new delhi as if the additional information required in tax returns was not enough theres more bad news for tax evaders salaried taxpayers who claim hra exemption will now have to report their landlords pan if the total rent in a year exceeds rs 1 lakh in case the landlord does not have a pan he must submit a declaration to this effect from the landlord along with the name and address of the landlord should be filed by the employee says a circular issued by the central board of direct taxes last week till now if the total rent paid was less than rs 15000 a month there was no need to submit the landlords pan details the new rule effectively reduces this limit to rs 8333 a month this is being seen as an attempt to plug tax evasion by salaried professionals who submit fake rent receipts to maximize their hra exemption but even honest taxpayers will have to suffer the collateral damage this will create problems for many employees as landlords are generally reluctant to provide pan on rent receipt to tenants says vineet agarwal director kpmg the cbdt circular has also sounded another warning under section 1013a salaried employees who get hra up to rs 3000 per month are not required to produce rent receipts this concession is only for the purpose of taxdeduction at source and in the regular assessment of the employee the assessing officer will be free to make such enquiry as he deems fit for the purpose of satisfying himself that the employee has incurred actual expenditure on payment of rent the circular clarifies gross direct tax collections between april and september 2013 touched rs 301 lakh crore a rise of 107 per cent over the rs 272 lakh crore collected in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal but the government had fixed a 19 per cent growth target for direct tax collection in the first six months of the fiscal barely 45 per cent of the total direct tax collection target of rs 672 lakh crore has been achieved