempt must be entered in the field ‘Commuted value of pension received under Section 10(10A)’ under the ‘Allowances to the extent exempt under section 10’. We have to report the excess amount as ‘Annuity Pension’ under ‘Salary under Section 17(1)’
FAQ
The pensioners are liable to pay income tax on their pension if their total income exceeds the maximum exemption limit.
If you are a pensioner, the bank through which you are receiving your pension will issue Form 16.
Hence pension paying branch is bound to give Form 16 for the period and thereafter.
Yes, a Standard deduction of INR 50,000/- is available against income from Pension.
Pension is taxable under the head of “Income from Salaries” in the ITR. However, Family Pension is taxable under the head of “Income from Other Sources”.
As per section 139 of the Income Tax Act, it is not mandatory to file the ITR if your gross income is below the basic exemption limit. However, when the gross income of a specified senior citizen is more than the basic exemption limit then they can claim relief and not file ITR under section 194P is all specified conditions are fulfilled.
Hey @riya_gupta
Form 16 is a TDS certificate on salary. It is issued by employers to their employees at the end of each financial year.
Normally, pension holders do not get Form 16. However, you can ask your employer to provide you with Form 16.
TDS is usually deducted if your pension amount is more than the basic exemption limit i.e. INR 2.5 Lakh.
In case, TDS is deducted on your pension you can use Form 26AS. Form 26AS is a tax credit statement. You can use this Form 26AS to claim the tax refund of TDS deducted.
It is recommended to use Form 26AS since it is a summary of the total tax credit for the financial year. Tax credit comprises of tax is deducted on sources like pension, savings interest, fixed deposits, rent on house property, etc. or taxes paid during the year. Taxpayers usually, forget reporting such income and claim the tax credit.
How do I get my form 16 online?
How do I file an income tax return online from Form 16?
Hey @HarshitShah
Form 16 is one of the most common and widely used documents while preparing their ITR.
An individual cannot directly download Form 16. Their employers are required to download Form 16 form TRACES website and give it to their employees after each Financial year.
Employers deduct TDS from their employee’s salary and deposit it with the government. The employees can claim the tax credit while filing their ITR.[1]
Therefore, you need to ask your employer to generate Form 16 for you. However, you can download your Form 26AS from TRACES yourself. Form 26AS is a tax credit statement, where you’ll find the details of the TDS paid by the deductors to the Income Tax Department on your behalf.
Employers usually start distributing Form 16 a month before the due date to file your ITR. Employers should provide Form 16 to their employees by 10th July 2019 (extended from 15th June 2019) in the new format. The new format for Form 16 has a detailed breakdown of tax-exempt allowances and deductions claimed by the taxpayer.[2]
The due date to file taxes for AY 2019–20 is 31 July 2019, after which you will be liable to pay late filing fees of Rs. 5000(effective this very year) u/s 234F. If you’re still confused regarding what to do about your taxes, you can choose one assisted plans from services like Quicko, which is cheaper compared to other online and traditional alternatives.
Hope this helped. If you have further queries, feel free to comment/message!
Footnotes
[1] What is Form 16? | Help Center | Quicko
[2] Form 16 Changes & How does it affect you?
Hey @SonalYadav
Form 16 is a TDS certificate on salary. Upload Form 16 and file your ITR for free on Quicko.
It is the most widely used document to prepare an ITR i.e. Income Tax Return.
Form 16 is divided into 2 parts:
Steps to File ITR using Form 16:
Or, you can also manually add your Form 16 details in your ITR. The government has issued a notification standardizing the Form 16 format form AY 2019–20.
The ITR Forms for AY 2019–20 have a similar salary schedule for Form 16 Part B, making it easier to manually fill the ITR Form.
While preparing the ITR using Form 16, you should also refer to the Form 26AS for other income. Form 26AS is a tax credit statement, the taxpayer can claim their tax credit while filing their ITR. Usually, a taxpayer has income from other sources like interest income from a savings account, Fixed Deposit interest, rent, etc. These incomes are usually mentioned in their Form 26AS, and should also be used to file ITR.
Hope this helps, in case of any query feel free to drop us a message or leave a comment below.
Footnotes
[1] Upload Form 16 | E-File Income Tax Return in 5 minutes | Quicko
Hey Krutarth,
Usually, employers issue Form 16 by 15th June.
However, due to Covid-19, the return filing dates are extended & you can expect your Form 16 by 15th August for FY 2019-20. Also, Form-16 can only be downloaded from TRACES website by your employer.
Here’s a video to explaining Form 16
You can directly upload your Form 16 on Quicko to file your ITR for free
My employer did not give me my Form 16, how do I file my income tax return?
Hi,
If your employer has not provided you with a Form 16, no need to worry. You can always download your Tax credit statement Form 26AS from the income tax e-Filing website to check TDS credit. And you can use salary slips to determine taxable salary income.
Read how you can file ITR without Form 16
Hope this helps
Form 16A is a certificate of TDS on Income other than Salary. When TDS is deducted from the payments like a commission, contract, professional fees, rent, interest, etc., Form 16A is issued.
It is issued by the deductor to the deductee. Deductor (Payer) is a person who makes a payment and deducts TDS. And Deductee (Payee) is a person whose TDS is deducted. Deductor is responsible to issue Form 16A to the deductee within 15 days from the date of filing the TDS Return.
You can read more about Form 16A here.
Got questions? Shoot’em here.