Claiming HRA under Old Regime? You submitted Form 124 to your employer with your landlord’s PAN. But what if that PAN is wrong? Or your landlord gave you someone else’s PAN? Yeh galti bahut mehengi pad sakti hai.
If you submit an incorrect landlord PAN in Form 124, your HRA exemption can be fully disallowed during CPC processing or scrutiny. This results in higher taxable income, a demand notice under Section 143(1), and potentially a penalty for “furnishing inaccurate particulars.” Fix it immediately by submitting a revised Form 124 to your employer.
Under the new Income-tax Act, 2025, Form 124 replaced Form 12BB. It’s the declaration you give to your employer at the start of the financial year for:
Your employer uses Form 124 to calculate how much TDS to deduct from your salary. Wrong info here = wrong TDS = problems later.
Before submitting Form 124, use our HRA calculator to know exactly how much exemption you can claim. No guesswork.
Calculate HRA Exemption →| Scenario | PAN Required? | What to Submit |
|---|---|---|
| Annual rent ≤ &rupee;1,00,000 | No | Rent receipts + rental agreement |
| Annual rent > &rupee;1,00,000 | Yes | Landlord PAN + rent receipts + agreement |
| Landlord has no PAN | Declaration needed | Signed self-declaration from landlord |
| Paying rent to parent | Yes (if > &rupee;1L) | PAN + relationship disclosure (new in Form 124) |
You accidentally entered one wrong digit. The PAN doesn’t belong to anyone or belongs to a different person.
CPC cross-references the PAN with the landlord’s ITR. If the landlord hasn’t declared this rental income against that PAN — or if the PAN is invalid — your HRA gets flagged. You could receive a 143(1) intimation with HRA disallowed.
Some people submit a random PAN or a friend’s PAN to claim HRA fraudulently. Don’t do this.
Penalty of 100% to 300% of tax evaded under Section 270A (misreporting of income). In extreme cases, prosecution proceedings. The department can easily cross-verify PAN data — the system is fully automated now.
This is legal if genuinely done — but Form 124 now requires relationship disclosure. If you hide the relationship, it’s misreporting.
Declare the relationship honestly. Have a proper rental agreement. Transfer rent via bank (UPI/NEFT). Your parent must declare this rental income in their ITR. If all this is done, the claim is perfectly valid.
Anita earns &rupee;12 lakh under Old Regime and pays &rupee;1.5 lakh annual rent. She entered her landlord’s PAN in Form 124 but made a typo — one digit wrong.
| What Happened | Impact |
|---|---|
| Submitted wrong PAN in Form 124 | Employer calculated lower TDS (HRA exempted) |
| Employer filed Form 138 with wrong PAN | CPC flagged mismatch during ITR processing |
| CPC disallowed HRA of &rupee;72,000 | Taxable income increased by &rupee;72,000 |
| 143(1) demand received | Extra tax + interest = &rupee;22,464 |
Anita filed a rectification under Section 154 with the correct landlord PAN. After 45 days, the demand was reversed. But she paid interest for the delay period.
| Stage | What to Do |
|---|---|
| Before employer files Form 138 | Submit revised Form 124 to employer with correct PAN |
| After Form 138 filed, before ITR | Ask employer to file correction statement for Form 138 |
| After ITR filed | File revised return under Section 139(5) with correct PAN |
| After 143(1) demand received | File rectification under Section 154 with proof |
See exactly how much your HRA exemption saves. If it’s not worth the compliance risk, the New Regime might be simpler.
Compare Old vs New Regime →