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HRA, or HRA full form in salary (House Rent Allowance), is received by many salaried people and is included in their pay. But did you know that you could get an HRA exemption from taxes if you live in a rented house? Under Section 80GG (HRA exemption section), you can claim for HRA exemption if you are salaried or self-employed. So, let’s understand what House Rent Allowance is, how you can calculate it, and answer some commonly asked questions.
An employer gives a house Rent Allowance as an allowance for an employee’s rented accommodation. So you are still eligible to use this exception even if you work for yourself or your company does not provide an HRA. But the catch is that house rent allowance is exempt from tax if you live in a rented house.
So people who have a place of their own and get HRA from their employer cannot reap the benefits of claiming tax deductions under the HRA exemption section.
Your HRA calculation in salary can be estimated from the factors given below:
1. The actual rent paid minus 10% of your basic salary.
2. The actual amount of HRA given to you.
3. 50% of your basic salary (for a metropolitan city).
The minimum figure of these three is the HRA you can claim for tax deductions.
HRA is a portion of a taxpayer’s wage that decreases the tax liability if the person lives in leased housing. Using online HRA calculation in salary, you can determine your HRA rebate.
( It is also possible to calculate the HRA rebate manually. You can check out the HRA calculator on the income tax India website.)
If the employee pays more than ₹1,00,000 in rental expenses each year, they must give their landlord’s PAN number when filing tax returns.
If an employee pays rental expenditures but does not receive HRA as part of their salary or pays rental costs but does not have income earnings, the benefits of paying rental costs can be claimed as per Section 80GG or the HRA exemption section.
Let’s take an example of a salaried individual named Ms Seema Bhat who resides in Mumbai. She lives in a rented apartment and pays a rent of ₹10,000, which totals to ₹1,20,000 annually. Given below are her monthly earnings:
Basic Salary |
₹30,000 |
HRA |
₹13,000 |
Conveyance |
₹2000 |
Special Allowance |
₹1250 |
Medical |
₹1250 |
Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) |
₹5000 |
Total |
₹54,250 |
A professional tax of ₹200 and a Provident Fund of ₹2000 are deducted from her monthly salary.
Let’s calculate Ms Seema’s HRA that she can claim from the salary based on the three factors we have discussed above:
1. Actual rent paid annually minus 10% of basic salary = (₹10,000 x 12) - ₹36,000 = ₹84,000
2. Actual HRA given by the employer annually = ₹13,000 x 12 = ₹1,56,000
3. 50% of basic salary (annually) = ₹1,80,000
The last figure of the three is the HRA deduction that can claim for tax exemption which is ₹84,000 in Seema’s case.
Here are some things you need to keep in mind about HRA tax exemptions:
1. If you are paying rent to your spouse, you cannot claim HRA tax exemption.
2. HRA exemption in income tax can be availed even if you have taken a home loan.
3. House Rent Allowance can be claimed if you stay with your parents by paying rent to them and getting a receipt.
4. Submitting PAN details of your landlord is mandatory if your pay annually exceeds ₹1 lakh.
5. In the case of an NRI landlord, a TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) of 30% has to be deducted from the rent before paying it.
CCA (City Compensatory Allowance) is compensation provided to employees by companies (publicly or privately) to compensate for the higher living costs in metro or Tier-1 cities. People working in Tier-2 locations may be eligible for CCA in particular instances. It is determined based on an employee’s pay scale and grade, not their basic wage. As a result, it varies by city. For example, an employee who works in Mumbai would receive a larger CCA than someone operating in Delhi.
While an employee gets House Rent Allowance (HRA) from their company to cover living costs in rented housing, City Compensatory Allowance (CCA) is provided to compensate for the high housing costs in a metropolis or Tier-1 city. In the case of HRA, a person might claim up to ₹1,00,000 as tax exemption, whereas for CCA, the allowance is fully taxable.
An HRA calculator is an online tool that you can use to calculate your HRA that can be tax exempted. The calculator asks for your salary details to help calculate the amount that can be claimed for a tax deduction.
You have to submit your rent receipt to claim tax exemption. But there are other additional documents you need to keep handy to submit as proof, such as lease and license agreement, water bill, electricity bill, a letter sent to intimate the cooperative society about the tenancy, etc.
You can claim HRA tax deductions without the landlord’s PAN details. Still, you need to keep a record of other documents like lease and license agreement, water bill, letter intimating the society of occupancy, and electricity bill in case of an inquiry. Also, you should make sure you pay your rent through banking channels for proof.
Yes, you and your spouse can claim HRA exemptions individually if both of you pay rent. You can do this by getting separate rent receipts from the landlord. Make sure there is no duplication of rent to avoid tax being deducted twice from the landlord’s income.
If your employer has not considered the HRA is leading to an increase in the taxable income, you can claim it while filing your Income Tax Returns (ITR). It allows you to get a refund of the excess amount of tax deducted from your salary.
You can claim HRA exemption by filing Form 10BA, which will contain your rent payment details. The amount you can claim as a self-employed person is the minimum value of the following:
Rent paid more than 10% of the total income.
25% of the total income.
₹5,000 per month.
HRA, or house rent allowance, is paid to the employee by the employer to cover the cost of accommodation. In addition, the government pays DA, or dearness allowance, to public sector employees to cover inflation costs.
You can claim HRA tax exemption if
You are a salaried individual
You have HRA as part of your salary
You stay in a rented accommodation
You can claim HRA exemption on the lowest of the three:
The amount of HRA your employer, pays you.
If you live in a metro city, 50% of your salary is eligible for HRA deduction. If you live in a non-metro city, 40% of your salary is eligible for HRA deduction.
10% of your basic pay minus the total rent you pay.
You can submit your rent receipts to the employer or the government when filing your income tax return (ITR).
The remaining portion of your HRA, which is not tax-exempt, will be taxed as per the prevailing tax rates.
HRA comes under Section 10 (13A) of the Income Tax Act of 1961.
Your form-16 will show the HRA tax-exempt amount. You can copy this and put it on the ‘Salary as per Section 17’ in your ITR-1 form. The portion exempt from taxation should be added to ‘Allowances to the extent exempt under Section 10.
You can claim a deduction under Section 80GG. This usually happens if your employer does not include a separate component of HRA in your salary.
If you stay with your parents and their income is low and does not fall in the taxable income slab, you can pay them the rent. This way, you can claim HRA, and they will not have to pay tax either.
If you have a home loan for your own house but stay in a rented house, you can claim a deduction on the principal amount payable under Section 80C and the interest paid under Section 24. In this case, you can claim HRA and tax benefits on the home loan.
You will receive an HRA certificate if you are a government employee renting accommodation instead of living in a government-provided house.
You need to submit your rent receipts directly to the employer. If your annual rent is more than ₹1 lakh, you will also need to submit your landlord’s PAN.
You need to submit the following:
The rent receipts if your rent is lower than ₹1,00,000.
The landlord’s PAN if the rent is more than ₹1,00,000
You can submit a revised ITR before the assessment year is over.
You can claim a deduction up to the amount of the HRA component offered by your employer.
Tax deductions under Section 80GG are only available if you do not get HRA as part of your salary component.
Ref. No. KLI/22-23/E-BB/999
Ref. No. KLI/22-23/E-BB/490
