How Section 80C works
The Income Tax Act §80C lets individuals deduct up to ₹1,50,000 per financial year for eligible investments and expenses. Old regime only — new regime disallows 80C entirely.
The calculator above sums every eligible category and caps the total at ₹1.5L. Anything over the cap is “unutilised” — invested money that doesn’t reduce your tax bill.
Eligible categories (FY 2026-27)
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| EPF / VPF | Employee contribution, mandatory for salaried |
| PPF | Cap ₹1.5L/year per individual; 15-year lock-in |
| ELSS mutual funds | 3-year lock-in (shortest); equity-linked |
| Life insurance premium | Self / spouse / children |
| Sukanya Samriddhi (SSY) | Cap ₹1.5L/year; only for girl child < 10yo |
| NSC / KVP | 5-year lock-in; small savings scheme |
| Tax-saver FD | 5-year FD with 80C eligibility |
| Home loan principal | Principal portion of home-loan EMIs |
| Children tuition fees | Up to 2 children, school fees only (not coaching) |
| NPS Tier-1 (within 80C) | Counts toward 80C cap; 80CCD(1B) gives separate ₹50K |
Maximising the ₹1.5L cap
For most salaried filers, EPF (12% of basic) eats a chunk of the 80C limit automatically. If your basic salary is ~₹60K/month, EPF alone is ~₹86K — leaving ~₹64K headroom for ELSS / PPF / insurance.
If your EPF + voluntary investments cross ₹1.5L, the excess becomes “unutilised” — still useful for retirement savings, but not tax-deductible.
80C instruments — projection calculators
Once you know your 80C allocation, use the individual investment calculators to project returns and understand the exact tax benefit for each instrument:
- ELSS mutual funds — the only 80C option with a 3-year lock-in and equity-linked returns. Use our SIP calculator to project the ELSS corpus from monthly SIP contributions and model long-term wealth alongside the deduction.
- PPF — a fully tax-free (EEE) 15-year instrument with 7.1% p.a. (Q1 FY 2026-27) compounded annually. Use our PPF calculator to project the 15-year maturity value and annual interest accrual.
- Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY) — available for girl children below 10 years, EEE tax status, 8.2% p.a. Use our Sukanya Samriddhi calculator to model the 21-year corpus for your daughter’s education or marriage.
- NSC (National Savings Certificate) — 5-year lock-in, 7.7% p.a. compounded annually, notionally reinvested interest is also 80C-eligible (years 1–4). Use our NSC calculator to see the exact maturity value.
- SCSS (Senior Citizens Savings Scheme) — available to residents aged 60+, 8.2% p.a. quarterly payout, 80C on deposit. Use our SCSS calculator to plan quarterly retirement income.
- NPS Tier-1 — contributions qualify under 80C up to the ₹1.5L cap, plus an exclusive additional ₹50,000 under §80CCD(1B). Use our NPS calculator to project your retirement corpus and model the combined §80C + §80CCD(1B) deduction.
Bridges
- Income tax calculator — feed the 80C deduction here
- Home loan calculator — compute principal-vs-interest split
- Old vs new regime calculator — quantify regime difference
- SIP calculator — project ELSS corpus from monthly contributions
- PPF calculator — model 15-year PPF maturity value
- Sukanya Samriddhi calculator — project SSY corpus for girl child
- NSC calculator — 5-year NSC maturity projection
- SCSS calculator — quarterly payout for senior citizens (80C eligible)
- NPS calculator — retirement corpus with §80C + §80CCD(1B) deduction