Are You Missing Tax-Saving Deductions? Quiz
TaxAnswer 5 quick questions about your 80C, 80D, HRA, NPS, and home loan claims to find out whether you're missing tax-saving deductions this financial year.
🇮🇳This tool is specific to India
Question 1 of 5
Are you fully utilising your ₹1.5 lakh 80C limit (PF, PPF, ELSS, life insurance, etc.)?
What is a Tax Deductions Checkup?
The Are You Missing Tax-Saving Deductions? Quiz is a checklist-style, five-question assessment that checks whether you're fully utilising the major deductions available to taxpayers on India's old tax regime — Section 80C investments, Section 80D health insurance premiums, HRA exemption, voluntary NPS contributions under Section 80CCD(1B), and home loan interest under Section 24(b). Rather than computing your exact tax liability, it focuses specifically on whether you're leaving legal tax savings unclaimed.
Many taxpayers default to whatever deductions their employer's payroll team pre-fills or whatever they claimed last year, without checking whether they're actually maximising each available limit. This quiz walks through each major deduction one at a time and gives you a directional "gap level" result, then routes you to the 80C Deduction Calculator, HRA Exemption Calculator, or Income Tax Calculator to quantify exactly how much you could still claim.
How to use this Tax Deductions Checkup calculator
- Answer "Are you fully utilising your ₹1.5 lakh 80C limit?" based on your actual current-year contributions, not last year's.
- Answer "Do you claim 80D for health insurance premiums?" for yourself, your family, and your parents if applicable.
- Answer "If you pay rent, do you claim HRA exemption?" honestly about whether you've verified the full eligible amount.
- Answer "Do you make voluntary NPS contributions for the extra ₹50,000 deduction?" based on your current contribution level.
- Answer "If you have a home loan, do you claim the full interest deduction?" or mark it not applicable if you don't have one.
- Review your result and tap through to the linked calculator to quantify exactly how much additional deduction you could still claim this financial year.
Formula & Methodology
Each of the five questions assigns a point value from 1 (fully claiming that deduction) to 4 (not claiming it at all) based on the option selected. Your total score is the sum across all five questions: Score = 80C Gap + 80D Gap + HRA Gap + NPS Gap + Home Loan Gap The minimum possible score is 5 (fully optimized across all categories) and the maximum is 20 (major gaps across all categories). The score maps to a result as follows: | Score range | Result | |---|---| | 5–9 | Fully Optimized | | 10–15 | Some Gaps to Close | | 16–20 | Major Gaps — likely overpaying tax | Worked example: Suppose you're fully utilising 80C (1), claim 80D close to the limit (2), haven't checked if your HRA is maximised (2), only contribute a little to NPS (3), and don't have a home loan (1). Your total score is 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 1 = 9, placing you at the top of the Fully Optimized range.
Frequently Asked Questions
It's a 5-question checklist-style quiz that checks whether you're fully utilising the major tax deductions available under the old regime — 80C, 80D, HRA, voluntary NPS under 80CCD(1B), and home loan interest under Section 24(b). It gives you a directional 'gap level' result so you know whether you're likely leaving tax savings unclaimed.
Each answer carries a point value from 1 (fully claiming that deduction) to 4 (not claiming it at all), and your total score across all five questions places you into 'Fully Optimized,' 'Some Gaps to Close,' or 'Major Gaps.' The higher your score, the more deductions you're likely leaving unclaimed.
Yes, most of these deductions — 80C, 80D, HRA, and home loan interest — are only available under the old tax regime, since the new regime removes them in exchange for lower slab rates. If you're unsure which regime fits you, take the [Old vs New Tax Regime Quiz](/old-vs-new-tax-regime-quiz-india/) first.
The 80C deduction limit is ₹1.5 lakh per financial year, covering instruments like EPF, PPF, ELSS mutual funds, life insurance premiums, and principal repayment on a home loan. Use the [80C Deduction Calculator](/80c-deduction-calculator-india/) to see exactly how much of your current contributions count toward this limit.
Section 80C has a combined ₹1.5 lakh limit across multiple instruments, while Section 80CCD(1B) offers an additional ₹50,000 deduction specifically for voluntary contributions to NPS, on top of and separate from your 80C limit. This makes NPS one of the few ways to claim a deduction beyond the standard 80C ceiling.
HRA exemption is the lowest of three amounts: actual HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of basic salary, or 50% of basic salary for metro cities (40% for non-metro). Use the [HRA Exemption Calculator](/hra-calculator-india/) to calculate your exact eligible exemption based on your salary structure and city.
This means you're likely leaving significant legal tax savings unclaimed across multiple deductions, and it's worth reviewing each one before your financial year closes — particularly 80C and HRA, which tend to have the largest impact. Start with the [80C Deduction Calculator](/80c-deduction-calculator-india/) and [HRA Exemption Calculator](/hra-calculator-india/) to quantify exactly how much you could still claim.
Yes, you can claim interest deduction under Section 24(b) on a let-out property as well, though the rules and limits differ slightly from a self-occupied property — a self-occupied property caps the deduction at ₹2 lakh per year, while a let-out property has no such cap on interest deduction (subject to other set-off rules).
Yes, click 'Retake quiz' on the result screen to reset all five questions and try again, for example after increasing a specific contribution. This is useful for seeing how much closing one specific gap, like starting NPS contributions, would improve your overall result.
Yes, the quiz runs entirely in your browser and your answers are never sent to or stored on thecalcu.com servers. Your answers are only saved in the page's URL so you can bookmark or share your specific result.
Most deductions — 80C investments, 80D health insurance, and voluntary NPS contributions — can be made any time up until March 31st of the financial year to count for that year's tax filing. Don't wait until the last week, since processing delays for things like ELSS purchases or insurance premium payments can sometimes push a payment past the deadline.
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