To claim it, an employer usually needs a signed rent receipt for each payment, though receipts are not compulsory if the rent is ₹3,000 a month or less. Once the rent crosses ₹1,00,000 a year, about ₹8,333 a month, the landlord's PAN must also be reported, under a 2013 tax department rule. Without it, HRA cannot be claimed on the rent above that line. We remind a tenant above that line to collect the landlord's PAN at signing, not at tax time.
The number
Receipts not mandatory if rent is ₹3,000 a month or less. Landlord's PAN mandatory once rent crosses ₹1,00,000 a year, CBDT Circular No. 8/2013, dated 10 October 2013.
Sources
Where it comes from. Level 1 is a government or court page, level 2 established press, level 3 a portal's explainer, which gives only what is commonly quoted.
- Business Today, HRA under the taxman's scanner, on CBDT Circular No. 8/2013, https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/perspective/story/hra-under-taxmans-scanner-43071-2013-12-16, level 2