Tax Planning

Covid19 has changed the world – the way we work, the way we do business and interact with people. The pandemic has triggered a new work environment – the virtual office.  This new work revolution has given a boost to a lot of freelancing jobs in India and abroad, especially in the skilled services sector. With employees facing pay cuts or even losing jobs, freelancing has become a good option to supplement their income. It is a win-win situation even for companies as they strategize to optimise costs. Some of the popular options in freelancing are content writers, graphic designing, […]

The title of this blog says tax saving season because most people usually wake up and scurry around in the March quarter to invest for submission of tax proofs to their accounts department at work. The term tax planning has become a paradox because there is no proper investment planning from the beginning of a financial year which in due process takes care of tax saving. The end result is investments done in a haphazard manner in products unsuitable to the investor’s financial situation and profile. In a rush to invest for tax saving, investors do not even make optimal […]

With the deadline for filing tax returns less than a month away, it is time to start making initial preparations. You can download the forms, keep the relevant documents like Form 16, interest statements, TDS certificates, investment, insurance & home loan details in handy. People usually have few doubts while filing tax returns electronically. Here are some common questions answered about filing e-returns: Is listing all bank accounts necessary? The government has made it mandatory to report details of all bank accounts in the ITR form. However, one can avoid giving details of those accounts which are dormant, i.e., not […]

You must be heaving a sign of relief after making all the tax saving investments and submitting the tax proofs last month. You would probably deal with the tax saving exercise again during March 2018. For a change, why not start tax planning in the beginning of this financial year. Do not make it a routine exercise of making some random investment in order to avail tax benefits under certain sections. Tax saving requires strategic planning depending upon your financial situation and should ideally start from April 1 of the new financial year. The benefits of an early start are […]

When it comes to investing retirement funds, the primary objective of any senior citizen is to earn regular income and safety of capital. Most senior citizens also think about the tax angle before making any investment decisions. A host of specific tax benefits are available to senior citizens by the government. As per the Income Tax Act, a person who has completed 60 years of age or above would qualify for various tax rebates available for the senior citizen category. Those who are above 80 years of age are considered as super senior citizens. Higher exemption in the tax slab […]

Rental income from house property can be a useful source of passive income, especially during retirement. Many people buy more than one residential property with the primary objective of earning rental income or using it post retirement. The Income Tax Act requires an assessee to disclose all house properties owned by him at the time of filing his income tax returns. In case of multiple house properties, only one property can be considered as self occupied. The others would be considered as deemed to be let-out even if they are vacant and no rent is earned on it. The notional […]

Everyone knows about the usual options of annual tax saving like taking benefit of section 80C, claiming medical expenses, house rent allowance, etc. But there are some unconventional ways to reduce your tax outgo. You can save tax through your family! As per Indian Tax laws, gift given (in cash or kind) to relatives is not taxable in their hands. While there are some tax implications of investing the gifted money in the name of family members, let us understand how you can still legally do it and reduce your tax liability: Invest through your spouse: You can gift any […]

Around this time every year, you will see frequent advertisements of tax saving financial products in the print and electronic media. There would be countless posts on financial blogs about how to save tax under S/80C and innovative ways to save tax beyond this section. It becomes a priority as the year draws to a close and investments are then done in a haphazard manner with the sole objective of saving tax. This is the typical tendency of majority of investors as they do tax planning at the near end of a financial year. Tax saving takes precedence over investment […]