Budget 2026: In the Union Budget 2026, the government has made significant changes to simplify tax compliance for senior citizens. Now, Form 15H will no longer have to be submitted repeatedly to avoid TDS on interest earned on bonds, debentures, and other securities held in dematerialized form.
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Budget 2026: In the Union Budget 2026, the government has made significant changes to simplify tax compliance for senior citizens. Form 15H will no longer need to be submitted repeatedly to avoid TDS on interest earned on bonds, debentures, and other dematerialized securities. Presenting the budget on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that this move was intended to provide relief to investors who hold multiple securities in different companies.
Why Form 15H is Important
Form 15H is a self-declaration form. Resident senior citizens aged 60 years or above can fill it out. If their total taxable income is below the basic exemption limit, they use this form to request that TDS not be deducted.
Senior citizens typically use Form 15H to report income.
Interest from bank FDs
Corporate bonds and debentures
Non-convertible debentures (NCDs)
Municipal bonds
Interest-bearing securities held in dematerialized form
What changed in Budget 2026?
Until now, investors had to submit Form 15H separately to each bank, company, or bond issuer. This was quite a hassle.
Under the Budget 2026 proposal, senior citizens will be able to submit Form 15H only once to their depository. The depository, i.e., NSDL or CDSL, will automatically transmit this information to all companies whose securities the investor holds. This change will primarily apply to bonds and debentures held in dematerialized form, not bank FDs.
What benefits will senior citizens receive?
There will no longer be the need to repeatedly submit forms to different locations. This is a significant relief for senior investors who hold bonds from multiple companies. This will also reduce the risk of TDS being deducted by mistake. It often happened that forms were submitted to one company but not to another. Now, a centralized system will reduce this problem. The experience will be much easier for bond investors. This will benefit retail bond investors, a significant number of whom are senior citizens.
What hasn’t changed?
It’s important to understand that some things will remain the same.
There’s no change in Form 15H eligibility.
The age requirement will remain at 60 years.
The income limit will also remain the same.
If a senior citizen’s taxable income exceeds the exemption limit, TDS will be deducted as before.
