Form 15G and Form 15H: How to Fill and Submit Them Correctly

Form 15G and Form 15H exist for one specific purpose: telling a bank, company, or post office not to deduct TDS on interest you're about to earn, because your actual tax position doesn't call for it. Used correctly, they save you the trouble of TDS being deducted and then claimed back as a refund months later. Used carelessly, filed at the wrong branch, filed with the wrong form for your age, or filed when you don't genuinely qualify, they create exactly the problem they're meant to avoid, or worse, a false declaration on your record. Here's what each form actually requires, who should file which one, and how to get the mechanics right.

What Form 15G and Form 15H Actually Do

Banks, companies, and post offices are required to deduct tax at source on interest they pay you once it crosses a set threshold, under Section 194A. That deduction happens regardless of whether you actually owe any tax on your total income for the year. If your income genuinely doesn't reach a taxable level, that TDS becomes money sitting with the government until you file a return and claim it back as a refund, which can take months. Form 15G and Form 15H are self-declarations that let you skip that detour: you tell the payer upfront that your income doesn't call for tax, and if they accept the declaration, they don't deduct TDS in the first place.

It's worth separating two thresholds that get confused constantly. The ₹50,000 (₹1,00,000 for senior citizens) figure that decides when a bank starts deducting TDS on interest under Section 194A is a per-payer trigger: it only looks at what that one bank is paying you. Form 15G and Form 15H are decided by a completely different test, your total income for the year, from every source combined, not just the interest from that one account. You can have interest from a single bank comfortably above the 194A threshold and still be entitled to file 15G or 15H, provided your overall income for the year still keeps you out of tax. Filing it because one account's interest looks small misses the point. The form is about your total income, not any single payment.

Form 15G vs Form 15H: The Distinction Most People Get Wrong

The two forms aren't interchangeable by age alone, even though that's the simplest way to describe the split. Form 15G is for resident individuals below 60, for Hindu Undivided Families, and more broadly for any resident person who isn't a company or a firm. Form 15H is specifically for resident individuals who are senior citizens, 60 years or older. Both forms require you to be resident in India for the year. Neither is available to an NRI, who has a different route for the same underlying problem, a lower or nil deduction certificate under Section 197.

The eligibility test underneath each form is where the real difference sits. Form 15G has two conditions that both need to hold: your estimated total income for the year needs to work out to nil tax liability, and the interest (or similar income) you expect to receive during the year also needs to stay within the basic exemption limit that applies to you. Form 15H is more forgiving. It only asks whether your final tax liability for the year, after every deduction and rebate you're entitled to, works out to nil. Because Section 87A gives resident individuals a rebate that can zero out the tax on a meaningful amount of income, and because Section 80TTB gives senior citizens a separate deduction specifically for interest income, a senior citizen's gross total income can sit above the basic exemption limit and Form 15H can still be valid, as long as the arithmetic after rebate and deductions lands at nil. That's genuinely different from Form 15G's test, and it's the single most common source of confusion between the two forms.

How to Submit Them Correctly

Getting the eligibility right is only half of it. The mechanics trip up people who genuinely qualify just as often.

The declaration is per deductor, not per person. If you hold fixed deposits at three different banks, you submit a separate Form 15G or 15H to each of the three, not one form that somehow covers all of them. The same applies within a single bank if you have accounts at different branches that aren't linked under one customer ID, each relationship that pays you interest needs its own declaration. There is no central filing that reaches every payer at once.

Timing matters because the form only stops TDS on interest paid after it's accepted. Submit it at the start of the financial year, in April, for accounts you already hold, and before the first interest credit for anything you open during the year, a new fixed deposit in October, for instance. A form submitted after interest has already been credited doesn't undo the TDS already deducted on that payment. You'd need to claim that back through your return instead. The declaration also doesn't carry forward. A fresh Form 15G or 15H is required every financial year, even if nothing about your situation has changed from the year before.

PAN is mandatory, not optional. Without a valid PAN on record with the deductor, the declaration itself is treated as not furnished at all, and the payer is required to deduct tax at a higher rate regardless of what the form says about your income. Make sure your PAN is correctly recorded with each bank or company before you submit, not after.

Paper submission at a branch still works, but it's no longer the only route. Most major banks now let you submit Form 15G and Form 15H each year through net banking or their mobile app, usually under a section labelled TDS or Form 15G/15H, with the acknowledgment generated instantly rather than depending on a branch clerk logging it correctly. Where it's available, the digital route is worth using simply because it leaves you a clear, timestamped record of what you submitted and when.

1. Work out your estimated total income for the year, from every source, before you file. Not just the interest from the account in front of you.
2. Confirm which form applies to you: below 60 uses Form 15G, resident senior citizens use Form 15H.
3. Check that your PAN is valid and correctly recorded with the bank or company before submitting. An invalid PAN makes the declaration ineffective regardless of your income.
4. Submit separately to every bank branch, company, or post office paying you interest. One form does not cover multiple deductors.
5. Submit at the start of the financial year for existing accounts, and before the first interest payment for any new deposit opened mid-year.
6. Use net banking or your bank's app where it's offered. It's faster and gives you a clear digital acknowledgment.
7. Keep the acknowledgment number and a copy of what you submitted, for every deductor, every year.
8. Repeat the entire process at the start of the next financial year. Last year's declaration does not carry over.
9. If your income situation changes mid-year and you no longer qualify, tell the deductor so TDS resumes correctly instead of letting an invalid declaration stand.

Filing When You Don't Actually Qualify Is a False Declaration

Form 15G and Form 15H aren't a paperwork shortcut you file defensively just in case. They're legal declarations, verified by your signature, that specific statements about your income are true. Filing one when you know your total income is genuinely taxable, to avoid TDS being deducted now rather than because you honestly believe you qualify, is a false declaration under the Act, and it carries real penalty and prosecution risk, not merely an administrative correction later.

There's a meaningful difference between that and a genuine estimate that turns out wrong. If you filed in good faith at the start of the year, expecting your income to stay below the threshold, and an unexpected bonus, a capital gain, or additional income later in the year pushes you over, that isn't the same thing as a false declaration. You didn't misstate anything at the time you signed it. What it does mean is that TDS wasn't deducted on interest that has, in hindsight, turned out to be taxable, so you'll owe that tax when you file your return, and you may need to account for it in your advance tax payments during the year to avoid interest for underpayment. That's a planning gap to fix, not an offence to answer for.

The practical rule is straightforward: file only when you honestly expect to qualify, based on a real estimate of your income for the year, not a hopeful guess. If you're unsure whether you'll cross the threshold, particularly in a year with income from more than one source, work through the estimate properly, or with a professional, before signing the declaration.

From FY 2026-27, They're Technically Form 121

One more thing worth knowing, particularly if you're filing after April 2026. Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, Form 15G and Form 15H were both consolidated into a single new form, Form 121, a declaration under Section 393(6) of the Act for receiving certain income without deduction of tax. The renumbering doesn't touch the underlying policy. The same eligibility conditions, an income-based test for individuals below 60 and a nil-final-liability test for senior citizens, continue to apply under the new section, just consolidated into one form number rather than two.

In practice, this hasn't caught up with how people actually search or how banks actually label the option. Form 15G and Form 15H are still what shows up on most bank portals and net banking menus, and they're still the terms almost everyone uses, including, often, bank staff themselves. Both names are correct to use right now. The form's legal number changed, but the names people search for and the labels banks display largely haven't, so expect to see Form 15G and Form 15H written that way on your bank's website for a while yet, even though the return the bank ultimately files reports it under Section 393(6).