Section 80D: Health Insurance Deduction

Deduction limits and eligibility conditions can change. This article is for general information and does not constitute tax advice.

The Limits

For self, spouse, and dependent children combined: up to ₹25,000 a year in premium, rising to ₹50,000 if any one of them is a senior citizen (60 or above). For parents: an additional ₹25,000, rising to ₹50,000 if either parent is a senior citizen, and this doesn’t require the parents to be financially dependent on the taxpayer. Combined, that puts the maximum possible deduction at ₹1,00,000 a year, where both the taxpayer’s own group and their parents include a senior citizen.

Preventive health checkup costs are included within these same limits, up to ₹5,000, not an amount on top of them, and it’s the one component that can be paid in cash; every other payment under this section needs to go through a non-cash mode to qualify. For a senior citizen with no health insurance policy at all, actual medical expenditure can be claimed instead, up to the same ₹50,000 ceiling, though this specific route is restricted to resident senior citizens and doesn’t extend to NRI parents.

Regime and Renumbering

Like the rest of Chapter VI-A, this deduction is available only under the old tax regime; the new regime doesn’t permit it. It sits under new Section 126 (old Section 80D), with the substance of the provision, limits included, carried over unchanged into the new Act.