Preventive Health Check Up and Tax Deduction

Do you know. the Preventive Health Check Up can give you tax benefit? Most of the people are not aware of this tax deduction. In this article, I will tell you about the tax benefit of the Preventive Health Check up. Let us start with the basic.

The Tax Deduction Rule of Preventive Health Check Up

As you know, section 80D of the Income Tax Act gives the tax deduction benefit on Health Insurance Premium. This section also makes provision for the tax deduction on Preventive Health Check Up expenses. You can claim expenses incurred on health check up for yourself, your family and your parents.

Let us see how the Income Tax Department gives you the benefit of tax deduction on Preventive Health Check Up.

Suggested – Meaning of Tax Deduction and Exemption

Rule 1- Maximum Amount for Deduction is ₹5000

You are free to spend on Preventive Health Check Up as much as you wish. But, there is a limit of the deduction. You can claim the tax deduction for a maximum of ₹5000 on this category.

Hence, if you have incurred more than this amount, you can claim up to ₹5000. The excess amount is not eligible for deduction.

We can better understand this with the help of an example-

For instance, Suppose, you have paid ₹18,000 for the health insurance premium and ₹8000 for the Preventive Health Check Up. Since you can claim up to ₹5000 on health check up, the total deduction available for you is ₹18,000+5000 = ₹23,000.

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Rule 2- The Deduction is available Up To the Incurred Expenditure

Though the maximum limit of deduction is ₹5000. But, you can claim the deduction up to the incurred expenditure. Thus, if you have paid less than ₹5000 for health check up, you can claim only that amount.

For example, Assume that in the above example, your health insurance premium is ₹17,000 and expenses on Preventive Health Check Up is ₹3000. In this case, you can claim ₹3000 for health check up expenses, not the deduction limit ₹5000. Because ₹3000 is the actually incurred expenditure. Thus, the total deduction u/s 80D will be ₹17,000+3000 = ₹20,000.

Rule 3- The Deduction Benefit is Included within U/S 80D

As I said above, the tax benefit on Preventive Health Check Up is not a separate tax benefit. It is included with in the limit of tax deduction on health Insurance u/s 80D.

Thus, if you are eligible for a deduction up to ₹25,000 or ₹50,000 on the health insurance premium, you can not claim the expenses on health check up apart from this. You have to include the expenses within this limit.

I try to clarify with an example-

Suppose, The health insurance premium is ₹22,000 and expenses on health check up is ₹5,000. However, you can claim the full amount on health check up, but the total amount exceeds the limit of section 80D. So, you can claim the total deduction, ₹22,000+3000 = ₹25,000.

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What is Preventive Health Check Up

Preventive Health Check Up is like a preventive healthcare. This is a process to find out the disease in your body before any visible symptoms. So, it is disease prevention instead of disease treatment.

Sometimes when you go for a preventive health checkup, you get to know the disease at the earlier stage. You can get rid of it very soon if you start treatment without delay. This helps you to stay away from big health problem and hospitalization.

Many health insurance companies arrange for the check up with your health policy. Besides it, you can go for it at your choice separately in a medical lab or diagnostic center. And of course, you pay for it. It is different from paying a health insurance premium.

Before 1st April 2013, only the health insurance premium was eligible for tax deduction u/s 80D. But after this date, check up expenses are also available for deduction. Assuming that it is related to your health expenditure. That is why it should also be considered for the deduction.