| schema:text
| - Fact Check: No income tax for senior citizens 75 and above?
Minister of State Finance Pankaj Choudhary informed the Parliament there are no proposals for tax relief for senior citizens being considered by the ministry.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
The Centre has not given any tax relief to all senior citizens who are above 75 years of age.
A message being shared on social media claims that senior citizens above 75 years of age would not have to pay income tax any more.
A part of the viral post reads, “The Modi government will not have to pay tax to the senior citizens of the country, because on the completion of 75 years of India's independence, senior citizens above 75 years of age will no longer have to pay tax on their income. According to the information given by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the central government has changed the law to provide tax exemption to senior citizens, which includes important changes between Rule 31, Rule 31A, Form 16 and 24Q, and senior citizens above 75 years of age will have to submit a 12-BBA application to the bank to get tax exemption.”
India Today Fact Check found the Centre has not given any tax relief to senior citizens above the age of 75.
Our Probe
Had there been any such announcement about tax relief for senior citizens, it would have been a big story. But, we could not find any credible news reports regarding the viral claim.
Instead, we found several reports on a statement about tax relief for senior citizens, which was recently made by Minister of State Finance Pankaj Choudhary in the Lower House of Parliament. According to a report in Business Today, the Centre recently informed the House that currently no proposals are being considered by the government regarding tax relief for senior citizens.
We then found a post made by the central government’s Press Information Bureau. PIB Fact Check called the viral message fake. The post reads: “Senior citizens above 75 years, with only pension and interest income, are exempt from filing ITR (as per Section 194P). Taxes, if applicable, are deducted by the specified bank after computing the income and eligible deductions.”
Do senior citizens get tax relief?
Section 194P of the Income Tax Act, 1961, provides conditions for exempting senior citizens from filing income tax returns aged 75 years and above.
For senior citizens, the basic exemption limit is fixed at Rs 3 lakh income per annum. Super senior citizens, resident Indians who are 80 years and above, do not have to pay any tax or file returns up to Rs 5 lakh annual total income.
Thus, it is clear that the viral message is misleading.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)