Achieving Tax Saving Goals through Tax Saving Investments

2024-08-02

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When it’s about investments, we should have at least two clear expectations from them, first they will improve our wealth, and second, they will cause minimum tax liability. Fortunately enough we have several tax saving schemes available in India. However, you need to keep in mind that each tax-saving investment is different and invest accordingly.

Different Features of Tax Saving Investments

Almost all the tax-saving investments we see today are a result of the government trying to promote specific investment behaviours. These behaviours may range from financial safety from unfortunate events to post-retirement life. However, you will commonly find the following features in all tax-saving investments:

Lock-in period for withdrawals
Investment reduces your tax liability under section 80 of the IT Act

This is what has put every tax-saving scheme in India more suitable for specific goals. Also, the scheme risk profiles and tax-saving status differ. Therefore, you should carefully select these investments based on your financial goals and investment risk appetite.

The Efficiency of Tax Saving Investments

Any investment can offer tax saving at the following three levels:

On the invested money, at the time of investment
On the accrued or paid interest
At maturity

For example, investment in both Public Provident Fund (PPF) and 5-year tax saving deposit will reduce your tax liability in the year of investment under section 80C. However, while any growth in the PPF will remain tax-free, interest accrued on the FD is taxable.

Similarly, the maturity value from PPF is tax-exempt but will be taxable for the 5-year FD.

Investments which offer all three tax saving are the most tax-efficient schemes. Fortunately for the most important financial goals in our life, we have multiple such investment options. These investments are also called EEE investments where ‘E’ stands for exempt, and three Es mean all three transactions as exempt from tax.

Three Important Financial Goals

Although you will have many financial goals in life, few stand out because of their long-term nature and impact on your family’s future. Following three financial goals are common for almost every investor and have a significant impact on life.

Retirement

Children’s Higher-Education Goals

Wealth Building Goal

To meet such long-term goals you need investment options where you can:
Invest money regularly for a very long time
Invest small amounts
Allocate your money according to your risk appetites
Increase your investment amount in future
Maintain tax-exempt status of investment at maturity

Investment Needs for Retirement Goal - Growth

Financial safety of workers has been the prime concern of authorities in India. Regular efforts in raising awareness and offer attractive retirement investment plans have given us several great retirement schemes. Also, unlike other financial goals, retirement goal has two very distinct phases of investment:

Accumulation phase
Distribution phase

If you are a 30-year-old investor, you will start to save for your retirement goal which is 30-35 years away from now. Until you reach your retirement goal, your retirement investment will be in the accumulation phase.

Once you retire, you will stop investing in the retirement corpus and start the distribution phase for a pension.

You will need to use two different investment plans for both phases of your retirement goal. While in the first phase you need high-growth tax-efficient investment, in the second you need safety and regular income.

Investment Needs for Child’s Higher-Education Goal - Safety

Goal safety should be your top concern when it comes to your child’s future. Your early demise will affect your children the most unless you can ensure the safety of goal achievement.

You need to invest the money in their goal in such a way that they can receive the intended money at the time of the goal, even when you are not there.

Investment Needs for Wealth Building Goal - Automation

Wealth building goal is where you would want to take additional risk on your investment for faster growth. But more than that, you will need to automate the investment as much as possible. Putting your wealth goal on auto mode is important unless this is your full-time dedication.

For example, invest via account auto-debit option, automatic portfolio management for adjusting the asset allocation according to market.

Most Efficient Investment Option for the Goals

When it comes to tax-efficiency and diversity of investment options, nothing beats ULIP investment plans. Whether you want to invest aggressively towards a prosperous post-retirement or want to secure your child’s education goal, ULIP plan has it all.

Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) Features

ULIP plans are one of the most tax-efficient and capable investments. You can customize your ULIP investment to meet all three goals using the following features:

EEE Investment: If your annual investment remains below 10% of the sum assured in the plan. Investment up to Rs 1.5 lakhs is exempt under section 80C
Multiple Asset Allocation options: Invest in a combination of equity, debt and liquid funds as per your risk appetite
Multiple Portfolio Strategies: Make the most of the equity market investments with automatic portfolio management options. ULIP will automatically allocate more funds to equity when markets are not doing well so that your portfolio grows faster when it does.
Financial Safety for Family: Life cover in this plan will make sure your family receives financial support in the event of your early demise.
Goal Safety: Protect your spouse from inadequate retirement corpus in case of your early demise. The insurer will continue to invest on your behalf until maturity, and your family will receive the maturity value at the intended time.
Boost Your Portfolio: ULIPs such as Invest 4G from Canara HSBC Life add bonus units to your portfolio if you are a long-term investor. You can benefit from these boosters if you invest regularly for more than five years in the ULIP. The longer you keep investing the more bonus units you receive in the portfolio.

You can use the feature-rich ULIP plans to conquer any long-term financial goal you have. Also, if you follow the tax rules, maturity value or any partial withdrawals from ULIPs will be completely tax-free.

You can even use a single ULIP investment plan to meet multiple goals. See How to Use a Single ULIP Plan to Meet All Your Life Goals for more details.

5 Most Tax-Efficient Investment Options in India for FY 2021-22

Tax Savings - Top Selling Plans

We bring you a collection of popular Canara HSBC life insurance plans. Forget the dusty brochures and endless offline visits! Dive into the features of our top-selling online insurance plans and buy the one that meets your goals and requirements. You and your wallet will be thankful in the future as we brighten up your financial future with these plans.