In a recent notification, income tax department has come up with a new form 12BB, which from now onwards has to be submitted if you want to claim your LTA, HRA and Interest on Home loan interest.
It’s a single form, which you need to fill and attach all proofs and furnish all information related to these exemptions. This form will be applicable from June 1, 2016.
What all information is asked in Form 12BB?
Following is the list of various things you need to arrange before you fill up this form 12BB form
- LTA (Leave Travel Allowance) – One has to provide all the proofs of travel like tickets, invoices, boarding pass (in case of flight). More info here
- HRA (House Rent Allowance) – For claiming HRA, If the rent paid is above Rs 1 lacs a year, one has to provide Name, Address and PAN of the landlord and Rent receipts.
- Interest on Home Loan – To claim this, one has to furnish the name, address and the PAN of the lender organization
- Deductions under 80C & Others – You will also have to furnish the details and proofs of the actual investments done under Sec 80C and others
You can download form 12BB here, It’s a PDF version (We don’t have excel format). Below I have provided a snapshot of the form 12BB format, so that you can have a look at it and see what all fields you have to fill up.
Main reason to introduce this form 12BB?
The primary reason why this new form is being introduced is that till now there was no standard process to collect all the proofs and information regarding the various deductions.
IT department thinks that with this new change, fraud will go down. Here is what Financial Express says on this point
You may no longer be able to provide fake bills to claim income tax deductions for leave travel allowance (LTA) and house rent allowance (HRA).
Changes announced on Tuesday in reporting format for individuals claiming tax deduction on leave travel allowance (LTA), leave travel concessions (LTC), house rent allowance and interest paid on home loans is aimed at plugging leakages on account of fake bills, experts say.
So with this form, all the information will be captured in one place and even the employers will be made accountable for checking all documents and if the proofs are genuine or not.
Please share what do you think about this new form? Do you think that this will add more work and headaches for salaried employees?