There are several financial instruments in which you can park money to claim tax deductions under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. The nature of tax savings could be by way of saving, investing and in certain cases even spending money, with the combined limit of Rs 1.5 lakh. Although the advantages of long term investing cannot be emphasised more, there is one financial instrument that could be the first investment vehicle for scores of taxpayers—the equity-linked saving schemes (ELSS). The ELSS comes with a three-year lock-in, which is the shortest compared to other tax savings avenues.