80D for parents: how much can I claim, senior and non-senior

You pay a health insurance premium for your mother or father. Come filing time, you want to know one thing: how much of it can you deduct? The answer depends on three facts. Is each parent a senior citizen? Did you pay by the right mode? And are you filing under the old or the new tax regime?

This article walks through the limit for parents, how it sits next to your own premium, and what changes from tax year 2026-27 when the Income-tax Act, 2025 takes over.

The short answer

For a return for assessment year 2026-27 (income of financial year 2025-26), the deduction for parents' health insurance is governed by section 80D of the Income-tax Act, 1961, as it stands after the Finance Act 2026. Under section 80D(2)(b), the whole of the amount you pay to "effect or to keep in force an insurance on the health of the parent or parents of the assessee" is allowed, up to ₹25,000 "in the aggregate" (section 80D(2)(b), Income-tax Act, 1961).

Where the insurance is on a parent who is a senior citizen, section 80D(4) applies the section "as if for the words 'twenty-five thousand rupees', the words 'fifty thousand rupees' had been substituted" (section 80D(4), Income-tax Act, 1961). So:

• Parents who are not senior citizens: up to ₹25,000.
• Parent who is a senior citizen: up to ₹50,000.

The deduction is available only in the old tax regime. Under the new regime none of it is available. More on that below.

What "parents" means here

The limit for parents is separate from the limit for you, your spouse and your children. Section 80D(2)(a) covers "the assessee or his family", and clause (b) covers "the parent or parents of the assessee". For clause (a), "family" means the spouse and dependant children of the assessee (Explanation to section 80D(2), Income-tax Act, 1961). Parents are in their own clause, so they do not need to be your dependants.

The parents' limit is one combined limit, not one per parent. The section says "in the aggregate" (section 80D(2)(b), Income-tax Act, 1961). If you insure both your mother and your father, the ₹25,000 (or ₹50,000) is shared between them, not doubled.

The section is silent on where your parents live. What it asks is that the payment is made by you, "in the previous year out of his income chargeable to tax" (section 80D(1), Income-tax Act, 1961).

Who is a senior citizen

Section 80D defines a senior citizen as "an individual resident in India who is of the age of sixty years or more at any time during the relevant previous year" (Explanation (i) to section 80D, Income-tax Act, 1961). Two things stand out. The age test is met if your parent turns 60 at any time during the year, not only at the start. And the parent must be resident in India. A parent aged 62 who is a non-resident for the year is not a senior citizen for this section.

What if one parent is a senior citizen and the other is not

This is the question most readers ask, and the section does not split the limit person by person. Clause (b) gives one aggregate for "the parent or parents". Section 80D(4) lifts the figure from ₹25,000 to ₹50,000 where the sum is paid for insurance "on the health of any person specified therein, and who is a senior citizen" (section 80D(4), Income-tax Act, 1961).

Read literally, when you pay insurance cover for a father aged 62 and a mother aged 58, the parents' line has a single ceiling, and that ceiling is ₹50,000 because the insurance covers a senior citizen. It is not ₹50,000 for him plus ₹25,000 for her. The section has no wording that adds two ceilings together. Keep separate receipts for each parent, so the split is clear if you are asked.

Note the link to insurance. The lift to ₹50,000 in section 80D(4) is tied to the sum "paid to effect or keep in force an insurance". If the only payment for a senior parent is a preventive check-up, that is not an insurance premium, and the ₹25,000 clause (b) limit is the safe working figure.

How much can you claim in total

Your own line and your parents' line are separate clauses, so they are added: clause (a) for you and your family, clause (b) for parents. Each carries ₹25,000, or ₹50,000 where the insured person is a senior citizen (section 80D(2) and (4), Income-tax Act, 1961).

The ₹1,00,000 is arithmetic: ₹50,000 plus ₹50,000. The Income Tax Department's e-filing validation rules for ITR-1 and ITR-3 for assessment year 2026-27 apply the same four ceilings and reject a total above ₹1,00,000 (CBDT e-Filing Validation Rules, AY 2026-27, Schedule 80D). For a person under 60 with senior citizen parents, the ceiling is ₹25,000 plus ₹50,000, which is ₹75,000.

Two worked examples, using only the limits above:

• You are 40. You pay ₹18,000 for yourself, your spouse and your child, and ₹32,000 for your mother, who is 66. Your line is ₹18,000, since it is under ₹25,000. Your mother's line is capped at ₹50,000, so the full ₹32,000 is allowed. Total ₹50,000.
• You are 42. You pay ₹22,000 for your family and ₹40,000 for your father, who is 58 and not a senior citizen. Your line is ₹22,000. His line is capped at ₹25,000, so you claim ₹25,000, not ₹40,000. Total ₹47,000. The section has no carry-forward of the extra ₹15,000.

Preventive health check-ups

Not every rupee has to be an insurance premium. Clause (b) also covers "any payment made on account of preventive health check-up of the parent or parents of the assessee" (section 80D(2)(b), Income-tax Act, 1961). Section 80D(2A) caps these: the deduction for check-up amounts under clauses (a) and (b) "shall be allowed to the extent it does not exceed in the aggregate five thousand rupees".

Read this carefully. The ₹5,000 is not an extra on top of ₹25,000. It sits inside the clause limit. If you pay ₹23,000 of premium and ₹5,000 for a check-up for your parents, the parents' line is still capped at ₹25,000 for non-senior parents, so ₹3,000 is lost. The e-filing rules apply the same cap: the check-up fields combined "should not exceed 5000".

The cash rule

Section 80D(2B) sets the mode of payment. A check-up may be paid "by any mode, including cash". Every other payment must be made by "any mode other than cash" (section 80D(2B)(i) and (ii), Income-tax Act, 1961). A premium paid in cash does not qualify, even if you hold a receipt. Pay premiums by cheque, card, net banking or UPI and keep the bank record. A credit card is not cash.

Which insurance counts

The insurance must be "in accordance with a scheme made in this behalf" by the General Insurance Corporation of India and approved by the Central Government, or by another insurer approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (section 80D(5), Income-tax Act, 1961). In everyday terms: a policy from a licensed insurer. Keep the policy schedule and premium receipt showing the parent's name, the insurer and the amount.

Medical expenses for a senior parent with no insurance

Section 80D has a second route. Under section 80D(2)(d), "the whole of the amount paid on account of medical expenditure incurred on the health of any parent of the assessee" is allowed up to ₹50,000 in the aggregate (section 80D(2)(d), Income-tax Act, 1961). There is a condition: the first proviso to section 80D(2) allows it only where the amount "is paid in respect of a senior citizen and no amount has been paid to effect or to keep in force an insurance on the health of such person".

The limit is shared. The second proviso says the sum under clause (b) plus the sum under clause (d) "shall not exceed fifty thousand rupees". So premium and medical expenditure for parents can never together exceed ₹50,000. The same mode-of-payment rule applies: medical expenditure is not a check-up, so it must be paid other than in cash (section 80D(2B)(ii), Income-tax Act, 1961).

Premium paid for several years at once

Some policies are paid in one lump sum for more than a year. Section 80D(4A) does not allow the full amount in one go: for each relevant previous year there is "a deduction equal to the appropriate fraction of the amount", subject to the other limits of the section. The appropriate fraction has one as numerator and the total number of relevant previous years as denominator (Explanation to section 80D(4A), Income-tax Act, 1961). A three-year premium of ₹60,000 is therefore spread as ₹20,000 a year, still subject to the yearly limit.

The new tax regime blocks it

This is the part that catches many people. The new regime under section 115BAC of the Income-tax Act, 1961 computes total income "without any exemption or deduction" under, among other provisions, "any of the provisions of Chapter VI-A other than the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 80CCD or sub-section (2) of section 80CCH or section 80JJAA" (section 115BAC(2)(i), Income-tax Act, 1961). Section 80D sits in Chapter VI-A. It is not in the list of exceptions. So if the new regime applies to you, there is no section 80D deduction, for yourself or for your parents.

The e-filing rules say the same in the form: the Schedule 80D deduction is available only if the old tax regime is opted (CBDT e-Filing ITR-3 Validation Rules, AY 2026-27).

The practical consequence: do the comparison. Work out your tax under both regimes. If the new regime gives a lower tax even without 80D, you lose nothing by paying the premium and not claiming it. If the old regime wins because of 80D, the home loan interest, the 80C investments and your other deductions together, choose the old regime and file Schedule 80D.

From tax year 2026-27: section 126 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

The Income-tax Act, 2025 applies from 1 April 2026, so premiums you pay in financial year 2026-27 onward fall under it. Section 80D of the 1961 Act maps to section 126 of the 2025 Act (Income Tax Department mapping of the 1961 and 2025 Acts). The limits carry over: ₹25,000 for the assessee or family, ₹25,000 for parents, ₹50,000 where the insured person is a senior citizen, ₹50,000 for senior citizen medical expenditure, the ₹5,000 check-up cap, the cash rule and the lump-sum fraction (section 126(2), (3), (4), (7), (8) and (9), Income-tax Act, 2025). The senior citizen definition is also the same: resident in India and 60 or more at any time during the tax year (section 2(100), Income-tax Act, 2025).

The new regime bar discussed above is a section 115BAC provision of the 1961 Act. How the regime operates for tax year 2026-27 under the 2025 Act is a separate question; check it before you plan around it.

Things not to do

• Do not claim the same expense twice, once as premium and again as medical expenditure.
• Do not pay premiums in cash and expect a deduction.
• Do not claim for a parent's policy that someone else paid for.
• Do not assume that two parents mean two limits.
• Do not add ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 for a mixed pair of parents.
• Do not claim 80D if you have chosen the new regime.

What to do now

• Next step: Collect the premium receipts and the policy schedule showing your parent's name, and note each parent's date of birth and residential status for the senior citizen test (Explanation (i) to section 80D, Income-tax Act, 1961).
• Deadline: For AY 2026-27, a belated return can be filed before three months prior to the end of the assessment year, that is by 31 December 2026 (section 139(4), Income-tax Act, 1961).
• Consequence: A claim above the limit, or under the new regime, is liable to be disallowed and will not pass the e-filing validation checks (CBDT e-Filing Validation Rules, AY 2026-27, Schedule 80D).

Have a CA review your facts before you act or file.

FAQs

Can I claim 80D for parents if I also claim for myself?
Yes. Clause (a) and clause (b) of section 80D(2) are separate, so the lines add up, to a maximum of ₹1,00,000 where both insured persons are senior citizens (section 80D(2) and (4), Income-tax Act, 1961).

My father is 62 and my mother is 58. What is the limit?
One aggregate for the parents' line. Because the insurance covers a senior citizen, section 80D(4) lifts that aggregate to ₹50,000. Do not add ₹25,000 to ₹50,000.

Does a senior parent need to be resident in India?
Yes. The definition covers "an individual resident in India" aged sixty or more at any time during the previous year (Explanation (i) to section 80D, Income-tax Act, 1961).

Can I pay my parents' premium from their account and claim it?
Section 80D(1) allows the sum paid by you "out of his income chargeable to tax". Pay from your own account.

Does the preventive check-up limit add to the ₹25,000?
No. It is inside it, capped at ₹5,000 (section 80D(2A), Income-tax Act, 1961).

Can I pay for a check-up in cash?
Yes, a check-up may be paid by any mode including cash (section 80D(2B)(i), Income-tax Act, 1961). Premiums and other medical expenditure may not be.

I filed under the new regime. Can I revise to the old regime and claim 80D?
That depends on whether you are allowed to switch for your return and on the revised-return window. See section 139(5), Income-tax Act, 1961 and check your own facts with a CA.

Is a premium paid by credit card allowed?
Yes, if it is paid by a mode "other than cash" (section 80D(2B)(ii), Income-tax Act, 1961). A credit card is not cash.

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