Life Insurance Premium

An individual or an HUF only can claim deduction for life insurance premium paid of himself, his spouse or his children Moreover there is also a lock-in period of two years till then you cannot terminate or let the policy lapse. In case this happens, the deductions allowed in earlier years are added to your income of the current year.

Education Expenses

Your children's tuition fee is eligible under Section80C, but with some conditions . You can claim this only for two children and that too for the educational institution situated in India only. In case you have more than two children, the deduction in respect of other children can be claimed by your spouse if your spouse has taxable income. The deduction is available for tuition fee paid only. So any amount paid as donation or for development charges will not qualify for deduction.

PPF Account contributions

You can claim deductions in respect of PPF contributions made for yourself, your spouse and your children. When interest earned is tax exempted and withdrawal is also tax exempted. By contributing to PPF account you can help build a substantial corpus and save taxes at the same time.

Deposits under Senior Citizen Scheme:

Those who have completed 60 years of age, can claim deduction under80C for money deposited in account under "Senior Citizen Deposit Scheme" which have to be maintained for five year.

ELSS contributions:

ELSS( Equity Linked Saving Schemes) of mutual funds are also giving good returns over the long period of time which has a holding period of three years. This is the shortest holding period in for saving based investments under Section80C. In case the investment was made through systematic investment plan (SIP), three years will be calculated with reference to the date of each such SIP installment.