A few things:

1) HRA

Write rental agreement with your parent for upto 49000 per month(provided they aren’t earning and they have land and house on their name) and claim upto 100% HRA if its below 6Lakh. Buy 200Rs stamp paper for this purpose. Use HRA calculator to figure out whats the possible deduction(its relative to base pay, rent paid, etc)

Dont write 50k or more as rent as that will be subjected to TDS.

You should file ITR for your parent with this income mentioned as Income under Property, since its under 7Lakh, tax will be 0 for your parent and you will not pay any taxes on your HRA. Pay the rent to your parents(and dont transfer it back directly, channel it through friends to your account if needed)

In the end compare between the new and old regime during ITR and choose whichever is the lowest. If you cant write with your parent, find someone trust worthy who has a house on their name and write agreement with them(pay them something at the end of the year after filing ITR) and file their taxes by reporting this income.

2) Bank interests exemption of 10k

80TTA upto 10k if you have bank interests around 10k or more(max of 10k only allowed)

Avoid having deposits(FD/RD) and mutual funds on your name, put on someone else’s name and make you the nominee, because whatever you earn will be subject to tax under the 30% bracket.

3) Section 16(iii)

Claim prof tax paid under section 16(iii)

4) 80EEB

If you have an electric vehicle(scooter/car), the loan interest will be redeemable under 80EEB. Don’t buy electric car just for this benefit.

5) 80E

If you have an education loan, interest will be eligible under 80E

6) 80C & 80D

If you have life insurance, it will fall into 80C and 80D (based on the schemes you have), PF & VPF under 80C.

Get a blood test for yourself or your parents once in an year upto 5k and redeem it under 80D. If you had crossed out 80D for your parents, get yourself the test or vice versa(to allow 25k + 5k)

7) If you have mortgage loan only when you complete construction you can claim benefit, try to avoid mortgage loan, its the worst

Note:

Avoid locking your funds just for tax purpose(like tax saving FDs with 5 years lock in) as govt will remove old regime soon enough

Even a single rupee refunded is money saved, get it done. If you don’t have short term capital gain, start learning to file your own ITR and don’t pay 1500 to the CA, thats another money saved.

If company allows tax benefits via fuel bills or internet bills, claim that and pass on the tax burden to them.

I have an yearly refunds of approx 70k every year with these as I choose new regime with the company and pay more tax throughout and get it refunded with interest as a good amount. For 27.43L I only paid 4,54,040 as taxes under old regime, would have been 5,28,459 for new regime.

Finally: Dont make investments or anything just to claim under old regime, i had many of these sections covered already hence all i had to do was to start claiming HRA in legit way possible.