Section 80E Deduction on Interest of Education Loan taken for Higher Education

What is section 80E of income tax?

Section 80E covers the deduction on the “interest component” paid on higher education loan from notified financial or charitable institution. Interest paid on education loan taken for higher studies of self, spouse, or children (including for whom you are legal guardian) can be claimed as a deduction from the taxable income.

Who can claim tax benefit on interest paid on education loan?

This deduction on repayment of education loan can be claimed by the individual for self, spouse, children, and a person for whom he / she is a legal guardian. The individual who is repaying the loan for the above mentioned people can take benefit of 80E deduction.
If your parents are sharing the EMI payments, then the extent to which parents are paying interest part of EMI can be claimed by them and rest by you subject to fulfillment of other conditions.

What is the deduction amount u/s 80E?

There is no maximum or minimum deduction limit specified under section 80E. The amount of deduction on interest payment deduction is not impacted by the rate of interest charged by the financial or the charitable institution, amount of loan or any other factor. This section provides a deduction on the actual interest amount paid during the financial year.

To avail benefit u/s 80E, from where the loan should be availed?

If you want to claim benefit of 80E, then loan must be taken from notified :

• Financial institution, or
• Charitable institution.

Which are notified financial institutions under section 80E?

Section 80E states that the interest paid towards an education loan should be taken from a recognized charitable institution or a financial institution. Any other entity from which loan is taken is not eligible for the deduction. These institutions can be identified as follows:

• Financial institution - A banking company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 applies (including any bank or banking institution referred to in section 51 of that Act); or any other financial institution notified by the Central Government.
• Charitable institution - An institution approved for the purpose of section 10(23C) or 80G(2)(a).

What is the documentary proofs required to claim deduction under section 80E?

The deduction under section 80E is claimed at the time of furnishing of your income tax return and no documentary proofs are required to be attached to it. The documents as mentioned below should still be kept safely, in case required to be submitted to the income tax department in case of any future scrutiny.

• The sanction documents of the loan.
• The repayment statements from the financial institution or charitable institution. Such statements should have a clear bifurcation of principal and interest amount repaid.

However, if you are a salary class person, then you can submit the statement to your employer so that he can consider this deduction in the Form 16.

What is the period/time limit for claiming deduction?

The deduction under section 80E can be claimed for a maximum of 8 Assessment Years. But in case you foreclose the loan account sooner, the income tax deduction will be available for such reduced time period in which the loan was active.
For example,

• You have taken an education loan in AY 2019-20 and start paying interest in the same year.
  In this case, you can claim a deduction u/s 80E for AY 2019-20 to AY 2026-27 (i.e. 8 assessment years).
• Now consider a different situation in which you have repaid the complete loan in 5 years only.
  In this case, you can claim a deduction u/s 80E for AY 2019-20 to AY 2023-24 (i.e. till completion of loan)

How to calculate the deductions for section 80E?

You can calculate the tax benefits under section 80E as under For example,

The interest repaid (Rs 1,00,000) on education loan is subtracted from the gross total income (Rs 6,00,000). As a result of which the taxable incom is reduced to Rs 5,00,000.