Senior Citizen Age for 80D ,80DDB & 197A Reduced !

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Only few days ago , the anomaly in age factors of senior citizens was highlighted on this blog. Finance Bill 2012-13 has  now proposed to rectify the anomaly .The fact is that The Finance Act, 2011 amended the effective age of a senior citizen being an Indian resident from sixty-five years of age to sixty years for the purposes of application of various tax slabs and rates of tax under the Income Tax Act, 1961 for income earned  during the financial year 2011-12 . There are certain other provisions of the Act in which the age for qualifying as a senior citizen was not amended and only 65 years was still the age for treating an individuals as senior citizen.

Amendment in Age of Senior Citizens

In all the provisions under sections 80D, 80DDB and 197A the effective age for a “senior citizen”  who can avail of the benefit is mentioned as sixty-five years or more at any time during the relevant previous year.Now Finance Bill 2012-13 has proposed  to make the effective age of senior citizens uniform across all the provisions of the Income Tax Act, it is proposed to reduce the age for availing of the benefits by a senior citizen under the aforesaid sections (sections 80D, 80DDB and 197A) from sixty-five years to sixty years.

Date of Change in Age of Senior Citizen

The amendments to section 80D and section 80DDB will take effective from 1st April, 2013 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2013-14 and subsequent assessment years. The amendment to section 197A will take effect from 1st July, 2012.