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Notices & Litigation

The interest on your parent's joint FD is showing against your PAN

Your resident parent added you, an NRI, as a joint holder on a fixed deposit, and now the interest is appearing in your AIS as if it were your income.

Your parent in India made you a joint holder on their fixed deposit, usually for succession or convenience, and the money was entirely theirs. Now you log in and the FD interest is sitting in your Annual Information Statement against your PAN, and you are worried it is your taxable income or that a mismatch notice is coming. It is not your income, because interest follows the person who funded the deposit, not the name printed alongside. But the AIS entry is real and has to be handled, and that handling is India-side work.
Last reviewed: 30 July 20267 min readReviewed by Preetesh Maloo, CA

The short answer

Interest on a joint FD is taxed to the person who put in the money, the real owner, not split because two names are on it and not automatically to the first holder. If your resident parent funded the deposit, your parent declares 100% of the interest, and you, the adult NRI child, are not taxed on it just because your PAN sits on the account. Clubbing under Section 64 runs from a parent to a minor child and between spouses, never from a parent to an adult child, so nothing here makes the interest yours. The reason it still shows in your AIS is a known reporting quirk: for a joint account the bank can report the full interest against each holder's PAN. You fix it with the AIS feedback facility, marking the entry as relating to another PAN, and if any TDS was deducted against your PAN, Rule 37BA lets that credit be moved to your parent.

References on this page

  • Real-owner rule: interest is taxed to whoever funded the deposit, not to the joint or first-named holder
  • Section 285BA and Rule 114E: banks report FD interest against the PAN(s) in a Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT)
  • CBDT Notification No. 1 of 2023: interest reporting has no minimum threshold
  • Section 64: clubbing applies parent-to-minor-child and between spouses, not parent-to-adult-child
  • Rule 37BA: TDS credit can be assigned to the person actually assessable on the income

Whose income the joint-FD interest actually is

The rule is about the money, not the names. Interest on a joint fixed deposit is taxable in the hands of the person who provided the funds, the real owner. It is not divided just because two people are on the deposit, and it does not automatically belong to whoever is the first or primary holder.

The first holder only matters for mechanics: the bank keys TDS and its reporting to that PAN by default. But the taxable owner is decided by whose money went in. So if your resident parent funded the whole deposit and you were added purely as a joint name, the interest is 100% your parent's income, and 0% yours, regardless of whose name is first. This is why being on the account does not, by itself, create a tax bill for you.

Why it still shows in your AIS, and the duplicate-reporting quirk

The entry is there because the bank reported it. Under Section 285BA read with Rule 114E, banks file a Statement of Financial Transactions listing interest paid against the account's PANs, and since CBDT Notification No. 1 of 2023 interest is reported with no minimum threshold at all, so even a small FD shows up.

The complication for joint accounts is well documented: the reporting can post the full interest against each joint holder's PAN, not a split. So your AIS can show the entire interest that is really your parent's, which then does not match your return, or shows against you when you had no reason to file. That mismatch is exactly what the compliance portal picks up and can turn into an e-campaign query. The data is not wrong to exist, it just needs the correct owner attached, which is the wider AIS-mismatch situation applied to a joint deposit.

Clubbing does not make it yours

Clubbing does not apply between you and your parent, so it cannot make the interest yours. Section 64 can move income between family members, but only in defined cases: Section 64(1A) clubs a minor child's income into the higher-earning parent, and Section 64(1) clubs certain spouse income and income from assets transferred to a spouse without adequate consideration.

None of that reaches a parent and an adult child. Once you are a major you are a separate taxpayer, so the parent's FD interest is not clubbed into you, and equally you are not taxable on it just because your PAN is on the deposit. The interest stays your parent's under the real-owner rule, and clubbing changes nothing. These are the current Income-tax Act, 1961 sections that govern a return for FY 2025-26 filed in 2026; they are re-homed under the Income-tax Act, 2025 from FY 2026-27, but the position is the same.

The India-side fix, step by step

The correction is straightforward once the owner is settled. Your parent, as the real owner, declares 100% of the FD interest in their own return under Income from Other Sources, so the income is taxed in the right hands. You then open the AIS feedback facility on the wrong entry and mark it as "Information relates to other PAN," pointing the interest to your parent's PAN, and you reference that feedback if any mismatch notice arrives. If the bank deducted TDS against your PAN, Rule 37BA lets that credit be assigned to your parent, the person actually assessable, through a declaration to the bank, so the tax and the credit sit together.

A quick worked example. Arjun in Dubai is a joint holder on his father Suresh's 40 lakh rupee FD, which Suresh funded entirely and which earns about 2.8 lakh rupees of interest a year. The bank reports the full 2.8 lakh against Arjun's PAN as well, so it appears in Arjun's AIS. Arjun is not taxed on any of it: Suresh declares the 2.8 lakh in his own return, Arjun marks the AIS entry as belonging to Suresh's PAN, and if TDS was cut against Arjun it is reassigned to Suresh under Rule 37BA. The mismatch closes without Arjun owing a rupee.

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What's involved

What the CA actually does

  1. 1

    We establish the real owner

    We confirm from the funding who actually owns the interest, so the deposit is taxed to your parent as the real owner and not to you for being a joint name.

  2. 2

    We fix the AIS entry

    We file the AIS feedback marking the interest as relating to your parent's PAN, so your statement stops showing income that is not yours.

  3. 3

    We respond to any mismatch notice

    If the portal has already raised a query against your PAN, we answer it with the ownership position and the AIS feedback, so it closes without escalating.

  4. 4

    We reassign any wrong TDS credit

    Where TDS was deducted against your PAN, we use Rule 37BA to move the credit to your parent, so the tax and its credit are in the same hands.

  5. 5

    We file your parent's return correctly

    We make sure the full interest is declared in your parent's return under Income from Other Sources, so the income is taxed properly and the loop is closed.

What to have ready

Documents you'll typically need

  • The FD certificate and who funded the deposit
  • The AIS entry, or any mismatch or e-campaign notice
  • Bank statements showing the source of the deposited funds
  • The PANs of both joint holders
  • Any TDS deducted on the FD interest

Your destination country can change the details

Requirements differ from one consulate, university and visa route to the next — how recent the figures must be, how long funds must have been held, and which certificates are mandatory. We assemble the documents around the exact checklist you're applying under. To see how India's tax treaty with your country of residence affects related filings, set your country below or compare all 46 countries.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions

Your parent's FD interest showing against your PAN?

Send us the AIS entry and who funded the FD. A practising CA will attach it to the right owner and clear your side on a free call, no obligation.

No card, no obligation. All certification and filing work is handled by ICAI-registered practising Chartered Accountants.