Top 10 Deductions Most Salaried Employees Forget to Claim in 2027
Sunita claims her HRA, her 80C investments, and her health insurance premium every single year without fail, the same as most salaried employees. What she never claimed, for three years running, was a Rs. 9,500 savings account interest deduction sitting right there for the taking, simply because nobody had ever mentioned it existed. This list of the top 10 deductions most salaried employees forget to claim tends to feature things smaller and less talked about than HRA or 80C, but they add up, and none of them require anything you have not already done.
1. Section 80TTA: Savings Account Interest
Up to Rs. 10,000 of interest earned on your savings accounts is deductible under Section 80TTA, old regime only, and this sits entirely outside your Rs. 1.5 lakh Section 80C limit, so claiming it never eats into that ceiling. The cap applies per person, not per account, so it does not matter whether your interest comes from one savings account or five, the total deductible amount stays capped at Rs. 10,000. Fixed deposit and recurring deposit interest do not qualify, only genuine savings account interest does.
2. Section 80GG: Rent Paid Without HRA
If your salary structure does not include HRA at all, perhaps because your employer never built it in, you are not automatically locked out of a rent deduction. Section 80GG lets you claim rent paid based on the least of a few calculations, provided you and your family do not own a house where you live or work. I have covered the full formula in my Section 80GG guide.
3. Section 80CCD(1B): The Extra Rs. 50,000 NPS Deduction
Beyond your regular Section 80C limit, an additional Rs. 50,000 deduction is available for your own contribution to NPS under Section 80CCD(1B), a separate provision from your employer’s NPS contribution under Section 80CCD(2). Many people who have already maxed out their 80C limit through EPF and insurance never realise this extra bucket exists, entirely independent of what they have already claimed.
4. Preventive Health Checkup, the Rs. 5,000 Sub-Limit Inside 80D
Within your overall Section 80D health insurance deduction, a Rs. 5,000 sub-limit specifically for preventive health checkups is available, and it does not require a separate insurance policy, just the checkup expense itself, paid in cash or otherwise. Most people claim their premium and completely forget this smaller allowance exists on top of it.
5. Section 80DDB: Medical Treatment for Specified Diseases
If you or a dependent has been treated for a specified serious illness during the year, cancer, chronic kidney failure, and certain neurological conditions among them, a deduction is available for the actual treatment cost, subject to a prescribed limit and a certificate from a specialist. This one gets missed constantly, simply because people going through a medical crisis are not thinking about their tax return at the time.
6. Section 80U: Deduction for Your Own Disability
If you yourself have a certified disability, a flat deduction, higher for severe disability, is available regardless of what you actually spent, unlike many other deductions tied to specific expenses. This is separate from Section 80DD, which covers a dependent’s disability rather than your own, and the two are easy to confuse. All that is required is a valid disability certificate from a recognised medical authority, renewed as prescribed, there is no need to itemise medical bills or expenses to claim the flat amount.
7. Section 80E: Education Loan Interest for a Spouse or Child
Most people know Section 80E covers interest on their own education loan, fewer realise it also covers a loan you took for your spouse’s or child’s higher education, with no upper limit on the interest amount, only a fixed 8-year claim window from when repayment begins. If you are servicing a loan for a family member’s education, this is one of the more generous deductions on this list and one of the most overlooked.
8. Professional Tax Under Section 16(iii)
The professional tax your state deducts from your salary, typically capped around Rs. 2,500 a year, is fully deductible under Section 16(iii). It is already being deducted at source, so claiming it costs you nothing extra, yet it is easy to overlook precisely because it happens automatically and rarely gets a second thought. Check your payslip or Form 130 for the exact amount deducted over the year, since it can vary slightly by state and is not always a flat, round figure.
9. Pre-Construction Home Loan Interest, Claimed in 5 Instalments
Interest paid on a home loan during the construction period, before you actually take possession, is not lost. It can be claimed in five equal instalments starting from the year construction completes, added on top of your regular Section 24(b) interest deduction for that year, subject to the overall self-occupied cap. For example, Rs. 2,50,000 in total pre-construction interest becomes five instalments of Rs. 50,000 each, stacked on top of your normal annual interest claim for five consecutive years after possession, often pushing you right up against or beyond the Rs. 2,00,000 self-occupied cap in those years. Many homeowners simply forget this interest exists as a claimable amount once possession finally happens and the pre-construction period fades from memory, sometimes years after the payments were actually made.
10. Section 80GGC: Donations to a Political Party
A genuine donation to a registered political party or electoral trust is deductible in full under Section 80GGC, with no upper monetary limit beyond your gross total income, provided it is not made in cash. This is a legitimate deduction that simply does not come up in most people’s mental list of tax-saving options.
What These Top 10 Deductions Most Salaried Employees Forget Add Up To
Suppose Sunita, at the 30% slab, actually claims four of these in the same year: Rs. 10,000 under 80TTA, Rs. 50,000 under 80CCD(1B), Rs. 5,000 for her preventive health checkup, and Rs. 2,500 in professional tax. That is Rs. 67,500 in additional deductions she was always entitled to, working out to roughly Rs. 21,060 in tax saved at her slab rate including cess, money she would otherwise have simply paid without anyone forcing her to, purely because these four items never crossed her mind at filing time. Most people will not qualify for all ten items on this list in a given year, but even three or four applying to your situation adds up to a meaningful number.
Why These Get Missed So Often
In my seven years of reviewing salaried returns, the pattern behind every item on this list of top 10 deductions most salaried employees forget to claim is the same: they are not part of the standard HR-provided investment declaration form, so nobody prompts you to think about them. HRA, 80C, and standard deduction all show up because your employer’s payroll system asks about them directly. Savings account interest, disability deductions, and pre-construction interest do not get a dedicated field on that form, so they only get claimed if you specifically remember to add them yourself while filing.
Conclusion
None of these top 10 deductions most salaried employees forget to claim require you to invest new money or change how you live, they simply require you to remember they exist when you sit down to file. Go through this list against your own situation before your next return, since even a few of these applying to you can meaningfully reduce what you owe, purely from claims you were always entitled to make. For the complete list of standard salary-linked deductions most people already know about, see my top 10 salary components to reduce tax guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim these deductions if I forgot to include them in my original return?
Yes, as long as you are still within your revised return window for that year, you can add any of these deductions you missed the first time by filing a revised return with the corrected figures.
Do any of these deductions work under the new tax regime?
Most do not. Section 80TTA, 80GG, 80CCD(1B) beyond the basic NPS structure, 80DDB, 80U, 80E, and 80GGC are all old regime only. The professional tax deduction under Section 16(iii) is also unavailable under the new regime, since Section 16 deductions generally do not apply there.
Do I need to submit proof for all of these to my employer during the year?
Not necessarily to your employer, some of these, like savings account interest or pre-construction interest, are more commonly claimed directly while filing your ITR rather than through your employer’s investment declaration process, so keep the supporting documents ready for your own filing rather than assuming payroll will prompt you for them.
Is there a single place to check all deductions I am eligible for before filing?
There is no single automated checklist the department provides, which is exactly why deductions like these get missed. Going through your actual financial activity for the year, savings accounts, loans, medical expenses, donations, against a list like this one before filing is the most reliable way to catch what would otherwise slip through.
Can I claim Section 80TTA and 80TTB in the same year?
No. Section 80TTB is specifically for resident senior citizens and replaces 80TTA entirely once you qualify by age, with a higher Rs. 50,000 limit covering savings, fixed deposit, and recurring deposit interest together. You claim one or the other based on your age, never both in the same year.
Does claiming the Section 80E education loan deduction for a child affect their own future tax filing?
No, the deduction belongs to whoever is actually repaying the loan, typically the parent who took it out or is servicing it, not the student who benefited from the education. The child’s own future tax filings are unaffected by a deduction their parent claimed on a loan taken in the parent’s name.
