Collect investment proofs without WhatsApp groups. 80C, 80D, HRA, NPS — declared, uploaded, verified, indexed.
A structured workbench for the annual investment declaration cycle. Staff submit declarations under Old or New tax regime, upload proofs section-by-section, HR verifies each proof, TDS auto-adjusts in subsequent payroll runs and verified deductions flow into Form 16. No more WhatsApp groups full of blurred PPF screenshots.
How most Indian schools collect investment proofs today
It's January. The school accountant of a CBSE school in Pune sends a WhatsApp message to a 47-person teachers' group: Please submit investment proofs by 31 January for FY 2024-25. PPF, LIC, ELSS, home loan interest, health insurance — send to me on WhatsApp by Saturday. The replies start arriving. Some teachers send blurry phone photos of their PPF passbook. One sends a bank statement screenshot. The English teacher submits her LIC premium receipt in PDF; the music teacher sends three separate WhatsApp images titled IMG_20250125. The PE teacher claims home loan interest of ₹1.8 lakh but doesn't attach the bank statement. By Tuesday the accountant has 230 image attachments and a half-filled Excel sheet.
For the next two weeks, he tries to match each proof to a 80C/80D/HRA/Section 24 line on his sheet. He computes the verified totals against what each teacher declared. He rejects three proofs because the dates don't match the financial year. He chases six teachers for missing rent receipts. He recomputes TDS for February and March based on declared (not yet verified) amounts, knowing he'll have to true-up at year-end if proofs come up short. The English teacher's HRA exemption gets calculated wrong because he forgot Pune is not a metro for HRA purposes. By 15 March, he's running TDS shortfall calculations and breaking the news to two teachers that an extra ₹4,200 each will be deducted in March.
This is the investment declaration cycle in most Indian schools. Inkwelly Investment Declarations was built so it never looks like this again.
How Inkwelly Investment Declarations works
The staff member opens My Profile → Payroll → Investment Declaration for the running financialYear (e.g., 2024-25) and picks one of two selectedTaxRegime enums: OLD or NEW. The Old regime opens up the full Section 80C/80D/HRA stack; the New regime allows fewer deductions per the post-FY-2023 default. The structured form has labelled sections — section80C (PPF, ELSS, LIC, NSC, tuition fees, home loan principal, Sukanya Samriddhi, Senior Citizen Savings, other), section80CCD (NPS, Atal Pension), section80D (self health insurance, parents' health insurance, preventive health checkup), section24 (home loan interest), hraDetails (monthly rent, landlord name, landlord PAN, city type METRO or NON_METRO), otherDeductions (80E education loan interest, 80G donations, 80TTA savings interest, 80TTB senior citizen interest). Inkwelly auto-computes totalSection80CAmount, totalSection80DAmount, totalHRAExemption, totalOtherDeductions and totalDeclaredDeductions.
The declaration moves through six states — DRAFT (editable) → SUBMITTED (locked, awaiting verification) → PROOF_PENDING (awaiting proofs per section) → VERIFIED (all proofs approved). Parallel paths: APPROVED and REJECTED (with reason). Each section accepts Investment Proofs — child entities tagged with section (80C, 80CCD, 80D, 24, HRA, OTHER), subCategory (PPF, LIC_POLICY, ELSS, etc.), declaredAmount, optional documentMediaId (PDF/image upload via the standard Media flow) and a status (PENDING, APPROVED, REJECTED).
When HR opens the proof verification queue, they see every proof grouped by section and employee. They click a proof — the document renders in-line, with declared amount alongside. Approve sets proofAmount = declaredAmount and stamps verifiedById + verifiedAt. Reject captures rejectionReason (PROOF_NOT_LEGIBLE, WRONG_FINANCIAL_YEAR, AMOUNT_MISMATCH, OTHER) and the staff member is notified to re-upload. Once all proofs are verified, the declaration moves to VERIFIED. From the next payroll run, TDS calculations use verifiedSection80C, verifiedSection80D, verifiedHRAExemption, verifiedOtherDeductions and totalVerifiedDeductions — not the declared amounts. Form 16 at year end is generated from the same verified totals.
Sections, sub-categories and statutory limits Inkwelly already knows
- Section 80C — PPF, ELSS mutual funds, LIC premiums, NSC, children's tuition fees, home loan principal repayment, Sukanya Samriddhi, Senior Citizen Savings Scheme, other; cumulative cap ₹1.5 lakh per year
- Section 80CCD — NPS contribution under 80CCD(1) inside the 80C cap; additional ₹50,000 under 80CCD(1B) outside 80C; Atal Pension Yojana
- Section 80D — health insurance for self/family, parents' health insurance with senior-citizen enhanced limits, preventive health checkup capped at ₹5,000
- Section 24 — home loan interest deduction up to ₹2 lakh per year for self-occupied property
- HRA exemption — actual rent paid minus 10% of basic, vs 50% of basic in metro (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai) or 40% in non-metro, vs actual HRA received — minimum of three
- Section 80E — interest on education loan; no upper cap, deductible for 8 years from start of repayment
- Section 80G — donations to approved charitable institutions; 50% or 100% deduction based on the institution's approval status
- Section 80TTA / 80TTB — savings account interest exemption (TTA: ₹10k, TTB: ₹50k for senior citizens)
See the declaration workbench in action
Old vs New tax regime, picked by the staff member
FY 2023 onwards, every staff member picks between OLD (full deduction stack: 80C up to ₹1.5L, 80CCD-1B up to ₹50k, 80D up to ₹50k, Section 24 up to ₹2L, HRA, 80E etc.) and NEW (lower slabs but reduced deductions). Inkwelly captures the choice on the declaration, the form intelligently shows or hides sections per regime, and TDS calculations apply the correct regime from the next payroll run. Staff can switch regimes once per financial year per the IT rules — the declaration history captures every change.
HRA exemption with metro/non-metro classification baked in
HRA exemption is the most-miscalculated line in Indian school payroll. Inkwelly captures monthlyRent, landlordName, landlordPAN (mandatory if rent > ₹1 lakh per year per Section 10(13A) Rule 2A), and cityType (METRO for Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai — 50% of basic limit; NON_METRO for everywhere else — 40% of basic). The calculator applies the standard formula: minimum of (actual HRA received, actual rent minus 10% of basic, 50%/40% of basic). The totalHRAExemption flows into TDS estimation. No more wrong calculations because Pune was treated as metro.
Proof verification queue — one screen, all employees
HR doesn't chase proofs over WhatsApp. They open the verification queue and see every pending proof from every employee, grouped by section. Click a proof, the PDF or image renders in-line via the Media viewer, declared amount shown beside it. Approve sets proofAmount = declaredAmount and stamps verifiedById + verifiedAt. Reject requires a rejectionReason from a structured enum (PROOF_NOT_LEGIBLE, WRONG_FINANCIAL_YEAR, AMOUNT_MISMATCH, EXPIRED_DOCUMENT, OTHER) and the staff member is notified to re-upload. The queue can be filtered by section, employee, or status — letting HR clear all 80C proofs in one sitting before moving to 80D.
TDS auto-adjusts the moment a proof is verified
The moment HR verifies a proof, totalVerifiedDeductions is recomputed and the next payroll run's TDS calculation picks it up. If the staff member declared ₹1.5 lakh in Section 80C and only ₹1.1 lakh worth of proofs were verified by January, February's TDS deduction trues up automatically. No year-end shortfall surprise, no manual recompute. Form 16 at year end reads verifiedSection80C, verifiedSection80D, verifiedHRAExemption, verifiedOtherDeductions directly — the same numbers the staff member can see in their portal at any time.
“Saare 80C 80D ka WhatsApp pe aata tha, kabhi kabhi 5 photos same proof ki. Pehle Excel pe match karna padta tha, year end pe TDS shortfall nikal aata tha. Ab Inkwells pe teacher khud upload kar deta hai, hum verify kar dete hain, TDS apne aap adjust ho jaata hai.”
Real-world declaration scenarios Inkwelly handles
Scenario 1 — PGT teacher under Old Regime, full 80C stack. She declares ₹1.5L PPF, ₹50k NPS (80CCD-1B), ₹25k self health insurance, ₹50k parents' health insurance (senior citizen rate), ₹1.8L home loan interest, ₹180k HRA in non-metro. Inkwelly auto-applies the cap of ₹1.5L on 80C, the additional ₹50k cap on 80CCD-1B, the ₹75k cap on 80D (₹25k self + ₹50k senior parents), ₹2L cap on Section 24, and the standard HRA formula. Total verified deductions feed TDS from December onwards.
Scenario 2 — PRT under New Regime. He picks NEW, the form auto-hides 80C/80D/Section 24/HRA fields per the New regime rules. Standard deduction applies; TDS calculates on the simplified slab. No proofs needed. Form 16 at year end shows the New regime computation.
Scenario 3 — Music teacher claims HRA but submits no rent receipts. She declares ₹14,000 monthly rent. HR opens the HRA proof, sees no rent agreement attached and the landlord PAN field is blank (mandatory above ₹1L annual rent). Reject with MISSING_LANDLORD_PAN. Teacher uploads. HR re-verifies. totalHRAExemption flows into TDS for the remaining months.
Scenario 4 — Lab assistant has a NPS account, claims 80CCD-1B. He declares ₹50,000 NPS, uploads the NPS Tier 1 statement. HR verifies. The amount sits in verifiedSection80CCD separately from verifiedSection80C, so the additional ₹50k cap (above 80C's ₹1.5L) is correctly applied to TDS estimation. No more lost ₹50k deduction — a common mistake on Excel-based payroll.
What the declaration workbench gives you
- Per-employee declaration history across financial years — useful when an audit asks to see FY 2022-23 declarations three years later
- Filter by
financialYear,selectedTaxRegime, status, employee or section — e.g., "all teachers with PROOF_PENDING for 80D in FY 2024-25" - Bulk reminder to staff with incomplete declarations — e.g., 30 days before 31 January deadline, send a single batch reminder via parent communication channels
- Year-end proof export per employee — zip of every PDF and image, organised by section, ready for internal audit or TRACES query
- TDS impact preview — staff member sees what their Feb/March TDS will be based on declared vs verified amounts, before the salary run
- Form 16 generation reads verified totals directly — no manual reconciliation, no end-of-year tallying
- Permission separation —
payroll.declaration.verifyis distinct frompayroll.declaration.createin IAM; accountant uploads, HR head verifies
See declarations and proofs flow into TDS
20-minute walkthrough on a real school dataset — staff submits, HR verifies, TDS recomputes for next salary, Form 16 picks the verified totals.
Limits, safety and the small print
A declaration in SUBMITTED state is locked against edit by the staff member — they can re-upload a rejected proof but cannot change declared amounts without first reverting to DRAFT (HR-controlled action). This protects the audit trail: what the staff member submitted on a given date is what gets verified, not a silently-edited later version.
Proof storage uses the school's standard Media infrastructure: India-region object storage, content-hashed paths, IAM-controlled view access, audit-logged downloads. PAN numbers, bank statements and personal documents are subject to DPDP Act 2023 obligations — Inkwelly's storage and access patterns meet the requirements out of the box.
Verified totals (verifiedSection80C, verifiedSection80D, verifiedHRAExemption, verifiedOtherDeductions) are the only inputs to TDS calculation and Form 16. Declared-but-unverified amounts never reach TDS — this prevents over-deduction shortfall at year end. The school can choose to use declared amounts for TDS provisionally during early months (a regime-level setting) and switch to verified amounts as proofs come in. Both modes are auditable. CBSE renewal inspections and TRACES queries can be answered from a single workbench, with full proof bundles available as zip exports per employee.
End the WhatsApp proof submission cycle
Inkwelly Investment Declarations is included with every Employee Payroll subscription. Old regime, New regime, Section 80C through 80TTB, HRA — one workbench.
Belongs to
1 moduleFrequently asked
7 questionsDoes Inkwelly support both Old and New tax regimes for FY 2023 onwards?
Yes. The declaration form has a `selectedTaxRegime` field with `OLD` and `NEW` options. The Old regime opens the full 80C/80D/HRA/Section 24/80E stack; the New regime auto-hides those sections per the post-FY-2023 default. Staff can switch once per financial year per IT rules; the declaration history captures every change. TDS calculation applies the correct regime from the next payroll run.
How does the HRA exemption calculation handle metro vs non-metro cities?
The form captures `cityType` as METRO or NON_METRO. Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai are METRO (50% of basic limit); everywhere else is NON_METRO (40% limit). The calculator applies the standard formula — minimum of (actual HRA received, actual rent minus 10% of basic, 50%/40% of basic) — producing `totalHRAExemption`. Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad correctly classify as non-metro despite being major cities.
What happens if a teacher's proof is rejected mid-year?
Reject requires a structured `rejectionReason` (PROOF_NOT_LEGIBLE, WRONG_FINANCIAL_YEAR, AMOUNT_MISMATCH, MISSING_LANDLORD_PAN, EXPIRED_DOCUMENT, OTHER). The staff member is notified to re-upload through their portal. The previously approved verified amount is unchanged until a new proof is uploaded and approved. TDS adjusts in the next payroll run based on whatever is currently verified.
Is landlord PAN mandatory for HRA claims in Inkwelly?
If annual rent exceeds ₹1 lakh (per Section 10(13A) Rule 2A), the IT department requires landlord PAN to be reported. Inkwelly enforces this in the form: above the threshold, `landlordPAN` is mandatory. Below, it's optional but encouraged. The validation aligns with what TRACES and Form 16 expect; HR doesn't have to remember the rule.
Are personal proof documents stored compliantly with DPDP Act 2023?
Yes. Every proof PDF or image is stored under the school's secure Media library on India-region object storage with content-hashed paths, IAM-controlled view access and audit-logged downloads. PAN numbers, bank statements and similar personal data fall under DPDP Act 2023; Inkwelly's storage and access patterns meet the obligations out of the box.
Can I export every employee's full year-end proof bundle for audit?
Yes. The year-end export produces a per-employee zip containing every uploaded PDF and image, organised by section (80C, 80CCD, 80D, Section 24, HRA, Other) with sub-category labelling. Useful for CBSE renewal inspections, internal audits, and TRACES queries asking for documentary backing of Form 16 deductions.
Does TDS recompute automatically when verified amounts change?
Yes. The moment a proof is verified or rejected, `totalVerifiedDeductions` is recomputed and the next payroll run's TDS calculation picks it up. If declared deductions were ₹1.5L 80C and only ₹1.1L was verified by January, February's TDS trues up automatically. Form 16 at year end uses the same verified totals — no end-of-year manual reconciliation.
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