Payroll & statutory · Updated October 2026
Form 15H is the declaration a resident individual aged 60 or more gives a payer so that no TDS is cut from interest, dividends, rent or similar income, on the basis that their tax for the year will be nil. It is the senior-citizen sibling of Form 15G, and like it, it belongs to the 1961 Act: for tax year 2026-27 onward both are replaced by a single Form 121 under section 393(6) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
The difference is one test. A Form 15G filer must show nil tax and also that the covered income stays within the basic exemption limit. A Form 15H filer only needs the first: tax on estimated total income must be nil. So a 68-year-old with Rs 6,00,000 of FD interest can file 15H if deductions and the rebate wipe out the tax, even though the interest is well above the exemption limit. The 2025 Act keeps this carve-out: the note under section 393(6) switches off the income-limit condition for a resident individual who is 60 or more at any time during the tax year.
Two practical points: the person must be resident (an NRI parent cannot use it), and the declaration needs a valid PAN, or it is treated as invalid.
Banks also do not deduct TDS on interest up to Rs 1,00,000 a year for senior citizens, so a pensioner with interest below that line may not need the form at all with that bank.
Pension from a former employer is salary, and TDS on it runs under Section 192 (Section 392 from tax year 2026-27). Form 15H has no effect on that deduction. For a retiring employee, payroll should instead collect the regime choice and any investment proofs before the last salary run.
Possibly not: those aged 75 or more with only pension and interest from the same specified bank can, under the 1961 Act, use the section 194P route (Form 12BBA) where the bank computes and deducts the tax, but whether that route has a direct equivalent in the 2025 Act should be checked with the bank.
No, it is given every year, separately to each bank or payer, and the interest still has to appear in your return and matches your Form 26AS and AIS.
Yes, a member aged 60 or more with nil tax can upload it with the online PF withdrawal claim, though most withdrawals at that age are after five years of service and carry no TDS anyway.
To test whether the tax really comes to nil, put the pension and interest into the income tax calculator under both regimes.