Income-tax returns: What ITR deductions are available for medical treatments and healthcare expenses? Check details here

The Income-Tax Department has notified all I-T return forms for the financial year 2025-26 i.e. the assessment year 2026-27. Further, the department has enabled Excel Utility for ITR-1 (Sahaj), ITR-2 and ITR-4 (Sugam) forms on its e-filing portal for FY26 / AY27.

For the current tax year, the deadline for individual taxpayers filing ITR is 31 July 2026. Further, for those using ITR forms 3 and 4, the deadline is 31 August 2026. Taxpayers who miss the July deadline can still file a delayed return by 31 December.

What are income tax deductions?

Deductions are investments and expenditure that can be claimed on the gross total income that reduces a taxpayers' total taxable income and thus reduces tax payable. This includes investments made in education, medical insurance, or specified mutual funds. 

In short, deductions reduce your taxable income by subtracting certain expenses from gross income. Here's a look at the various medical and healthcare related deductions available under the old tax regime Sections 80D, 80DD, and 80DDB:

Section 80D: Insurance premium, health check-ups

Section 80D of the old tax regime allows deductions towards payments made to your health insurance premium and preventive health check-up, for limits as mentioned below:

• Self: ₹25,000 limit for health insurance premium of self or spouse or dependent children; limit extended to ₹50,000 if your and / or spouse are senior citizens. Both include ₹5,000 for preventive health checkup.
• Parents: ₹25,000 limit for health insurance premium of parents; limit extended to ₹50,000 if parents are senior citizens. Both include ₹5,000 for preventive health checkup.

It also allows deduction towards medical expenditure incurred on a senior citizen, if no premium is paid on health insurance coverage, for limits as mentioned below:

• Self: ₹50,000 deduction limit for self or spouse or Dependent Children
• Parents: ₹50,000 deduction limit for parents.

Taxpayers will have to provide proof including — Name of the insurer (insurance company), policy number, and health insurance amount.

Section 80DD: Medical treatment, maintenance of disabled dependent

Section 80DD of the old tax regime allows deduction towards payments made towards maintenance or medical treatment of a disabled dependent or any amount paid or deposited under relevant approved schemes as follows:

• Flat deduction of ₹75,000 available for a person with disability, irrespective of expense incurred.
• Deduction limit is ₹1,25,000 if the person has severe disability (80% or more).

To claim this deduction, taxpayers will have to provide proof in their income-tax returns (ITR). This includes nature of the disability, type of disability, amount of deduction, type of dependent, PAN of the dependent, Aadhaar of the dependent, acknowledgement number of form 10 IA filed in case of autism, cerebral palsy, or multiple disabilities; and UDID number (if available).

Section 80DDB: Medical treatment of self for specified diseases

Section 80DDB of the old tax regime allows deduction towards payments made towards medical treatment of self or dependent for specified diseases, for limits as mentioned below:

• Deduction limit of ₹40,000.
• Deduction limit of ₹1,00,000 for senior citizens.

Sections 80C: Payments made for Life Insurance Premium

Section 80C of the old tax regime allows combined deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh for payments made for life insurance premium, provident fund, certain equity share subscriptions, children's tuition fees, housing loan principal, the National Savings Certificate (NSC).

Taxpayers will have to submit their policy number or document identification number as proof along with the amount eligible for deduction u/s 80C.

Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.