Senior citizen? These are the income tax benefits you get

The Income Tax is the tax that levied by the government on income generated by employment, any sort of businesses and other sources of income. This also includes the retired senior citizens and super senior citizens who are granted higher exemption limit compared to the normal taxpayers. In other words, for senior citizens and super senior citizens, the tax slab up to which one does not need to pay tax is higher. For the financial year 2019-20, a senior citizen need not pay tax if the quantum of income falls below Rs 3,00,000, compared to a non-senior citizen whose limit is Rs 2,50,000. Here, the senior citizen gets a benefit of Rs 50,000 due to the higher exemption limit. In the case of very senior citizens, the individuals need not pay taxes if the income falls below Rs 5,00,000. The very senior citizen benefits from Rs 2,50,000 due to the high exemption limit imposed. 

When it comes to filing the income tax returns, the individuals are meant to file Form 1 or 4 and get a refund claim in the return when the total income exceeds the slab of Rs 5,00,000. The income tax return is meant to be filed electronically with or without digital signature. However, the very senior citizens get a relaxation on the above under the Income Tax laws. When a very senior citizen wants to file his or her tax returns, he or she can file it in the paper mode i.e. e filing of Form 1 or 4 is not mandatory. The very senior citizen also has the choice to file his/her ITR digitally as well.

Moreover under Section 207, the senior citizens and very senior citizens are also exempted from paying advance tax if they have no source of income. This is contrary to the Section 208, which makes every non-senior citizen who has a liability for the year at Rs 10,000 or more to pay an advance tax.

Income earned from deposits, both saving and fixed in banks or post offices up to the amount of Rs 50,000 will have tax levied over it under Section 80TTB. However, according to Section 194A, no tax is deducted at the source from payment of interest to a senior citizen up to Rs. 50,000.

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The senior citizens and very senior citizens also benefit from Section 80DDB and Section 80D which grants various relating to tax benefits available on account of expenditure on medical treatment of specified diseases and medical insurance premiums. 

Who is a senior citizen and a very senior citizen?

A resident individual of India who is of the age 60 and above but below 80 during the respective year is categorized as a senior citizen. Resident persons above the age of 80 are termed very senior citizens.