Under the existing provision of Section 194I, TDS has to be deducted at the rate of 10% by the person making the payment of rent to the recipient if the total rent in the entire year exceeds Rs. 1,80,000.
There may be instances, where the total income of the recipient of rent, including the rental payments, shall be below the basic exemption limit, on which no tax is payable.
Thus, in order to reduce compliance burden in such cases, it is proposed to amend the provisions of Section 197A for allowing the recipients of rental payments to file self-declaration in Form No. 15G/15H for non-deduction of tax at source.
This is a huge step for property owners, especially senior citizens, who only rely on property income for survival.
This amendment will take effect from 1st June, 2016.