Section 80C: the complete list of eligible investments and expenses for FY 2026-27, and how to use the ₹1.5 lakh

Section 80C allows a deduction of up to ₹1,50,000 from gross total income for specified investments and payments made during the year. The ceiling is shared with 80CCC (pension plans) and 80CCD(1) (your own NPS contribution) under section 80CCE. The limit has not changed since 2014, and it did not change for FY 2026-27. What has changed is the regime landscape: the deduction exists only under the old regime, so the arithmetic starts with whether the old regime is worth choosing at all.

Under the new regime, 80C does not exist. Nor do 80CCC, 80CCD(1) or the extra ₹50,000 under 80CCD(1B). The one NPS route that survives is the employer contribution under 80CCD(2). If you are on the new regime, invest in PPF or ELSS for their own merits, not for a deduction you will not get.

The complete list

Money already leaving your salary

• Employee Provident Fund (EPF). Your own 12% contribution, and any Voluntary PF on top, qualifies in full. The employer share does not go into 80C. For most salaried people this alone uses ₹40,000 to ₹80,000 of the limit before any decision is made.
• Life insurance premium. Policies on your own life, your spouse or your children (dependent or not). The deduction is capped at 10% of the sum assured for policies issued on or after 1 April 2012, 20% for earlier policies, and 15% for a policy on a person with disability or specified disease issued after 1 April 2013. A premium above that share is not deductible and, worse, the maturity proceeds lose the section 10(10D) exemption. Single-premium and high-premium endowments fail this test routinely.
• Home-loan principal. The principal component of EMIs paid in the year on a loan for buying or constructing a house, once construction is complete. The interest goes under section 24(b) separately. If the property is transferred within five years from the end of the year you took possession, everything claimed under 80C is added back.
• Stamp duty and registration charges. Paid on the purchase of a house, deductible in the year of payment even without a loan. A ₹60 lakh flat in Jaipur carries around ₹4 lakh of duty and registration, so this often fills the whole limit in the year of purchase.
• Tuition fees. Fees for the full-time education of up to two children at any school, college or university in India, including play-school and pre-nursery. Tuition only: donation, building fund, development fees, transport, hostel and books are excluded. Each parent can claim for two children from their own payments.

Investments you choose

• Public Provident Fund (PPF). ₹500 to ₹1,50,000 a year, fifteen-year term extendable in five-year blocks, interest exempt, partial withdrawal from the seventh year, loan from the third. The rate is set every quarter. Our PPF calculator shows what a fixed monthly deposit grows to over the term.
• Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS). Equity mutual funds with a three-year lock-in on each instalment, the shortest on this list. Gains on redemption are long-term capital gains under 112A, exempt up to ₹1.25 lakh a year and taxed at 12.5% above that. A monthly SIP of ₹12,500 fills the limit; the SIP calculator shows the range of outcomes.
• National Savings Certificate (NSC). Five-year post-office certificate. The interest is taxable but is deemed reinvested, so the interest accrued in years one to four also qualifies under 80C in those years, which most people forget to claim.
• Five-year tax-saver fixed deposit. With a scheduled bank or as a five-year post-office time deposit. No premature withdrawal, no loan against it, interest fully taxable and subject to TDS. Simple, and the lowest post-tax return on the list.
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY). For a girl child under ten, up to two accounts per family, ₹250 to ₹1,50,000 a year. Deposits for fifteen years, maturity at 21, interest and maturity exempt. Partial withdrawal of half the balance for education after she turns 18.
• Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS). From age 60 (55 for certain retirees), up to ₹30 lakh, five-year term extendable by three, interest paid quarterly and taxable. The deposit qualifies under 80C in the year it is made.
• Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs). Five-year lock-in, subject to the same 10% sum-assured rule, and ULIPs with aggregate annual premium above ₹2.5 lakh issued after 1 February 2021 are taxed as capital assets on maturity.
• Pension plans under 80CCC. Annuity plans of LIC or other insurers. Inside the ₹1.5 lakh ceiling, and the pension received later is taxable.

NPS: the one that stretches the limit

• 80CCD(1), your own contribution. Up to 10% of salary (basic plus DA) for an employee, or 20% of gross total income for the self-employed, counted within the ₹1.5 lakh 80CCE ceiling.
• 80CCD(1B), the extra ₹50,000. A separate deduction for your own NPS contribution over and above 80CCE. This is the only way an individual gets past ₹1.5 lakh, and it is old regime only.
• 80CCD(2), the employer contribution. Available in both regimes and outside both ceilings: up to 14% of basic plus DA under the new regime, 10% for a non-government employer under the old regime, within the overall ₹7.5 lakh cap on employer retirement contributions. If your employer will restructure CTC to route part of it through NPS, this is the single most valuable line in the whole section. The NPS calculator projects the corpus and the annuity.

Comparison table

How to actually use the ₹1.5 lakh

• Count the involuntary items first. EPF, the term-plan premium, the home-loan principal and school fees. A family with a home loan and two children in school is usually past ₹1.5 lakh before buying anything.
• Only then decide the regime. Add 80D, HRA and section 24(b) to the 80C figure and run both regimes in the income tax calculator. At ₹12 lakh of salary the new regime pays nil tax and no amount of 80C changes that; at ₹18 lakh the old regime needs around ₹7 lakh of total relief to draw level. Our slab guide works through both cases.
• If the old regime wins, fill the gap with the shortest lock-in you can live with. ELSS if you want equity, PPF if you want a guaranteed exempt return, and 80CCD(1B) for the extra ₹50,000 once 80C is full.
• Do not buy insurance to save tax. A term plan for protection is fine and cheap. An endowment or money-back policy bought for 80C usually fails the 10% rule or delivers a return below a tax-saver FD, with a lock-in of a decade or more.
• Pay before 31 March. The deduction follows the date of payment, not the policy year or the school term. A cheque dated 2 April belongs to the next year.
• Keep the proof. The employer needs it for TDS by January; the return needs nothing attached, but a notice under 143(1)(a) for a mismatch with Form 16 is settled only with receipts.

Mistakes that cost the deduction

• Claiming the employer EPF share, or the full premium on a policy that breaches the 10% sum-assured rule.
• Claiming the PPF deposit made in your spouse’s account when the money came from their salary; the payer claims, not the account holder.
• Surrendering a life policy within two years or a ULIP within five: the deductions claimed are reversed in the year of surrender.
• Selling the house within five years of possession, which adds back every rupee of principal and stamp duty claimed.
• Including hostel or transport charges in tuition fees.
• Claiming 80C in the return while the Form 16 shows the new regime. The mismatch generates an adjustment intimation; the regime must be switched first, and for a business filer it may not be switchable at all.

Where we come in

We check the regime before the investments, the 10% rule before the premium, and the proof before the return. See our ITR filing plans, and the 80D guide for the deduction that sits next to this one.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general information, not professional or investment advice. Limits, rates and scheme terms change by notification; confirm the position for your own year before acting on it.