House rent allowance (HRA) is one in every of the most usually received allowances by the salaried category. If you are paying rent for accommodation to a landlord which can mean your parents also, then you are eligible to claim tax exemption for the rent paid.

In a departure from the previous year, this year ITR-1 is in sync with the Form-16 received by salaried persons from employers as a TDS certificate. Therefore, it is easier to claim the HRA exemption as you are required to copy the details from the Form-16 and paste it in ITR-1.

If you have forgotten to submit the documents such as rent agreement or rent receipts to your employer, then worry not, as you can still claim the tax-exemption benefit available on HRA while filing your income tax return (ITR).

However, remember in such a case you will be required to manually calculate the amount of HRA received by you which is exempted from tax.

As you have got not submitted the HRA documents to your employer, your Form-16 will show the HRA portion of your salary as fully taxable.This will mean that the taxable amount of your salary as shown in Form-16 will be higher than the calculations made by you.

How to claim tax exemption on HRA?

1.If rent agreement or rent receipts submitted to employer

If you have submitted rental agreement or rent receipts to your employer, then in such a case, the tax-exempt portion of HRA received by you can be seen in Form-16. It is possible that either the entire HRA received by you during the FY 2018-19 is exempt from tax or only part of it is exempted, depending on which of the conditions/criteria set down for claiming HRA exemption you meet.

Remember while submitting rent agreement or rent receipts to your employer, you are also required to submit PAN of your landlord if the annual rent exceeds Rs 1 lakh.

"The taxable portion of HRA will be added to your salary as per provisions in section 17(1) under the head 'Gross Salary'. On the other hand, the tax-exempt portion of HRA will be shown separately under the head Allowances to the extent exempt under section 10".

If you are filing your tax return using ITR-1 on the e-filing website, then amount of HRA exempted from tax, if any, is likely to be pre-filled. It is advisable that individuals verify the pre-filled information with the available documents i.e. as