Skip to main content

Pay Less Tax with MIPs and Beat Inflation

Invest MIPs Online


Retirees looking for regular income in their golden years should opt for these funds which invest a small portion of their corpus in equities and the rest in the safety of debt.
 
Retirees who invest in fixed deposits for regu lar income in retire ment don't realise that their money is losing value due to inflation. Even though their monthly requirement will gradually go up due to inflation, their deposits will continue to give out a fixed amount. The best alternative are monthly income plans (MIPs) from mutual funds. These funds follow a conservative investment strategy, allocating only 1020% of their corpus to equities and putting the rest 80-90% in safer bonds and other debt instruments.The returns are not very spectacular but are enough to beat inflation.
 

The good thing about MIPs is the relative safety they offer. These funds will give investors good returns if stock markets do well but they will also protect the downside because of the limited exposure to equities.

 

MIPs are also more tax efficient than fixed deposits. Interest from fixed deposits is fully taxable. For a person in the 30% tax bracket, the post-tax returns from a fixed deposit that offers 8% is actually 5.6%.Worse, this income is taxed every year even though he may get it only after the deposit matures. Also, if it exceeds a certain limit, it attracts TDS, so there is no escape. Retired engineer Kalyan Ghosh was advised by friends to split his fixed deposits across different banks. That might help him escape TDS but the income will still be taxable.

 

On the other hand, the gains from MIP funds are taxed only when the investor redeems the investment. Even then, only the gains are taxed and that too at a lower rate (see box). Investing in MIPs can help retirees bring down their tax liability.

Is monthly income assured?

Though these are called "monthly income plans", there is no assurance of monthly income. In fact, the dividend option of these funds is a very tax inefficient way to get a monthly income. Though the dividend received is tax-free, it comes to you after a heavy 30% dividend distribution tax. It is best to go for the growth option of the MIP fund and redeem units as and when you need the money. You can also start a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) under which a fixed sum is redeemed every month and put into your bank account. Ideally, one should start redemptions after three years of investing for greater tax efficiency.

 

MIPs can be good source schemes for systematic transfer plans (STP) into equity funds. In an STP, a fixed sum flows out of the scheme to another scheme (usually an equity fund) on a predetermined day of the month or quarter.

Be wary of the charges though.MIPs have high charges (some charge up to 2.5%), which can be a drag on the overall returns.






-----------------------------------------------
Invest Rs 1,50,000 and Save Tax under Section 80C. Get Great Returns by Investing in Best Performing ELSS Mutual Funds

Top 10 Tax Saver Mutual Funds to invest in India for 2018

Best 10 ELSS Mutual Funds in india for 2018

1. BNP Paribas Long Term Equity Fund

2. Axis Tax Saver Fund

3. Religare Tax Plan

4. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund

5. Franklin India TaxShield

6. ICICI Prudential Long Term Equity Fund

7. IDFC Tax Advantage (ELSS) Fund

8. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief 96

9. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund

10. Birla Sun Life Tax Plan

Invest in Best Performing 2018 Tax Saver Mutual Funds Online

Invest Online

Download Application Forms

For further information contact Prajna Capital on 94 8300 8300 by leaving a missed call

---------------------------------------------

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write to us at

PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

OR

Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300

-----------------------------------------------

Popular posts from this blog

Tata Mutual Fund

Being a part of the Tata group, the fund has the backing of a very trusted brand name with strong retail connect. While the current CEO has done an excellent job in leveraging the Tata brand name to AMC's advantage, it is ironic that this was just not capitalised on at the start. Incorporated in 1995, Tata Mutual Fund remained an 'also-ran' fund house for around eight years. Till March 2003, it had a little over Rs 1,000 crore in assets and 19 AMCs were ahead of it. But soon after that the equation changed. It was the fastest growing fund house in 2004 and 2005. During these two years, it aggressively launched six equity funds, two debt funds and one MIP. The fund house as of now stands at No. 8 in terms of asset size. This fund house has a lot to offer by way of choice. And, it also has a number of well performing schemes. Tata Pure Equity, Tata Equity PE and Tata Infrastructure are all good funds. It also has quite a few good debt funds. The funds of Tata AMC are known to...
Read more

UTI Mutual Fund

Even though only a few of UTI’s funds are great performers, this public sector fund house has many advantages that its rivals do not. It has a huge base of retail equity investors and a vast distribution network. As a business, it looks stronger than ever, especially in the aftermath of credit crunch. UTI is, by a large margin, the most profitable fund company in the country. This is not surprising, since managing equity funds is more profitable than debt. Its conservative approach and stable parentage is likely to make it look more attractive to investors in times to come. UTI’s big problem is the dragging performance that many of its equity funds suffer from. In recent times, the management has made a concerted effort to improve performance. However, these moves have coincided with a disastrous phase in the stock markets and that has made it impossible to judge whether the overhaul will eventually be a success. UTI’s top performers are a few index funds, some hybrid funds and its inf...
Read more

Salary planning Article

1. The salary (basic + DA) should be low. The rest should come by way of such allowances on which the employer pays FBT and you don't pay any tax thereon. 2. Interest paid on housing loan is deductible u/s 24 up to Rs 1.5 lakh (Rs 150,000) on self-occupied property and without any limit on a commercial or rented house. 3. The repayment of housing loan from specified sources is also deductible irrespective of whether the house is self-occupied or given on rent within the overall ceiling of Rs 1 lakh of Sec. 80C. 4. Where the accommodation provided to the employee is taken on lease by the employer, the perk value is the actual amount of lease rental or 20 per cent of the salary, whichever is lower. Understandably, if the house belongs to a family member who is at a low or nil tax zone the family benefits. Yes, the maximum benefit accrues when the rent is over 20 per cent of the salary. 5. A chauffeur driven motor car provided by the employer has no perk value. True, the company would...
Read more

8 Investing Strategy

The stock market ‘meltdown’ witnessed since the start of 2005 (notwithstanding the recent marginal recovery) has once again brought to the forefront an inherent weakness existent in our markets. This is the fact that FIIs, indisputably and almost entirely, dominate the Indian stock market sentiments and consequently the market movements. In this article, we make an attempt to list down a few points that would aid an investor in mitigating the risks and curtailing the losses during times of volatility as large investors (read FIIs) enter and exit stocks. Read on Manage greed/fear: This is an important point, which every investor must keep in mind owing to its great influencing ability in equity investment decisions. This point simply means that in a bull run - control the greed factor, which could entice you, the investor, to compromise with your investment principles. By this we mean that while an investor could get lured into investing in penny and small-cap stocks owing to their eye-...
Read more

Debt Funds - Check The Expiry Date

This time we give you an insight into something that most debt fund investors would be unaware of, the Average Portfolio Maturity. As we all know, debt funds invest in bonds and securities. These instruments mature over a certain period of time, which is called maturity. The maturity is the length of time till the principal amount is returned to the security-holder or bond-holder. A debt fund invests in a number of such instruments and each of these instruments would be having different maturity times. Hence, the fund calculates a weighted average maturity, which would give a fair idea of the fund's maturity period. For example, if a fund owns three bonds of 2-year (Rs 30,000), 3-year (Rs 10,000) and 5-year (Rs 20,000) maturities, its weighted average maturity would be 3.17 years. What is the big deal about average maturity then, you may ask. Well, knowing a fund's average maturity is important because it tells you how sensitive a fund is to the change in interest rates. It is ...
Read more
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now