It is a sensible step to invest from the beginning of the financial year to save income tax. At the end of the fiscal year, the tax-saving effort is sometimes overwhelming. There is a fear of falling into the wrong investment option. Sometimes we invest in opportunities that have meager returns. Have you invested enough to save income tax? If not, you will be looking for investment options to save tax. Do you know that you may not need to invest in order to save income tax? Many of your expenses help tax saving under different sections of the Income Tax Act. It would help if you found investment options only after calculating all of these.

Expenses incurred under Section 80C, Section 80D, and Section 24 of income tax law/ Investing can also help you save income tax. Section 80C of the Income Tax Act is very important in terms of income tax saving. You can get income tax exemption on investments up to Rs 1.5 lakh made under this section in a single financial year. Section 80C of the Income Tax Act includes investment options such as tax-saving bank deposits, life insurance policy premiums, EPF, PPF, NSC, ELSS, SCSS. Since you can avail income tax exemption only on a total investment of Rs 1.5 lakh under section 80C of the Income Tax Act, you need to first pay attention to how much you have invested earlier?

EPF

If you are doing a job somewhere, 12 percent of your basic salary is invested in EPF. On this investment, you get tax benefits under section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Your employer also contributes 12% of the basic salary to your EPF account, but you can't avail of income tax. Check your salary slip and find out how much you have invested in saving tax under Section 80C through EPF.

Life Insurance Policy

Financial advisors say that if you have fiscal discipline, you must take life insurance. It gives your family financial security in case you don't stay. If you had taken a life insurance policy earlier, you must fill the premium. Under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, you can also save income tax on this amount. If your life insurance policy has lapsed for some reason, you can repay it by paying a premium and a fine. In this case, the amount paid will also come under the purview of tax exemption.

Tuition fee

You can get a maximum of two child schools/schools every year. You can avail of income tax exemption under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act on the amount of college tuition fees. Keep in mind that this discount is not available on school development fees or donations, etc. You can only get an income tax exemption on tuition fees.

Education Loan

Under Section 80E of the Income Tax Act, income tax exemption is available on interest of education loan. There is no maximum amount limit. This reduces the effective interest rate of education loans for you. If you have taken an education loan at 10% interest and you are in the highest slab of income tax, the effective interest rate is 6.8 percent after such income tax exemption.

Home Loan Interest

You can avail of income tax exemption under Section 24 of the Income Tax Act on the interest included in the monthly installment (EMI) of your home loan. According to the extent income tax rules, you can get income tax relief on an amount of Rs 2 lakh annually on loan interest to buy your home.

Now you can spend all these items/ The money invested needs to be added. Then it would be best if you saw how much less or more your investment is from Rs 1.5 lakh under section 80C of the Income Tax Act. You can take full advantage of section 80C of the Income Tax Act by investing only this amount.

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