Landlord's PAN must for tax benefit if rent exceeds Rs 1 lakh

If you pay more than Rs 1 lakh annually towards house rent, then quoting landlord's PAN is mandatory for claiming tax benefit under House Rent Allowance.
"...An employee claiming exemption from tax with respect to House Rent Allowance received is now required to report the PAN of the landlord to the employer, if the rent paid by the employee to the landlord exceeds Rs 1 lakh per annum, along with the rent receipt," said Minister of Sate for Finance J D Seelam in a written statement in the Rajya Sabha today.
He quoted a circular by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on the matter of deduction of tax at source during the payment of salaries.

"In case the landlord does not have a PAN, a declaration to this effect from the landlord along with the name and address of the landlord should be filed by the employees," he added.
In a separate response, Seelam said the number of tax assesses have increased manifold. In the past 15 years, the number of effective IT assesses has increased by more than three times from 1.16 crore as on March 1997 to 3.63 crore at the end of March 2012.
He also said 42,800 persons other than companies admitted to a taxable income exceeding Rs 1 crore.
"The Cabinet has approved the cadre restructuring of the Income Tax Department in May 2013. The implementation of the same is under progress," he said.

Additional 1,080 assessment units to be manned by around 20,000 more personnel have been created to meet the increasing number of IT assesses, he said.