Personal Tax Benefits After Union Budget 2014-15

New government presented the budget for the financial year 2014-15. There is some benefit has been given to individual tax payers. Basic exemption limit has been increased by Rs 50000, Investment limit under section 80 C has been revised from Rs 1 lac to Rs 1.5 lac, home loan interest tax benefit for self occupied house also increased from 1.5 lac to 2 lac.

In this post we will try to see how much tax benefit individual tax payer will be getting from these changes.   

Exemption limit

Basic Exemption limit raised from Rs. 2 lacs to Rs. 2.50 lacs for general category of individuals and from Rs. 2.5 lacs to 3 lacs for senior citizen. So in total Rs 50000 has been added to exempted limit. 

Endowment Policy Vs. Combination of Term Insurance and PPF

Term Insurance is the best way to provide the cover for one’s life. Currently there are lot of term insurance plans available in the market and the premium is getting cheaper, thanks for the competition.

I talk to people and ask them whether they have term insurance or not and in reply I got different-different answers. Some say they do have term insurance (very few), some say they have endowment policy and ULIP and some say they do not have but they are planning to purchase.

Public Provident Fund Basics

Public Provident Fund is a good saving investment which provides tax benefit and also gives good returns. Many people don’t know about PPF or have very little information. If someone asked me in 2009 about PPF I could not have any answer that time because I also didn’t had any information about PPF.

Public Provident Fund started by government for salaried and self-employed people to encourage the saving habit and by investing in PPF, people can build good corpus for their retirement. In this post I will list down some basic and important points about PPF.

Health Insurance - Points To Understand Before Purchase

Some people thinks that since they are young and living a healthy life they don’t required any health insurance and purchasing health insurance is totally waste of money. But what they do not understand that medical emergency can arise anytime and we should be well prepared for that because medical treatments are getting costlier day by day and it can make a big hole in your savings which could affect your future goals.

One of the best ways to prepare for such situation is to get health insurance for the future medical expenses. Now the question is which health insurance to choose, what the common terms are and how much should be the sum assured. To get these answers let’s try to understand the types of health insurance and there features.

Term Insurance - Points To Remember Before Purchasing

Term Insurance is the best way to provide the cover for one’s life. Currently there are lot of term insurance plans available in the market and the premium is getting cheaper, thanks for the competition.

Before purchasing term insurance please read below points:

1. Understanding the main purpose of term insurance

The main purpose of term insurance is to provide the financial security to your loved ones in case of you died. It is also needs to understand that there is no maturity benefit in term insurance. So use term insurance as the life cover provider not the money making tool. 

9 Best Tax Saving Instruments

One should plan their tax saving investments at the beginning of the financial year. Do not wait for end of the financial year which can lead to wrong choice of instrument. I am listing here 9 tax saving instruments one can consider while doing tax planning.

1. Term Insurance Policy

Everyone who is having some liabilities or having dependent people should purchase a pure term insurance policy. I have used word purchase because it is a expense (and should be a mandatory expense) which provides cover to life. Life cover may differ from person to person depending on liabilities or dependent people. One can avail tax benefit under section 80C.

Please read "Term Insurance - Points To Remember Before Purchasing" blog post before purchasing the term Insuranse.

Understanding The Tax Benefit on Home Loan Interest

Most of us took home loan for purchasing our dream house and it is a very good tax saving instrument. There is a lot of confusion about the tax benefit on interest on home loan among people and in companies also.

I have experience in my previous and current company (with old payroll vendor) that they allow tax benefit only on one home loan and up to 1.5 lacks. So if you have more amount for tax benefit (i.e. Interest on a second home loan etc.) you have to file return to get back the paid tax.

How to Download Form 26AS (Tax Credit)

Verification of TDS data with Form 26AS is very important step before filing your return. For error free return filing make sure you verify TDS details in Form 16 or Form 16a with Form 26AS.

Form 26as is available in TRACES website. Please follow the below steps to download your Form 26as.