Next: Credit and debt
Home loans: the 20-year arithmetic
Early EMIs are almost all interest, a longer tenure quietly doubles what the loan costs, and the repo rate reaches straight into your monthly payment.
16 min
beginner
HRA: the rent money the taxman leaves alone
The least-of-three formula, why only four cities count as metro, and how rent paid to your parents holds up — if the money and the paperwork really move.
3 lessons · about 16 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
The least-of-three formula
Your exemption is the smallest of three amounts, worked out across the year — and the rent-minus-10%-of-salary limb is usually the one that decides it.
6 min
Receipts, the landlord's PAN, and the regime
What the paperwork has to show, the rent figure that makes the landlord's PAN compulsory, and why the new regime deletes this calculation altogether.
5 min
Paying rent to your parents — legitimately
The law accepts a landlord with your own surname, as long as the house is really theirs, the money really moves, and their tax return really reports it.
5 min
Check yourself
3 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
What changed recently
Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.
Sources
- Income Tax Department — official portal — Income Tax Department · checked 2026-08-11