Retiree Tax Story: Pension + FD Interest — New Regime Wins by ₹26k

Old vs new — full working

4 retiree lessons

• 15H needs NIL tax — Suresh owes ₹19,500, so banks WILL cut FD TDS (10% × 2.8L = ₹28,000). He claims the ₹8,500 excess as a refund.
• ITR-1 (pension + interest) · no advance tax (senior + TDS covers).
• 80TTB ₹50k (old regime) covers all his FD + savings interest — but still loses to new-regime slabs.
• Pension = salary head (₹75k/₹50k std ded applies); family pension would use the ⅓–₹25k rule instead.

Year-2 optimisation (what we'd change for Raman)

• File 15H in the first week of April — not 'when convenient'. Banks cut TDS from the first interest payout of the year; a late 15H means giving an interest-free loan to the government till refund.
• Measure the 80TTB headroom: if FD+savings interest is ₹38,000 against the ₹50,000 cap, there's ₹12,000 of headroom — a small SCSS top-up's interest fits inside the exemption instead of leaking into taxable income.
• Check the pension commutation: commuted pension from a non-govt employer is only partly exempt (1/3 with gratuity, 1/2 without) — retirees routinely assume 'pension = exempt' and under-report.
• And the boring one that matters most: nominations on everything — EPF, PPF, FDs, demat. Un-nominated accounts cost families months; a 10-minute update costs nothing.