difference between form 15g and 15h

Form 15H is for senior citizens and Form 15G for everyone else; both are declarations that your total income for the year will fall below the taxable limit, given so the payer does not deduct tax at source. The declaration has to be lodged separately at every bank where you hold a deposit, at the start of each financial year, because thresholds are counted per bank rather than across your whole portfolio. Neither form is available to someone whose income is above the limit — a false declaration is an offence, not a form-filling shortcut.

tds on the purchase of immovable property from a resident falls under section

194-IA. The buyer deducts tax at 1 per cent where the consideration is ₹50,00,000 or more, deposits it using Form 26QB and issues the seller a certificate — no TAN is required, the buyer’s PAN is enough. Where there are joint buyers or joint sellers, a separate Form 26QB is filed for each buyer-and-seller combination, which is where a large share of defaults begin.

who has to deduct tds when buying a flat

The buyer. Not the builder, not the lawyer and not the bank funding the loan — the duty to deduct, deposit and certify sits with the person paying for the property, and it is among the most commonly missed obligations in Indian personal finance. If the seller turns out to be a non-resident the section changes from 194-IA to 195, the deduction applies to the whole sale consideration rather than the gain unless the seller first obtains a lower deduction certificate, and the buyer needs a TAN before the transaction rather than after it.

tds deducted but not showing in form 26as

The credit exists only once the deductor has both deposited the money and filed a return quoting your PAN correctly, so until it appears in Form 26AS you cannot claim it. Form 26AS is the government’s own record of tax deposited in your name, which means a missing entry points at the deductor rather than at you — take it up with the bank, company or employer and ask for the PAN correction or the revised statement. Check 26AS before filing rather than relying on the deduction slip you were handed.

does tds mean my tax is fully paid

No — tax deducted at source is a part-payment against your final liability, not the liability itself. It is deducted by rule at prescribed rates rather than by any assessment of what you personally owe, so a pensioner with no tax to pay can still have tax withheld, and someone in a higher slab can find the deduction falls well short. The real number is computed only when you file, and the difference is either refunded to you or paid by you at that point.

TDS: the tax taken before the money reaches you

A retired parent has fixed deposits at three banks. Their total income is below the taxable limit, so their tax liability for the year is nil. Each bank nevertheless deducts tax on the interest it pays, deposits it with the government against their PAN, and hands over the balance. The money comes back — after a return is filed, processed and refunded, which can be the better part of a year and a half later. Nothing has gone wrong. A perfectly ordinary rule has quietly removed a chunk of a pensioner's income from circulation for well over a year, and one form filed each April would have prevented it.

Think of it like this

The commission agent who deducts before he pays

You send your crop to a commission agent. He sells it, deducts a slice on the spot and hands you the rest with a slip showing what he took and in whose name he deposited it. At the end of the season you sit down and work out what you actually owed. Sometimes he took too much and you get some back; sometimes too little and you settle the difference. Either way the slice was never his, and it was never the final number.

In the market

Tax deducted at source works exactly like that. The payer withholds a prescribed portion, deposits it against your PAN, and gives you the record. Your real liability is computed only when you file. TDS is a timing device, not a tax — and the timing is the part that costs you.

Where a retail investor meets it

Income	Who deducts	What to know
Bank and post office interest	The bank, above an annual threshold per bank	Thresholds are counted per bank, not across your whole portfolio. Higher limits apply to senior citizens
Dividends	The company or its registrar, above a small annual threshold per company	Dividends are taxable at your slab rate; the deduction is only a part-payment against that
Corporate deposits, NCDs and bonds	The issuer	Deducted even where the instrument is listed, unless a specific exemption applies to the security
Rent you pay	You, as an individual tenant, above a monthly threshold	A duty that falls on ordinary salaried tenants of expensive flats and is very widely missed
Property you buy	You, as the buyer, above the prescribed consideration	Section 194-IA, deposited using Form 26QB, with a certificate to be issued to the seller
Provident fund withdrawn early	The fund	Applies where the service period is short and the amount is above a threshold

The rates and thresholds move with almost every Budget. The structure does not: somebody deducts, deposits against your PAN, and reports it — and you settle the real number at filing.

The cost of the wait

Money withheld in, say, June of one financial year is refunded only after the return for that year is filed and processed, which in the ordinary course is the following autumn. Interest is payable on a refund at a prescribed rate, but it is computed from a date the rules fix rather than from the day the money was taken, so it does not fully compensate for the period. For a household living on interest income, that gap is not an abstraction — it is a shortfall in the monthly amount actually arriving.

The three ways to stop an unnecessary deduction

1
Form 15G, or 15H for senior citizens
A declaration that your total income for the year will be below the taxable limit, which stops the deduction at source. It must be given at every bank where you hold a deposit, at the start of each financial year, and it must be true — a false declaration is an offence, not a form-filling shortcut. It is not available to someone whose income is above the limit, however inconvenient the deduction is.
2
A lower or nil deduction certificate
Where income is taxable but the prescribed deduction rate is far above the real liability — commonly on a property sale, and routinely for non-residents — an application to the assessing officer produces a certificate directing the payer to deduct less, or nothing. It has to be obtained before the payment is made, which is the step people discover afterwards.
3
Structuring the holdings, honestly
Thresholds are counted per bank and per company, so how deposits are spread affects whether a deduction is triggered at all. This is worth knowing and worth keeping in proportion: the tax owed is identical either way, and only the timing changes.

The deduction you have to make yourself

Most people meet TDS as something done to them. On one transaction — buying a property — the obligation runs the other way, and it is the most commonly missed duty in Indian personal finance. Above the prescribed consideration, the buyer must deduct tax from the payment to the seller, deposit it using Form 26QB within the prescribed period, and issue the seller a certificate. Not the builder, not the lawyer, not the bank funding the loan. The buyer.

Worked example

Two flats, two very different obligations

A flat bought for ₹80,00,000 — first from a resident seller, then from a non-resident

Resident seller: the sectionApplies above the prescribed consideration, at a low prescribed rate on the whole amount194-IA

Resident seller: what the buyer doesNo TAN is required; the buyer's PAN is enoughDeduct, deposit via Form 26QB, issue the certificate

Joint buyers or joint sellersTwo buyers and two sellers means four filings, which is where most defaults beginA separate Form 26QB for each combination

Non-resident seller: the sectionA completely different provision, with no comparable value threshold195, not 194-IA

Non-resident seller: the rateNot to the gain — unless the seller obtains a lower deduction certificate firstFar higher, and applied to the sale consideration

Non-resident seller: what the buyer needsObtained before the transaction, not afterA TAN, and a different return

If the buyer fails to deductClearing it means proving what the seller did, on prescribed paperwork the buyer has to go and obtainInterest, a late fee and treatment as a defaulter

The same flat, the same price, and two entirely different sets of duties depending on a fact about the seller that the buyer must establish before paying. Where the seller is a non-resident, the deduction is on the whole consideration rather than the gain, so the sums are large and the certificate route matters to both sides. Establishing the seller's residential status in writing is part of the diligence on any property purchase, and it is not something an estate agent should be relied on for.

Two documents that look alike and are not

Form 26AS

The government's record of tax actually deposited against your PAN
Includes TDS, advance tax paid, self-assessment tax and refunds issued
What your claim for credit rests on — if a deduction is missing here, you cannot claim it
The right place to check when a deductor says the money was paid

The AIS

A far wider statement of transactions reported about you
Includes interest, dividends, share and fund transactions, property registrations and large deposits
What mismatches in your return are checked against
The right place to check what the department has been told you did

Check yourself

A retired couple, each with income below the taxable limit, hold deposits at four banks and have tax deducted at all four. What is the correct reading?

Simple bhasha mein

Katt gaya, par jama hua ya nahi?

Salary ya FD se paisa kat ke aata hai aur lagta hai kaam ho gaya. Par credit tabhi milta hai jab kaatne wale ne woh paisa jama bhi kiya ho aur return mein aapka PAN sahi likha ho. Dono na ho toh woh katauti kahin dikhti hi nahi, aur claim nahi kar paoge. Isiliye file karne se pehle deductor ki baat nahi, Form 26AS dekho — woh sarkar ka apna record hai ki aapke naam pe kya jama hua.

What to remember

TDS is a part-payment against your final liability, not the tax itself.
Thresholds are counted per bank and per company, and the credit depends on your PAN being reported correctly.
Form 15G and 15H stop deductions only where income genuinely falls below the taxable limit.
On a property purchase the buyer must deduct, deposit and certify — and a non-resident seller changes the section entirely.
Form 26AS shows tax deposited in your name; the AIS shows what has been reported about you.

You reached the endMark it done and keep your streak going.

Up nextThe cover nobody thinks about: motor liability, home and personal accident Previous: Cash, and the rules that decide whether it can reach the market

Finished this lesson?

Mark it done to track your progress through the curriculum.

Common questions

Short, direct answers to what people ask about this topic.

difference between form 15g and 15h: Form 15H is for senior citizens and Form 15G for everyone else; both are declarations that your total income for the year will fall below the taxable limit, given so the payer does not deduct tax at source. The declaration has to be lodged separately at every bank where you hold a deposit, at the start of each financial year, because thresholds are counted per bank rather than across your whole portfolio. Neither form is available to someone whose income is above the limit — a false declaration is an offence, not a form-filling shortcut.
tds on the purchase of immovable property from a resident falls under section: 194-IA. The buyer deducts tax at 1 per cent where the consideration is ₹50,00,000 or more, deposits it using Form 26QB and issues the seller a certificate — no TAN is required, the buyer’s PAN is enough. Where there are joint buyers or joint sellers, a separate Form 26QB is filed for each buyer-and-seller combination, which is where a large share of defaults begin.
who has to deduct tds when buying a flat: The buyer. Not the builder, not the lawyer and not the bank funding the loan — the duty to deduct, deposit and certify sits with the person paying for the property, and it is among the most commonly missed obligations in Indian personal finance. If the seller turns out to be a non-resident the section changes from 194-IA to 195, the deduction applies to the whole sale consideration rather than the gain unless the seller first obtains a lower deduction certificate, and the buyer needs a TAN before the transaction rather than after it.
tds deducted but not showing in form 26as: The credit exists only once the deductor has both deposited the money and filed a return quoting your PAN correctly, so until it appears in Form 26AS you cannot claim it. Form 26AS is the government’s own record of tax deposited in your name, which means a missing entry points at the deductor rather than at you — take it up with the bank, company or employer and ask for the PAN correction or the revised statement. Check 26AS before filing rather than relying on the deduction slip you were handed.
does tds mean my tax is fully paid: No — tax deducted at source is a part-payment against your final liability, not the liability itself. It is deducted by rule at prescribed rates rather than by any assessment of what you personally owe, so a pensioner with no tax to pay can still have tax withheld, and someone in a higher slab can find the deduction falls well short. The real number is computed only when you file, and the difference is either refunded to you or paid by you at that point.