My wife is a homemaker. She has bank FDs. Should she file income tax return?

For getting interest without deduction of tax at source, non-senior citizens can file form 15G and senior citizens have to file form no. 15H. Since your wife is not a senior citizen, she has to file form no. 15 G. For being eligible to file form no.15G your wife needs to satisfy two conditions.

Firstly, the aggregate of all the incomes in respect of which form no. 15 G can be submitted does not exceed the amount of basic exemption which is Rs. Rs. 2.50 lakhs in case of your wife. Secondly her tax liability should be nil for all her income taken together. So she can submit form 15G if she satisfies both the conditions. Please note this form has to be submitted every year. You should preferably submit it at the beginning of the year to avoid deduction of tax due to any delay on your part to submit the same before the bank deducts tax.

She has to file her ITR only if her income during the year exceeds the amount of basic exemption of Rs. 2.50 lakh.

For the tax deducted during the financial year 2021-2022, she can file her ITR by 31st December, 2022. She will have to pay a penalty of 1,000/- if her income exceeds 2.50 lakhs and does not exceed 5 lakhs. If her income exceeds 5 lakhs, a penalty of Rs. 5,000/- will have to be paid. In case her income does not exceed 2.50 lakhs she does not have to pay any penalty.

Balwant Jain is a tax and investment expert and can be reached on jainbalwant@gmail.com and @jainbalwant on Twitter.