Section 80GG: Rent Deduction Without HRA in India

If you pay rent but your salary slip has no House Rent Allowance, or you are self-employed, Section 80GG of the Income-tax Act 1961 lets you deduct that rent from your taxable income. The catch for AY 2026-27 (FY 2025-26): you can claim it only if you opt for the OLD tax regime. Under the default new regime, 80GG is not allowed. You must also file Form 10BA before claiming, and your deduction is capped at the least of three figures.

Section 80GG gives a deduction for rent paid for your own residence when you do not get HRA. The deduction is the least of these three amounts:

1. ₹5,000 per month, which is ₹60,000 for the full year
2. 25% of your total income for the year
3. Rent you actually paid, minus 10% of your total income

The exact wording in the statute is that the deduction covers expenditure on rent “in excess of ten per cent of his total income” and does not exceed “five thousand rupees per month or twenty-five per cent of his total income for the year, whichever is less.” So your rent has to clear the 10%-of-income bar before any deduction starts, and the ₹5,000 monthly ceiling is the hard upper limit.

A reader from Pune wrote to us last filing season. She runs a small freelance design practice, pays ₹14,000 a month for a one-bedroom flat, and assumed she could not claim any rent benefit because she has no employer and no HRA. She could. Section 80GG exists precisely for people like her: salaried staff whose CTC has no HRA line, and self-employed people who have no employer at all. The only thing she had to fix was her regime choice, because she had drifted into the default new regime where the deduction simply does not exist.

That regime point trips up most people. Since the new regime became the default, almost every Chapter VI-A deduction, including 80C, 80GG, 80D and the rest, is switched off unless you actively choose the old regime when you file. If you want the 80GG rent deduction, opt for the old regime first.

You can claim Section 80GG only if all of these are true for AY 2026-27:

1. You are an individual (resident or non-resident). It is not for companies or firms.
2. You do not receive HRA that is exempt under section 10(13A) at any point in the year. If you get HRA, you use the HRA route instead, not 80GG.
3. You are actually paying rent for furnished or unfurnished accommodation that you occupy as your own residence.
4. Neither you, nor your spouse, nor your minor child, nor your HUF owns a residential house at the place where you live or work. The statute also blocks the claim if you own a house elsewhere whose value is assessed as self-occupied.
5. You opt for the old tax regime for that year.

If you tick all five, you qualify, whether you are a salaried employee with no HRA or a fully self-employed person.

1. Confirm you have no HRA. Check your salary structure or Form 16. If there is an HRA component that you claim exemption on, you cannot also use 80GG.
2. Choose the old regime. While filing your ITR, select the old tax regime. Salaried taxpayers may also need to file Form 10-IEA in some cases to opt out of the new regime; confirm the current requirement on the e-filing portal.
3. Work out your deduction. Calculate all three caps: ₹60,000, 25% of total income, and rent paid minus 10% of total income. The lowest of the three is your deduction.
4. File Form 10BA. This is a mandatory online declaration. The official form is headed “FORM NO. 10BA [See rule 11B]” and you furnish it on the income-tax e-filing portal before or while filing your return. In it you declare the landlord, the address, the rent paid, and that you meet the conditions.
5. Enter the figure in your ITR. Put the computed deduction under Chapter VI-A, Section 80GG, in your income-tax return.
6. Keep your proof. Hold on to rent receipts, your rent agreement, and bank transfer records in case the department asks.

A quick example. Say your total income for the year is ₹6,00,000 and you pay ₹12,000 a month, so ₹1,44,000 a year. The three caps are: ₹60,000; 25% of ₹6,00,000 = ₹1,50,000; and rent minus 10% of income = ₹1,44,000 minus ₹60,000 = ₹84,000. The least of ₹60,000, ₹1,50,000 and ₹84,000 is ₹60,000. So you deduct ₹60,000.

The 10% and 25% tests run on your total income before the 80GG deduction itself, and “total income” here is computed in the manner the Act prescribes for these tests, broadly your income net of other eligible deductions and excluding certain capital gains. If your numbers are close to a threshold, run them past the tax calculator on the e-filing portal or a chartered accountant rather than eyeballing it.

Everything above applies to the return you are filing now, for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27), under the Income-tax Act 1961. A new Income-tax Act 2025 takes effect from 1 April 2026 and will govern FY 2026-27 onward. The rent-deduction relief is expected to continue, but section numbers and exact wording may shift, so check the new Act for next year's filing. For this year, 80GG of the 1961 Act is the correct provision.

No. Section 80GG is a Chapter VI-A deduction, and these are switched off under the default new regime. You can claim 80GG only if you opt for the old tax regime for AY 2026-27. The single Chapter VI-A item allowed in the new regime is the employer's NPS contribution under 80CCD(2), not 80GG.

Yes. Filing Form 10BA is mandatory. It is a declaration, headed “FORM NO. 10BA [See rule 11B]”, in which you state that you paid rent for your own residence and meet the section's conditions. Without it, the deduction can be disallowed. You file it online on the e-filing portal.

The hard ceiling is ₹5,000 per month, which is ₹60,000 for the year. Your actual deduction is the least of ₹60,000, 25% of your total income, and rent paid minus 10% of your total income. So even if you pay very high rent, the most you can deduct under 80GG is ₹60,000 a year.

Yes. Section 80GG is open to both salaried individuals who get no HRA and to self-employed people who have no employer at all. As long as you pay rent for your own residence, do not own a house at that place, and opt for the old regime, you can claim it.

Yes, if the flat is at the place where you live or work. The law blocks 80GG if you, your spouse, your minor child, or your HUF owns a residential house at the city where you ordinarily reside or carry on your work. Ownership somewhere else can also block it if that house is treated as self-occupied.

Before you file, do three things: confirm there is no HRA in your pay structure, choose the old regime, and file Form 10BA on the portal. Then enter the least-of-three figure under 80GG in your return and keep your rent receipts safe.

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1. Section 80GG, Income-tax Act 1961, official consolidated text, India Code (Government of India): indiacode.nic.in
2. Form 10BA [See rule 11B], Income-tax Rules, Income Tax Department: incometaxindia.gov.in
3. Income-tax e-filing portal (file Form 10BA and your ITR): incometax.gov.in