Quick answer
Which deductions do salaried people often miss?
HRA on rent paid to parents, 80D for senior citizen parents, 80E education loan interest, pre-construction home loan interest and the extra ₹50,000 for NPS under 80CCD(1B). All five are available only in the old regime.
Most salaried people I meet claim the big obvious deductions (80C, HRA) and stop. The ones that get missed are smaller individually, but together they can make a real difference to your tax.
Before you start: all five deductions below are available only under the old tax regime. If you are on the new regime, they do not apply. If these add up to a large amount for you, it is worth comparing both regimes before you file.
1. HRA even when rent is paid to parents
If you live with your parents and genuinely pay them rent, you can claim HRA. The catch: your parents have to declare the rent as income in their return. If they are in a lower tax bracket than you, this is a legitimate family-level saving.
2. Section 80D for parents above 60
You get up to ₹25,000 for your own family's health insurance premium, plus a separate deduction of up to ₹50,000 for premiums paid for senior citizen parents. That second limit gets missed routinely because people assume 80D is a single bucket.
3. Section 80E on education loan interest
No cap on the amount, available for up to 8 years from when you start repaying. If you took an education loan for yourself, your spouse or your children, the full interest is deductible.
4. Home loan interest before possession
Interest paid during construction is deductible in five equal instalments starting from the year you take possession, within the overall limit for a self-occupied home. Most software defaults to zero for these years, so it routinely gets dropped.
5. Section 80CCD(1B) on NPS
An additional deduction of up to ₹50,000 over and above the ₹1.5 lakh 80C limit, for your own NPS contributions. For someone in the 30% bracket, that is about ₹15,000 of tax saved.
If you want us to review your recent returns so you do not miss these again, we offer a one-off filing review. If you have already filed this year's return and spot a missed deduction, a revised return can still be filed until 31 March after the end of the assessment year (a fee applies after 31 December). Deductions missed in older years generally cannot be claimed now.
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