Why Fill Income Tax Return: Under section 139(1), every person (there are 7 types of persons in income tax) whose total income is above the exemption limit, then it is mandatory to file ITR Return. But if we talk keeping in mind the financial literacy, then every person should file ITR even if it is less than the exemption limit, because: 1. Because ITR return is a document that provides evidence of your financial position. 2. Because it presents your financial status. 3. Because it strengthens your CIBIL record. 4. Because it gives you the identity of being a responsible citizen of the country. 5. Because it helps you to take big financial decisions in the future. 6 and many more....... Rahul Agarwal personal finance expert Partner - Single Capital Financial Services 569/4, Gol Bazar, Jabalpur (MP)

Concerned over subdued growth in the insurance sector, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked the insurance companies to refrain from mis-selling and devise simple products for people to boost growth in the sector. "In my view, the reason why insurance is stumbling in India is because of mis-selling of products and complex products. "If you want to sell insurance to India, you must sell simple products and must make it absolutely clear to agents and other officers that they should not mis-sell," Chidambaram said. He was inaugurating new brand of PNB Metlife following Punjab National Bank's acquisition of a 30 per cent stake in the company. The Finance Minister said India is one of most under-insured countries in the world with the penetration of less than 4 per cent of the GDP. "I think if you keep these two guidelines—simple products and no mis-selling--insurance will make great rise in the next few years," he said, adding, the insurance compa

T he Union finance minister today presented the Budget for the year 2013-14. Some of the key points that were highlighted by Chidambaram in the Budget are: - No change in slabs and rate for personal income tax. - Tax credit of Rs 2000 to be provided to every person to having income of up to Rs 5 lakh, this will benefit 1.8 crore people. - 5 to 10 per cent surcharge on domestic companies whose taxable income exceeds Rs 10 crore. - Commodities transaction tax levied on non-agriculture commodities futures contracts at 0.01 per cent. - Modified GAAR norms to be introduced from April 1, 2016. - No change in peak rate of customs duty for non-agriculture products. - Direct Taxes Code (DTC) bill to be introduced in current Parliament session. - No change in basic customs duty rate of ten per cent and service tax rate of 12 per cent. - Import duty on rice bran oilcake withdrawn. - Series of concessions granted to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business in the aviation se

Basic tax knowledge and a little planning can help you avoid these costly mistakes 1. Not including all eligible deductions: Many taxpayers don’t know about all the possible options under Section 80C. Besides the investments, there are several expenses that are also eligible for deduction, such as school fees of children, housing loan repayment and stamp duty and registration charges paid for a house. In fact, you could have already exhausted your 1 lakh limit and don’t need to make any further tax-saving investments. Turn to page 16 to know how much more you need to put in tax-saving investments this year. 2. Not availing of other tax deductions: Most taxpayers do not look beyond Sections 80C and 80D when they are calculating their tax liability. If you or a dependant suffer from any of the 8-10 specified diseases or physical disability, you can claim a deduction of up to 60,000 under Sections 80U, 80DD and 80DDB. The donations you make to specified charities are also el

When you decide upon buying a health insurance policy, one of the pertinent questions that crops in your mind is the coverage amount – how much health insurance to buy? One of our readers Saket made an interesting comment on health care inflation , and how a decent cover today might look so small in distant future and raised the issue of “renewal” of policies by companies. The Health Insuranec companies, eargerly selling policies to younger age group (mostly), are actually giving them a false sense of security about their twilight years. No doubt, the current policy will be good for next 5 years, but not later than that because of the health care inflation. So this sense of security has a shelf life of max 5 years. After that my fate will lie in the hands of insurer-whether it finds my policy upgrade worthy or not. Considering a most conservative healthcare inflation rate of 15% , a humble 3L coverage requirement as on date for a 38 yr old would translate into a whopping Rs 130 Lakhs

Secrets to determining how long you'll need life insurance coverage. Agents like to talk about policies you can keep throughout your life. What they sometimes won't tell you is that you don't need life insurance coverage throughout your life. The secret to buying a policy with the right term is figuring out how long you need to be insured. You start by estimating when your children will be out on their own and no longer in need of your financial support. So if your children are 3 and 5 now, you'd probably want a policy that covers you at least until the youngest is 22, so that's about a 20-year term. But this depends somewhat on your age as well. Say you also want to cover your spouse for your lost income until what would be your normal retirement age, 65, and you're only 35 now. Then you would want a 30-year policy. Keep in mind that insurance gets very expensive as you leave your 50s. So you may pay more to cover yourself until 65, even if you lock in

Getting the right life insurance policy at the right price can be incredibly easy or very difficult. Life insurance is a highly competitive business, in which the salesforce depends almost entirely on commissions. Insurance companies pay fat commissions for selling whole-life policies; perhaps 80% of your first year's premium goes to the agent. Commissions for selling term-life policies amount to roughly the same percentage of first-year premiums. But since whole-life premiums are much higher than premiums for term-life policies with the same death benefit -- they can be five to ten times more -- agents make much more money selling a whole-life policy than they do selling a term policy. It's no wonder, then, that agents push whole-life policies as if their livelihoods depend on it, because, well, they do. If whole-life policies were beneficial to consumers, our story would end here. The fact is the vast majority of those who need insurance should buy term. Today, the ann