Income Tax Return: Salaried employees do you own any of these 7 schemes? Know how section 80C helps you

Income tax returns: Taxes form a major part of outgo for any salaried employees. However, not everyone has to pay taxes and file for Income Tax Return (ITR), yet it can be said a majority of working class people are liable to pay taxes. To make tax compliance easier, the Income Tax Department has broken down taxpayers in various groups based on their income and source. Apart from filing for ITR, there are also various schemes that give you tax benefit under section 80C of Income Tax Department. One of the best features of section is that a total Rs 1.50 lakh can be exempted from paying taxes. This becomes a helping hand to those who have other source of incomes, in the form of investment. 

Here's a list of seven investment schemes, where you can avail tax benefit and save big on your taxes, as per Ramki Gaddipati, co-founder and CTO, Zeta. 

1. Employee Provident Fund (EPF): As a fund meant to secure a person’s retirement this is built through monthly contributions from the employee and their employer. There’s a fixed rate of interest (8.65%) that accrues and when the fund matures, the interest and the principal are tax-free.

2. Public Provident Fund (PPF): Similar to the EPF, the deposits made into this fund and the interest accrued (8.1%) are tax-free

3. Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF): This is a corpus fund that you have more control over than the traditional EPF. You can periodically move funds into this account, which accrues an interest rate of 8.75%. This is something you can invest in, in addition to the EPF or PPF

4. Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS): A diversified equity mutual fund that gives tax benefits, and also good returns as the capital appreciates. It has a lock-in period of 3 years

5. Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP): A life insurance plan which also gives options to invest across qualified stocks, bonds and mutual funds. You can set off up to Rs 1,50,000 under 80C and 80CCC

6. Tuition fees: Up to Rs 1,50,000 a year is fully tax-deductible on tuition and education fees for 2 children (only) per income tax assessee.

7. Sukanya Samriddhi Account: Parents of a girl child can deposit up to Rs 1,50,000 annually and get

Hence, if you have invested in any of the above mentioned schemes, then remember to file for tax benefit under section 80C.