Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Dear Friends,
Happy new year.... Hope this new year will get all success for every one of you... :), i wish all of you plan your tax well get more income along with success in all your dreams.







Thursday, December 25, 2008

Ways to Reduce Your Taxes


The goal of tax planning is to arrange your financial affairs so as to minimize your taxes. There are three basic ways to reduce your taxes, and each basic method might have several variations. You can reduce your income, increase your deductions, and take advantage of tax credits.



Reducing Income ( Reduce Taxable table income) : Depend on your AGI (or modifications to your AGI)-- such as your tax rate and various tax credits. AGI even impacts your financial life outside of taxes: banks, mortgage lenders, and college financial aid programs all routinely ask for your adjusted gross income. This is a key measure of your finances. Because your adjusted gross income is so important, you may want to begin your tax planning here.

What goes into your adjusted gross income? AGI is your income from all sources minus any adjustments to your income. The higher your total income, the higher your adjusted gross income. As you can guess, the more money you make, the more taxes you will pay. Conversely, the less money you make, the less taxes you will pay. The number one way to reduce taxes is to reduce your income. And the best way to reduce your income is to contribute money to a saving under section 80C or similar retirement plan at work. Your contribution reduces your wages, and lowers your tax bill.

As you can see, two of the best ways to reduce your taxes is to save for retirement or life insurance or other type of savings, either through section 80C at work or through a traditional  PF/EPF/PPF plan. Contributions to these retirement plans will lower your taxable income, and lower your taxes. Same with your the amount your contribute towards investment or for your life insurance.

Increase Your Tax Deductions :
Taxable income is another key element in your overall tax situation. Taxable income is what's left over after you have reduced your AGI by your deductions and exemptions. Almost everyone can take a standard deduction, and some people are able to itemize their deductions. 

Itemized deductions include expenses for health care( Medical bills) you can save tax on max 15000/- INR , mortgage interest, job-related expenses (Like phone bills, broad band bills and some travel bills), House rent Allowances, LTA (leave travel allowances), tax preparation fees, and investment-related expenses. One key tax planning strategy is to keep track of your itemized expenses throughout the year using a spreadsheet or personal finance program. You can then quickly compare your itemized expenses with your standard deduction. You should always take the higher of your standard deduction or your itemized deduction.

Your standard deduction and personal exemptions depends on your filing status.

The best strategies for reducing your taxable income is to itemize your deductions, and the three biggest deductions are mortgage interest, LTA, HRA (House Rent Allowance).

Take Advantage of Tax Credits: Once we've tweaked our taxable income, we are ready to focus our attention on various tax credits ( also called as tax savings options). Tax credits reduce your tax. There are tax credits for college expenses, for saving for retirement, premium payed to wards your life insurance premium and premium payed towards Health insurance and amount paid towards investments in Equity oriented funds and Savings like NSC Bonds, Postal Savings schemes, and Bank Fixed deposits ( min 5 years duration deposits)Some income tax sections under  which we can save the tax.

Section 80C : Deduction in respect of Life Insurance Premium, Contribution to PF/EPF/PPF, NSC Bonds, Fixed Deposits etc click here to know more.

Section 80E : Deduction in Respect of  repayment of loan taken for higher education.

Section 80D : DEDUCTION IN RESPECT OF MEDICAL INSURANCE PREMIUM.

Section 10(10D) : Any sum received under a life insurance policy, including the sum allocated by way of bonus on such policy. For more details click here.

Section 80G : Deduction in respect of donations to Cretan fund, charitable institutions. For more details please click here.

Section 10(33) : Dividends from mutual funds are fully exempt from income tax under Section 10(33). Equity funds (schemes that invest 50 per cent or more of their funds in equity) are also exempt from dividend tax. This means that unlike companies, they do not have to pay tax at the rate of 10.2 per cent on the dividend that they distribute. 

INSERT (AY 2008-09)
Coir Board included in Section 10(29A) and exempted from income tax.


These are some sections under which and individual salaried person can get tax benefit. there are may more other options to save the tax of self employed and business owners including these. for more details please visit income tax department of India web site. 

Under Section 80C : A person can save tax on the amount upto one lakh. By showing 1lakh savings to the department of income tax. The amounts paying towards Life Insurance Premium, Amount towards Retirement or pension schemes and so many other schemes will come under this. For more details about Section 80C please click here.

Other than these you can clime the tax savings on your interest payed to wards your home loan upto 1.5lakh, Initial stages the amount paying towards contains majority part of the interest so you can clime that amount also for tax savings, but only the problem with this is once you own a house you HR may not come under tax benefit option.






Sunday, December 21, 2008

Section 80C save your tax


Dear Friends, 
           For lot of individuals who are working, they can save the tax on 1lakh rupees  under section 80C of income tax act.  

   How to calculate your tax click here

Every one of us know about the price of food items and every necessities are increasing  very fast even government is trying to control them but its not getting success, simple example for this is check the rice price in last 30 years, it never come down. 

   Why retirement plan is must clear here.

So government of India want every one of us save enough money for tomorrow, so they introduce this new section to save money and secure our family. with one of evil called inflation  this is only my view way government introduced this section. You can save 1lakh rupees in different ways to get the tax benefits on that. Following are the some products which are used to save tax under section.

Section 80L used to allow deduction of interest earned on, say, a National Savings Certificate or a bank deposit up to a limit of Rs 12,000. But now all these are gone .In their place has come Section 80C -- "u/s 80CCC, & u/s 80CCD", as the Finance Bill puts it. Thus, the new Section 80C of the Income Tax Act proposed in Union Budget gives you a bigger tax break than what the current regime offers.

  • Deduction in respect of Life Insurance Premium, Contribution to Provident Fund, etc.
  • Rs 1 lakh can be invested under this section without any individual sub-limits except in the case of Rs 10,000 in pension funds.
  • Sections 88, 80L, 80CCC and 80CCD is clubbed in.

INSERT (AY 2007-08)
It is proposed to insert clause (xxi) in sub-section (2) of this section in order to provide that the investment in a term deposit for a fixed period of not less than five years with any scheduled bank shall be eligible for a deduction under this section.


Fore more details about section 80C please click hear 

  • Fixed Deposits
  • Life Insurance (Term, Endowment, Unit Linked Plans)
  • Mutual Funds - ELSS,
  • NSC Bonds
  • PF/EPF/PPF
  • Post Office Time Deposit Account

There are some other products which can offer this benefits but these are the well know and good products. All these products are with risk level from medium to high, every type of saving will have there own risk level. 



Sections abolished from Union Budget 2005-06
  • 88 (Rebate on Life Insurance Premia, Contribution to Provident Fund, etc.)
  • 80L (Deductions in respect to Interest on certain Securities, Dividends, etc.)
  • Note : Rebate of Rs 5,000 for women and Rs 20,000 for senior citizens have been wiped off.

So as per your individual needs you can select the products, if you are not sure about which product will best for you, first write all your needs and requirements to contact a better financial adviser who can help you with his unbiased discussion. I feel no one else can understand your financial need better than you.

For best planning write us @
sriram.adviser@gmail.com
Phone No : +1-408-250-9952 (USA)
                        +91-9741598945 (India)