Skip to main content

How to choose between different tax-saving options

With many types of tax-saving instruments available for individuals, but the amount of investment allowed to avail exemption limited, one needs to plan well. Apart from non-tax factors — return on investment, flexibility to exit, recurring nature of investment, etc — the main tax considerations include tax impact not only at the time of investment, but also on future income and exit from the tax-saving scheme (commonly known as exempt at the time of contribution, exempt at the time of accumulation and exempt at the time of withdrawal).

 

One must look at the lock-in period for investment/exit and the quantum of general or specific limit for investment for tax savings. In the general category, where tax savings are available under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961, following instruments take a front seat as they are EEE schemes with relatively lower lock-in periods:

 

Equity Linked Savings Scheme is operated by various fund managers where the proceeds are invested in equity shares, with a lock-in of three years.

Employee Provident Fund is a common form of investment often chosen by employees with a minimum lock-in of five years. While the employer's contribution is exempt, investment by the employees is eligible for deduction.

Public Provident Fund is another option, in addition to EPF, where the contributions can be partly withdrawn after seven years and a full withdrawal is possible after 15 years.

 

Unit-linked insurance plans come with bundled benefit of both insurance and flexibility to manage the investment/return where the minimum maturity period would be around five years as the yearly premium cannot exceed 20% of the sum assured.

 

Life insurance has the primary intention of insurance with additional benefit of returns, though at a lower rate. The lock-in would depend on the specific scheme. As regards limits provided to certain types of instruments, additional savings for beyond R1 lakh can be availed by investing up to R20,000 under 80CCF in tax-saving infrastructure bonds. Moreover, R15,000 (R20,000 for senior citizens) is available under Section 80D for mediclaim insurance for self and dependents.

 

In addition, 10% of salary by way of employer contribution to New Pension Scheme under Section 80CCD is exempt, while the employee's contribution is included in the general limit of R1 lakh under Section 80C. Also, R1.5 lakh for interest on loan obtained for investment in self-occupied property (no limit if let out) provides tax exemption. Principal repayment, stamp duty and registration fee for purchase of property would be eligible under the general limit of R1 lakh under Section 80C.

 

While the above schemes are purely from a tax-saving perspective, a holistic view, considering the returns each scheme offers, would have to be considered. While the deadline for saving taxes for 2012-13 is fast approaching (March 31), one has to take out time to plan his taxes if not already done so.


Some of the best Tax Saving Mutual Funds available ( ELSS Mutual Funds )

  1. ICICI Prudential Tax PlanInvest Online
  2. HDFC TaxSaver Invest Online
  3. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund Invest Online
  4. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund Invest Online
  5. Birla Sun Life Tax Relief '96 Invest Online
  6. IDFC Tax Advantage (ELSS) Fund Invest Online
  7. SBI Magnum Tax Gain Scheme 1993 Invest Online
  8. Sundaram Tax Saver Invest Online
  9. Edelweiss ELSS Invest Online

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

Happy Investing!!

We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write back to us at PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

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

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Transact Mutual Fund Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap FundsInvest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
    2. Large and Midcap FundsInvest Online
      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
    1. Mid and SmallCap FundsInvest Online
      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
    1. Small and MicroCap FundsInvest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
    1. Sector FundsInvest Online
      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
    1. Gold Mutual Funds Invest Online
      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund

Popular posts from this blog

Mutual Fund Review: Religare Tax Plan

Tax Plan is one of the better performing schemes from Religare Asset Management. Existing investors can redeem their investment after three years. But given the scheme's performance, they can continue to stay invested   Given the mandated lock-in period of three years, tax saving schemes give the fund manager the leeway to invest in ideas that may take time to nurture. Religare Tax Plan's investment ideas revolve around 'High Growth', which the fund manager has aimed to achieve by digging out promising stories/businesses in the mid-cap segment. Within the space, consumer staples has been the centre of attention for the last couple of years and can be seen as one of the key reasons for the scheme's outperformance as compared to the broader market. It has, however, tweaked its focus and reduced exposure in midcaps as they were commanding a high premium. The strategy seems to have worked as it returned a 22% gain last year. Religare Tax Plan has outperformed BSE 100...
Read more

JP Morgan launches Emerging Markets Opportunities Equity Offshore Fund

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300 JP Morgan launches Emerging Markets Opportunities Equity Offshore Fund    The new fund offer opens for subscription on 16 th June and closes on 30 th June. JP Morgan Mutual Fund today announced the launch of its open end fund of fund called Emerging Markets Opportunities Equity Offshore Fund. The fund will invest in an aggressively managed portfolio of emerging market companies in the underlying fund - JPMorgan Funds - Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, says a JP Morgan press release. Noriko Kuroki, Client Portfolio Manager, Global Emerging Markets Team (Singapore), JPMAM said, "Emerging markets have been out of favour for several years, as growth decelerated and earnings struggled. However, in a world of globalisation, we believe that EM will eventually re-couple with DM, leading to the long-aw...
Read more

Nifty F&O

  1. What is a straddle? A strategy using Nifty options usually before a major event or when one is uncertain of market direction. Comprises purchase of a Nifty call and put option of the same strike price. Usually strikes are purchased closer to the level of the underlying index. 2. What is better ­ buying or selling a straddle? It depends.Implied volatili ty of options, or near-term expectations of price swings in an un derlier like Nifty , usually peaks before an event and falls when the outcome plays out ­ like Infy re sults in past years. However, once the event plays out, a sharp rise or fall in Nifty could result in price of the straddle rising ­ benefiting buy ers. But, normally , those who sell or write options charge hefty premiums from buyers in the hope that fall in volatility would ensure the options end out-of-the-money, hurting buyers. 3. So, do straddle sellers end up winning most of the time? Yes. That's invariably the case when market volatility is trending on the...
Read more

UTI Equity Fund Invest Online

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Buy Gold Mutual Funds Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)   UTI Equity Fund   Invest Online UTI Equity is a large cap-oriented fund with assets under management worth Rs. 2,269 crore (as on June 30, 2013). The fund was originally launched in May 1992 as UTI Mastergain and is benchmarked against S&P BSE 100. A couple of years back the name of the fund was changed to UTI Equity Fund and many of the smaller funds of UTI were merged into this fund. Performance The fund has outperformed its benchmark as well as the equity diversified category average in the last one-, three- and five-year periods. It has repeated the same in 2013 (as on May 31). Since its inception the fund has delivered an impressive 26 per cent compounded annual growth rate which is superior to its benchmark performance in the same period. Y...
Read more

Good time to invest in Infrastructure Funds

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Good time to invest in infrastructure The Sensex has gained almost 10 per cent from May 15 till date, while the CNX Infrastructure Index has gained almost 17 per cent in the period. The price to earnings ( P/ E) ratio of the BSE Sensex is 18.96; for the CNX Infrastructure Index, it is 24.57. The estimated P/ E for next year is 14.04 for the Sensex. Of the 24 companies that make up the CNX Infrastructure Index, six have a P/ E higher than 20. Does this mean infrastructure is fairly valued? Or, has it run up quite a bit? According to experts, barring stray companies, the infra sector is fairly valued and it is a good time to invest. Even if some companies are facing debt restructuring problems, once interest rates come down and regulatory norms become flexible, they will start giving good re...
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