Form 15H for Senior Citizens

A retired person whose total tax works out to nil still finds tax deducted from fixed deposit interest. The bank deducts once interest crosses its threshold, whatever the depositor’s overall position. The money comes back only through a return and a refund, months later. The law lets a resident senior citizen stop the deduction in advance by giving the payer a written declaration that the tax on their estimated total income will be nil. Under the 1961 Act that declaration is Form No. 15H. From 1 April 2026 it is Form No. 121. This guide sets out when the declaration may be given, the test it rests on, and what the payer must do with it.

Which Act governs which year

• Financial year 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27) and earlier. The provision is section 197A(1C) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The form is Form No. 15H, prescribed by rule 29C of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.
• Tax year 2026-27 onwards. The provision is section 393(6) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, read with rule 211 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Rule 211(1) provides that “A declaration under section 393(6) shall be furnished in Form No. 121”. There is no separate senior citizens’ form. The same Form No. 121 serves the declarations that were Form No. 15G and Form No. 15H under the 1962 Rules.
• A Form No. 15H given for FY 2025-26 covers income of that year only. Interest credited from 1 April 2026 needs a fresh declaration in Form No. 121.

Who may give it, and for which income

Section 197A(1C) applies to “an individual resident in India, who is of the age of sixty years or more at any time during the previous year”. It covers income under sections:

• 192A (provident fund withdrawals);
• 193 (interest on securities);
• 194 (dividends);
• 194A (interest other than on securities, including bank deposit interest);
• 194D and 194DA (insurance commission and life policy payouts);
• 194EE (NSS withdrawals);
• 194-I (rent); and
• 194K (mutual fund units).

Section 393(6) of the 2025 Act sets out the same ground in a Table. Serial number 1, “An individual being a resident”, lists:

• the accumulated balance due to an employee (section 392(7));
• insurance commission;
• rent;
• income from units;
• interest under section 393(1), Table serial numbers 5(i), (ii) and (iii);
• life insurance policy payments; and
• dividends.

A non-resident cannot give the declaration under either Act, whatever their age.

The test: nil tax on estimated total income

Both provisions turn on one statement. Section 197A(1C) requires a declaration “to the effect that the tax on his estimated total income of the previous year in which such income is to be included in computing his total income will be nil”. Section 393(6) of the 2025 Act requires a declaration “that the tax on such person’s estimated total income of the tax year … shall be nil”.

The test is the tax on the whole of the year’s estimated income, not the size of the particular payment. It takes in pension, all interest, rent and capital gains, after the deductions and rebate the person is entitled to. The figures that decide it, including the age-based slabs, the Rs 50,000 interest deduction and the rebate, are in Income Tax for Senior Citizens: The Basics.

What separates Form 15H from Form 15G

For everyone else, section 197A(1B) adds a second bar. The declaration “shall not apply” where the income of the relevant kind credited or likely to be credited in the year “exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to income-tax”. Section 197A(1C) opens with the words “Notwithstanding anything contained in … sub-section (1B)”, so that bar does not apply to a senior citizen.

The 2025 Act keeps the difference in the Note to the Table in section 393(6). The bar applies “in case of a person referred to in column B of the Table, other than an individual being a resident who is of the age of sixty years or more at any time during the tax year”.

A tension with the form’s own instructions

Note 10 to Form No. 15H tells the payer not to accept the declaration where the income “exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to tax after allowing for deduction(s) under Chapter VI-A, if any, or set off of loss, if any, under the head ‘income from house property’”. The statutory test in section 197A(1C) is nil tax. Tax can be nil because of the rebate under section 87A even where income exceeds the maximum amount not chargeable. A payer that follows Note 10 may therefore refuse a declaration whose nil tax depends on the rebate. The Act and the note are worded differently. Form No. 121 under the 2026 Rules has not been examined for this guide.

The form itself

The declarant’s part of Form No. 15H asks for:

• name and PAN;
• date of birth and the previous year;
• address and contact details;
• whether the declarant was assessed to tax in any of the six preceding assessment years;
• estimated income for which the declaration is made;
• estimated total income of the year, including that income;
• the number and amount of any other Form No. 15H already filed in the year; and
• particulars of each investment (account or deposit number, nature of income, section and amount).

The payer’s part records the payer’s TAN, the amount paid and the dates.

A declaration without PAN is invalid. Note 1 to the form records this from section 206AA(2) of the 1961 Act. Section 397(2)(f)(i) of the 2025 Act provides that if a person “does not furnish his valid Permanent Account Number in any declaration under section 393(6) … such declaration becomes invalid”. The payer then deducts tax.

A false declaration is an offence: under section 277 of the 1961 Act, which Note 8 to the form cites, and under section 482 of the 2025 Act.

Signing and verification

The declaration is signed and verified by the declarant. Section 197A(1C) requires it to be “in writing in duplicate in the prescribed form and verified in the prescribed manner”. Rule 211(2) of the 2026 Rules allows Form No. 121 to be furnished “(a) electronically after duly verifying through an electronic process; or (b) in paper form”. How a particular payer accepts the electronic version is the payer’s own process, which the rules do not prescribe.

From 1 April 2027, a new section 393(6)(b), inserted by the Finance Act, 2026, will allow the declaration to be furnished electronically to a depository for dividends, units and interest on listed securities held with it.

What the payer does

Under the 1961 Act:

• Unique identification number and quarterly reporting. Note 9 to Form No. 15H requires the payer to “allot a unique identification number to all the Form No. 15H received by him during a quarter”. The payer reports that number, with the particulars in rule 31A(4)(vii), in the TDS statement for the same quarter.
• A copy to the department. Section 197A(2) requires the payer to deliver a copy to the Principal Chief Commissioner or Commissioner “on or before the seventh day of the month next following the month in which the declaration is furnished”.

Under the 2025 Act and the 2026 Rules:

• Unique identification number. Rule 211(3) requires a unique identification number for each declaration “during every quarter of the financial year”.
• Reporting in the rule 219 statement. Rule 211(4) requires the payer to “furnish the statement of deduction of tax referred to in rule 219, containing the particulars of declaration received by him during each quarter … regardless of the fact that no tax has been deducted in the said quarter”. Under rule 219, interest and the other non-salary payments to residents are reported in Form No. 140.
• Delivery by quarter. Section 393(7), as substituted by the Finance Act, 2026 from 1 April 2026, requires the declaration to be delivered to the prescribed authority “on or before the seventh day of the month immediately following the end of each quarter”.
• Keeping the declarations. Under rule 211(5), an income-tax authority may call for a declaration up to seven years from the end of the tax year in which it was received.

The quarterly statement procedure is in Quarterly TDS and TCS Statements.

Due dates and timing

Neither Act fixes a date for the declarant. The declaration stops deduction only on payments or credits made after it is furnished. Tax already deducted is not reversed and is claimed back in the return. The declaration is given separately to each payer, for each year, before the first credit of the year.

When Form 15H is not the answer

• Tax is not nil, but less than the TDS. The declaration requires nil tax. A senior citizen whose tax will be positive but lower than the deduction can instead apply for a lower or nil deduction certificate. That procedure is in Lower or Nil Deduction Certificates.
• Interest is below the threshold anyway. For a senior citizen, the bank deducts under section 194A only when interest in the year exceeds Rs 1,00,000. This limit applies from 1 April 2025, by the Finance Act, 2025. Section 393(1), Table serial number 5(ii) of the 2025 Act keeps Rs 1,00,000 “in the case of a senior citizen”. Below that, no declaration is needed for bank interest.
• No return is needed. A resident aged 75 or more whose only income is pension and interest from one specified bank may be covered by the separate scheme in No Return at 75-Plus: Section 194P.

What can and cannot be changed afterwards

A declaration that turns out to be wrong does not alter the tax due. Income covered by a Form No. 15H or Form No. 121 is still taxable, and still has to be returned where a return is required. The interest appears in the AIS whether or not tax was deducted (see Reconciling AIS, TIS and Form 26AS). Where a declaration has been given and income later rises so that tax is no longer nil, the declaration is no longer true. Any tax due is then paid as self-assessment tax. A resident senior citizen with no business income pays no advance tax, as section 207(2) and section 403(3) provide.

What to have ready

• PAN. Without it the declaration is invalid.
• An estimate of total income for the whole year from every source. This covers pension, interest from every bank and post office, rent, dividends and capital gains. Last year’s AIS and this year’s deposit schedules are the usual starting points.
• A computation showing nil tax, after the deductions and rebate available under the chosen regime.
• Details of each deposit or investment for which the declaration is given.
• The count and total of declarations already given that year, which the form asks for.

Summary

1. Fix the form: Form No. 15H under section 197A(1C) and rule 29C for FY 2025-26 and earlier; Form No. 121 under section 393(6) and rule 211 from tax year 2026-27.
2. Check eligibility: a resident individual aged 60 or more at any time during the year.
3. Estimate total income from all sources. The declaration is available only if the tax on it will be nil. The income-size bar for others does not apply, though Note 10 to Form No. 15H is narrower than the Act.
4. Give the declaration, with PAN, to each payer before the first credit of the year, on paper or electronically.
5. The payer allots a unique identification number, reports the declaration in its quarterly TDS statement (Form No. 140 under rule 219 from 2026-27), and delivers it to the department.
6. The income remains taxable; file the return where one is due.

The next guide covers how pension, commuted pension and family pension are taxed.