Tax Saving In India Is No More Taxing!
The general notion is that it feels great to be famous – to be someone! But sometimes it is great too if you are nobody like me who works as Asst. Teacher in a semi-govt. school in a semi-urban locality in one of the remotest and non-descript part of the country. Why do I feel great? Because I don’t have to go through the arduous task of filling tax returns every year like my colleagues do! Yes you read it right! I don’t have to pay income taxes (I belong a special community in a special area where nobody from my community has to pay) although my income from regular job and online is roughly around Rs. 500,000 per annum. I don’t even have a (PAN) card! But from what I see my colleagues go through, I reckon it is not funny to file returns especially as every year there are some changes made in tax policies by the government. So, I find my mates go around finding the best and cheapest tax accountant available in the town. Professional consultation is not always for just filling of returns, but salaried individuals with limited income also need to exploit the different schemes on offer by the government to save some paisa for the future and thereby get tax rebates.
As I have avid interest in economic and business affairs, I do read lots of finance and business related papers and journals. The other day I found one of the magazines (Outlook Money) that I subscribe to enclose a little pocket book titled “The Complete Tax Guide for 2008-09” which is really a handy item for all normal tax-payers. It gives a complete guide from calculating incomes to deductions, computation and tax planning, clubbing of income to filing of returns. I believe most net junkies don’t have time to read books anymore. While business houses can afford to hire chartered accountant firms for audit services, individuals can save lots of money if they have basic ideas about tax laws and tax saving schemes. Here, I’ll write what is advised on that handy book about “tax saving strategies during your lifetime.”
The budget of 2008 had much to offer to the salaried tax payers of the country. The smooth passing of the Finance Bill with no changes to the proposals made can bring in showers this financial year. There are two ways in which tax payers will benefit. One, the threshold level of income tax has gone up. This means that a greater part of the income come under zero tax status.
Two, the tax slabs have also been raised. Currently the maximum marginal rate of tax of 30 percent is applicable from the income level of Rs. 250,000, this now stands doubled at Rs. 500,000 for the next financial year. This means an under 65 year old male tax payer with a gross Continue reading
Can India-ASEAN Block Rival EU?
It has been six long years since India and South East Asian trade block known as ASEAN started negotiations on free trade in goods (TIG). Finally it has concluded in a meeting of economic ministers held in Singapore. The deal is up for final sign in a summit to be held in next December in Bangkok, Thailand.
Indian industry minister Kamal Nath has described the conclusion of the TIG deal as a “key regional milestone” that will create a European Union like open market for goods. It has even bigger prospect than the EU with booming markets and an estimated 1.5 billion people waiting to be conquered by consumerism.
Kamal Nath says,
“It took six years for India to understand the sensibilities of Asean, and for the Asean to understand the sensitivities of Indian.”
Actually, the deal was supposed to be concluded last year but due to differences on the list of products to be excluded, it took one more year. Now that it has been finalized, both parties will remove import duties on 71 percent of products by December, 2012 and additional nine percent by 2015. The ten percent which have been kept under sensitive list will also see duties brought down to five percent. The deal also has provisions for fast track reduction of import duties on five products which are so vital in trade relations. These goods are coffee, tea, crude and refined palm oil and pepper. Currently, trade volume between India and Asean is to the tune of $38 billion which is to go up to $50 billion by 2010. At present India holds seventh position in Asean’s overall trade and the group holds 9.8 percent of India’s global trade volume.
According to a joint press release, both parties also resolved to negotiation on similar agreements in services and investments sector.
“So the potential for enhanced economic engagement between Asean and India is profound.”
Mr Nath says. The question is can this new economic block create same impact as that of EU? It certainly has potentials with fast growing economies and an ever increasing group of middle class flush with disposable income. But my personal opinion is it still has long way to go. First, China must be included in the group so as to have a major global impact. Secondly, unlike the EU, the group does not have a single monetary system. Still, both the parties will benefit hugely with this pact and more so if they could do the same in other sectors too.
Indian IT Majors Go On A Buying Spree
Despite the slowdown in the overall world economic scenario, Indian IT companies are undeterred by the bleak business prospect. In fact they are using this as an opportunity to expand their overseas businesses. This became clear when Infosys, India’s second largest provider of IT enabled business services with an annual operating profit of around $1.25 billion announced its bid to acquire Axon Group of UK in an all-cash deal of $814 million.
According to analysts, Infosys is paying a premium of 33.1 percent to the average value during 6 last 6 months of Axon’s 67.85 million shares. The bid price is also 19.4 percent higher to the price the share was last traded on 22nd August.
There is no surprise in the bid as according to G. Gopalkrishnan, CEO of Infosys, the company is looking to leverage the Systems Application and Products (SAP) expertise that Axon offers.
“This strategic combinations of our groups will accelerate the realization of our common aspirations – that of becoming the most respected provider of business transformational services in the global market place.”
Don’t Swipe Your Card Recklessly
First of all, my heartiest congratulations to Abhinav Bindra J who made India proud by winning gold medal for the 10m Air Rifle section at the Beijing Olympic. It is the first ever individual gold that India won in the history of Olympic.
Now, this post is a little bit personal as I’ll try to put a point across by taking example of one of my friend. But before I dwell into that, let me give a brief update on the latest business scenario.
Inflation is at 18 years high that stands more than 12 percent. Stock market has recovered to some extent and has been on a bullish run for last 10 days or so. Tatas and Reliance Infocom have decided to invest huge sum to create GSM based network while keeping their CDMA services. The central government has decided to come to the exporters’ aid and has announced that it would return taxes already paid.
Well, that’s what I call brief update. J
Now the main topic! The other day I was called by my fried who got some exorbitant Credit Card bill and didn’t know where he spent the money. He called me because we went to some websites one night and used it to get membership. It was quite late in night and he didn’t know how to browse the net properly. L So I told him not to browse the net any more after I left. He did!
For the next 3 months he kept receiving those bills and soon he was in debt. I repeatedly asked him to contact the issuing branch to block the card. He didn’t! But when the bill piled on, he was desperately looking how to get out of debt and this mess. Finally he called the customer service of the issuing bank and they did oblige his request.
I am blogging on this because this might happen to anybody who is regularly using credit cards for online purchase – especially from phony sites. There are lots of instances of unauthorized use of credit cards by hackers who steal the card access codes. So everybody must first check how reputed and trusted the site is (Verisign verification is one of those) before putting the sensitive personal data.
While plastic money in the form of credit or debit cards is of great convenience, one must use it judiciously even if they are not using them online. As one does not have to carry and dish out lots of cash, it is very easy to spend a lot by swiping the card at various counters. Its only after that you start worrying how you pay off credit card debt that is now quite a huge amount.