ETFs: Will they suit you?

ETF or Exchange-traded funds have attracted a lot of investments especially in developed countries, So what are they and whether they will be suitable for our specific requirements, let’s understand them in detail and how should we use them to meet our goals.

1. What are ETF’s?

ETFs are special purpose vehicle i.e. an ETF is a marketable security that tracks an index like S&P CNX Nifty or BSE Sensex, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets like an index fund. The ETFs trading value is based on the net asset value of the underlying stocks that it represents. Means Basically ETF represents that particular benchmark with which it is associated with. ETFs provide broad market exposure, low operating expenses and low portfolio turnover.

2. How ETF’s are traded?

Unlike mutual funds, an ETF trades like a common stock on a stock exchange. ETFs experience price changes throughout the day as they are bought and sold (unlike Mutual Funds which are brought/sold at the end of the day NAV).

3. What are ETF strategies?

The strategy for ETF investment is that we don't need to keep monitoring the performance of any specific fund or schemes. However we should also keep this in mind that betting on benchmark indices, can only make market-linked returns.

There could be different type of ETFs like Market Cap based ETFs, Sectoral ETFs or theme based ETFs i.e. consumption, dividend opportunities, long term capital appreciation etc. There are also non-equity ETFs like debt-oriented ETFs and commodities ETF like gold-based ETFs

A passive investor looking to remain invested for the long term, can consider ETFs based on his risk appetite and outlook on benchmark indices. A person can select ETFs linked to large-cap indices like Sensex, Nifty, etc. or mid-cap indices like BSE Midcap 100, Nifty Midcap 100, etc. depending on his specific requirements/risk appetite.

Another set are Sectoral ETFs. These are for more advanced investors who are bullish on a particular sector, but don't have the expertise or time to select and monitor stocks.

Other set of ETFs is based on themes—like consumption, dividend opportunities, etc. Stock exchanges have also started introducing new indices--low volatility index, quality index, etc. Few mutual funds have launched ETFs that track these indices. However being a new category, the asset size is very small for these type of funds and it is better to wait for some time to monitor its performance.

The non-equity ETFs like debt-oriented ETFs, bet on the possible movement on interest rates in short or long term.

Among commodities, currently in India only Gold-based ETFs are available. However, they have to compete with recently introduced Gold Bonds.

4. Active versus passive funds; which is better?

While the index funds and ETFs have started attracting major investments in developed markets, these passively managed funds are yet to pick up in India. This is because the actively managed funds continue to outperform their benchmarks. Most large-cap funds have outperformed their benchmark index in the past and they should beat the index funds and ETFs in the future too.

However, this situation may be going to change in the long term. Slowly we are moving from an inefficient market to a somewhat efficient market and going forward the efficiency will increase further. This will bring down the alpha (the additional return generated by managing funds actively) generation capacity of active funds. Falling outperformance is a global trend and as the Indian markets align with the world, their outperformance will come down.

5. What Precautions we need to take?

         (i) Keep it simple:

ETFs mentioned above, except those tracking the indices, are complicated. So we should invest in them only if we understand them properly, or should seek the help of experts. Although we can trade in ETFs on intra-day like equities however we should use ETFs only to align our investment objectives, not for trading.

       (ii) Buy only liquid schemes

Liquidity is a major problem for Indian ETFs, there are several ETFs that are not traded frequently. As they are bought and sold in the markets un-like mutual funds, ETF issuers have no obligation to buy it back from Investors hence an investor has to totally depend on the market for selling and buying them. And, when the trading is less, the bid-ask spread widens, raising the impact cost for both buyers and sellers. So ETF investors should restrict themselves to the counters with sufficient liquidity. To ensure liquidity, choose ETFs that have a large asset base. It is also an insurance against a fund house abruptly closing an ETF if it becomes unviable.

        (iii) Restrict the total exposure

As currently in India the ETF options are very few hence investors should restrict exposure to around 10-15% of total portfolio, and increase it only when more opportunities arise.

                 

Investors often compare ETFs with mutual funds. It's like comparing apple with orange. Every investment is different and caters to the different needs of investors. So while making any investment decisions we should be clear about our risk appetite, investment horizon, financial goals and take experts advise to select the right products.

Are we Financially Independent ?

This month we have completed 70 years of Independence, so have we also got financially independent. If not then it’s high time to think of our financial independence.

Financial independence occurs when we have saved enough to support for the rest of our life without needing to work for money. We can still choose to work for other purposes – like for some passion/hobbies or any other purpose - but we no longer need an income to meet our expenses.

Attaining financial independence requires discipline and limitation of wasteful spending especially on non-essential items. It's a myth that financial independence can be achieved only by wealthy, It all depends on developing good money management skills.

Achieving financial independence is an ongoing process; it's a behaviour pattern that must be practised consistently. We are outlining some tips for achieving financial freedom:

1. Invest on self to increase future Income

We should continuously improve our skills. By being better at our profession will pay us more for what we do. We should learn new technologies, on-going trends and future of particular business so as to keep ourselves updated with them and learn to use the best from them.

2. Choose the lifestyle

It Is always advisable not to spend all our Income just to maintain certain lifestyle.

Also never use debt to fund the lifestyle; the use of credit cards to fund a particular lifestyle will only move backwards. First we should conduct a careful analysis of where most of our money is spent and we may figure out the wasteful expenditures that are unnecessary and can be removed from the list. This is all about gauging what is important enough for me to spend our money on. You can use our calculators at www.capstreetconsultants.com to gauge the money required for future necessities.

3. Evaluate financial decisions carefully

Before making any financial commitments, we should look at our financial situation holistically, for example, Instead of buying something we really want on credit rather save for it. It's better to save for the items we want to buy, it's delayed gratification but much cheaper. Start a Systematic Investment Plan to fuel our dreams.

4. Not just Save but Invest Wisely

By putting money aside we let your money work for us. We should also take advantage of the Tax Saving plans too by which we can save tax as well as invest the money for future. We should Invest in Equity and equity oriented funds for achieving long term goals. Ignore financial news and the fluctuations of the market keep investing In good times and bad.

5. Be sufficiently insured

Life Insurance provides the much needed peace of mind while we Plan for our Financial Independence. Health Insurance is also very important to keep ourselves secure for medical emergencies. Though people argue that if you have Financial independence, then you don't really NEED Life Insurance. However, real life is usually more complicated than what we think.

Staying Financially Independent is not one day job but is an ongoing process, even after we have realised our goal off financial freedom, We need to ensure it stays that way. We should stay abreast with our economic conditions and how they affect us personally. Our financial needs will change according to various life stages. We must ensure that our finances are also tuned according to the stage of our life.

Asset Rebalancing: The need of the Hour

After a continuous rally of almost five months finally equity market fallen this month. The BSE Sensex fallen by 4% (approx.) or 1362 points from 1st August closing to 31213 on 11th August 2017.

This makes us realize the real truth of the equity market that we should not expect that it will rise continuously. Over a longer period it may rise but in short duration market is always volatile and it will keep on going up and downs. So what is the solution for this, how should we invest in this kind of situation?

What is an Investment : An investment is putting money to get more money in future it can be by three ways. Firstly, lending money to someone who pays interest on it, be it a business or the government. Secondly, becoming a part-owner of a business, as in having a share in it. Thirdly, by buying something that may become more valuable in future, like gold, art works or real estate etc.

Asset rebalancing is the investment technique which can provide us balanced approach for investments. As mentioned there are two types of financial investments, one is equity (shares) and other is fixed income (deposits, bonds, etc). Here as we all know that Equity has higher potential to rise but carries more risk, while fixed income gives lower but steady gains. We are not discussing third option as they do not give any regular returns and it is very difficult to predict their values for future. We should design our investment portfolio depending on our needs. Actually we should be investing in both (equity & fixed income) asset classes at a particular proportion which is called as an Asset Allocation. However over a period of time, equity and fixed income grow at different rates, hence disrupting the initial asset allocation. Therefore to rebalance the portfolio we may be required to shift money from one asset class to other one.

So what is the Ideal Portfolio: Well it is difficult to give any ideal number however it can be 50% +/- 10% of total portfolio depending upon a person’s need, and risk appetite. Historically we have seen that this kind of portfolio can give higher returns with lesser volatility. The simple logic for distributing our investments in both asset class is that as both are fundamentally different but complementary also. So in terms of the conflicting need of investments to get high returns as well as safety, each plays a role that compensates for the other's deficiencies.

So how it helps: When the markets fall, the 50% allocations portfolio will fall much less than the 80-90% of pure equity portfolios. Agreed that they also rise less when the markets recover, but that's fine because they have fallen less initially. There are studies which shows that to compensate one Rupee loss a person needs three to four Rupee gains, i.e. loss is more painful than the joy we get by profits. So portfolio allocation not just balances the returns but psychologically also it helps a person to feel much better as his portfolio falls less compared to full equity portfolio.  By portfolio allocation we are more likely to stay invested in bad times due to less losses. For example during the crash of 2008-09, we would have lost nearly 60% of our value, from the January 2008 peak of the market to the March 2009 bottom. However, in the 50% equity option, the losses would have been limited to around 30%.

So how to rebalance our Portfolio: As we all know that equity grows faster than debt, but is much more volatile and also falls sharply as compared to debt instruments, so the best way to protect our self and take advantage of the fact is to decide on a percentage balance between equity and debt, and sticking to it by periodically shifting money away from the one that becomes high to the one that becomes low. When equity is growing faster than fixed income-which normally happens most of the time—we should periodically sell some equity investments and invest the money in fixed income to restore the balance. When debt starts growing faster, we should sell some of our fixed income and move it into equity. While this sounds like a difficult thing to implement, but there are few mutual funds which do it themselves so it makes our life easy.

Every human needs variety in all parts of life be it food or clothes or vehicle or job etc. Similarly we cannot invest in just one asset class we need to allocate our portfolio in different asset classes so as to diversify our risk as well as get the best out of them. 

Want to Retire Early and Enjoy Life, You can do it this way !!

Enjoying life is everyone’s dream. Given a choice many of us would like to get out of the corporate race, and spend time to pursue hobbies or like spending more time with family, travelling around the world,  philanthropy work or  even starting our own business. However most of us could not do it as we have various personal and family commitments which keep us on our daily routine working life.

So is there any solution to get out of the regular life and enjoy it, Let’s find out the ways and means to achieve this. 

1. First find out the Money Required:

The first step is to find out how much money will be required if we stop working.  It will have two figures: first the annual cash flow required for meeting regular expenses and secondly the size of the corpus needed to generate that much annual cash flows.

As a thumb rule we will need approximate 80% of pre-retirement expense (some working expenses like travelling etc may go away) to live same life style. However it can vary based on our future plans the actual number could vary. So first we need to get that figure which we need to meet our expenses.


2. Calculating the Retirement Corpus

We can expect that if we withdraw 4-5% of our investment portfolio we can comfortably live with that portfolio for our remaining life. This is based on the assumption that the corpus will generate around 6-10% annualised return.

Accordingly, let us assume that we need a monthly income of 50,000 i.e. annual income of Rs.6,00,000 per year, then you need to create a portfolio of Rs.1.20-1.50 crore which is 20-25 times of our annual required income. However we should also remember that prices will rise due to inflation and that is also to be factored in.

3. Increase the Income: 

Once we have arrived at the corpus size required, the next step is to create the corpus of that amount. For that we need to save as much as possible from our monthly income as well as one time cash flows like bonus etc.  Further if we believe that reaching the desired corpus is difficult by the time we wish to retire, then we should find out ways to enhance our income. There are multiple ways to enhance the income i.e. by improving our job skills/ qualifications, taking a part-time job, set up a side business etc or a combination of all. 

4. Borrow only for necessity: 

Borrowing means living on the future incomes, so if we want to build a sufficient retirement corpus we should keep away from unnecessary loans (like buying costly electronic items in EMIs) as it reduces our present cash flow to service the debt. Further if we are in habit of borrowing, we may carry some debt during your retirement period. This will increase the cost of living post retirement. This will result into bigger retirement corpus to service the debt too. 

5. Be Realistic:

Some time to show off the outer world we get into those kind of expenses which drains out our regular cash flows. Suppose if we buy a big house which is not required, we may end up paying bigger EMIs and maintenance cost, expensive furniture and fittings, utilities, etc. this leaves very little money to do anything else. If we get into these kind of expenses, building a retirement corpus will be more difficult So, our housing loan should be well within our comfort zone as it is not only a long-term expense but also have an impact on our future cash flows.

Retirement is nothing but financial independence. To achieve financial independence we need enough money to create income to support our lifestyle for the rest of your life without getting employed. Although it is difficult but still possible if we can apply the above strategies. 

Credit Cards!! Are they Good or Bad & How can we use it smartly!!

One of my friend has taken a credit card long time back. He got a good credit limit and as soon as he got the card he started using it freely: anywhere and everywhere for items which he may not have otherwise bought, without bothering how will he pay the bill which will come next month. When the bill came he realised that he cannot pay the entire amount in one go so he used the rollover (part payment) facility. By the time he actually cleared the full amount he realised that the total amount paid was almost double the amount of actual purchase. Finally he surrendered the credit card by cursing the credit card company.

Are credit card really so bad or dangerous? Well it’s the way we use a product determines the good or bad about it. Any particular thing could be good if used in limited way and can be very dangerous if used without limits/precautions. So how can we use credit cards so that it is good for our financial health and does not create any hazards? We would be discussing about it in this post, let’s understand it in details:

How To Use Your Credit Card Prudently…          

1.                We should know our limit:

All credit cards come with a ceiling limit. If we are a free spender we should choose a card with a low limit and moderately utilise the credit limit, say 30%-40% of our overall limit while keeping our repayment capacity in mind. 

2.               Clear entire dues on or before due date:

Credit card companies provide a free credit period, which means, if we make payments before the payment cycle ends and by the due date, No interest will be charged. However, if we do not make the payments within the due time, we are likely to pay interest which is usually as high as 36%-42% p.a., i.e. 3-3.5% on the outstanding amount due each month. Another important thing is when we don’t clear the dues on time the interest is charged from the date of purchase not from due date so the benefits which we get by the due dates are not available. Further the service tax/GST is also applicable on the interest amount.

3.               Better to avoid using grace period: 

Few credit card companies offer a grace period to settle your dues. Ideally, we shouldn’t wait this long to settle our credit card account. It is better to pay within the free credit period. As availing the grace period may dampen the credit score, and in turn, weaken our eligibility for loan proposals in the future. 

4.               Don’t get carried away by reward points & other benefits :

This is plain business, the credit card company will make money based on how much we use. That’s why they offer credit reward points and various other offers to make us use our credit card as much as possible. That’s a way they earn more revenue. Further in case we don’t make a payment in time, the interest charged turns out to be an additional benefits for them. So, one marketing strategy is to launch attractive reward-point systems that encourage people to spend more on a credit card. We should control impulsive purchases and keep the usage of plastic money under strict control.

5.               Secure the card details:

Now credit card frauds are very common things if we do not take proper precautions while using the cards. We should not store card details, while using the credit card to make online purchases, as they can be misused if the merchant site fails to protect the secrecy of your data. We should always use two-step authentication and don’t allow any ‘fast-forward’ transaction. 

Unless is “https://” on the payment page, don’t enter any payment/personal/card details. By viewing the site information, we can also check if the communication between you and the website is private and protected. Be careful when using at a merchant outlet as well. 

6.               Don’t withdraw cash by the credit card:

If we use credit card, even in an emergency, to withdraw money from an ATM, there is an exorbitant fees charged by credit card companies. We should maintain a contingency reserve, so that we do not require to use credit card to borrow cash. This is very important as it credit card company charges fees in case of cash withdrawal even if we pay by due dates.

Few other points to remember while opting for a credit card

• ·        If we are a spending freak, it is better that we use a debit card instead of a credit card—the first step to rationalise your expenditure pattern.
• ·        Revisit the lifestyle options if our credit card bills are major part of our monthly income. This is a sign that we are overspending.
• ·     We should not use another credit card to settle your old credit card dues called as balanced transfer—this is the beginning of a big debt trap that may haunt over a long time.
• ·    If we are unable to keep our expenses under control, perhaps it is time to take expert’s assistance.

Credit cards can be of great help if we are judicious. If we keep the above things in mind like not making only minimum payments, not paying the bills late and exceeding the credit limit, credit cards can be real handy. 

What are the factors we should look at before starting investing through SIP?

Curranty Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) are one of the most favourite investment instruments advised by all the investment advisors. Many of us get confused that SIP is a product. So, before jumping on to understanding how to choose the best SIP, let’s first get some clarity on what SIP really means.

What is SIP

A SIP or we call as systematic investment plan is an investment method to invest at regular intervals (monthly, quarterly or annually) in specific mutual funds schemes, which in turn invest in the markets. Being a flexible instrument, SIPs help to build wealth and instil the habit of saving even we are normally undisciplined. The major benefit of investing in SIPs is the power of compounding. We earn compound interest on our investment, thereby, increasing our investment amount significantly over the long run.

How to Select the Best SIP

When we have to reach some place we need to select a right vehicle i.e. For 5 km distance the suitable vehicle can be a bike or car, for 500 we may prefer a train and for 5000 km we have to use aeroplane. What a bike can do a plane cannot similarly what a plane can do bike cannot. In investment also we have certain financial destinations like kids education, buying home, kids marriage or self-retirement hence Choosing the right fund to invest in via a SIP is very critical to earning high returns and also to get the money at the time it is required. Therefore we should keep in mind the following factors when deciding which SIP to invest in.

1.    What is my Investment Objective:

We should know the purpose of investment before starting the investment in a fund. We need to ask ourself two questions. 1) Are we investing for the short term or the long term? And, 2) what is my risk appetite? Our investment horizon and risk profile will help to determine which type of fund will best suited. For example if we are a risk-averse investor and want consistent returns, without a high up-down reaction, debt funds might be more your thing. If we are ready to take some risk and investment horizon is medium, balanced funds could be the answer. Or if we are in for the long haul and are comfortable with market volatility, equity funds can be the right option.

2.    What type of Fund should we invest in:

There are different type of mutual funds, and it is very important to know which type is suitable for our risk appetite. Let’s understand the basic types of mutual funds:

(i) Asset-based mutual funds

a)   Equity Funds – In these funds money is invested in equity shares. These funds are further categorised into various types: large cap, diversified, mid cap, small cap, sector specific and index funds.

b)    Debt Funds – In these funds money is invested in fixed income securities i.e. debentures, bonds and government securities, commercial papers, certificate of deposits etc. These funds can be further classified based on investment tenure: money market, income and fixed maturity funds.

c)     Balanced Funds – These are hybrid of equity and debt funds and try to capture the best of both worlds to an investor. They counter equity fund’s risky profile by simultaneously investing in debt instruments to ensure steady returns to the investor.

(ii) Structure-based mutual funds

a)    Open-ended – In these schemes an investor can enter or exit these funds at any time, without restriction.

b)   Close-ended – These funds are open for investment for a specific time during the scheme’s launch. Once the new fund offer (NFO) closes, no further investments can be made. These funds have specific maturity dates on that date either redemption can be made or money can be switched to other open ended funds.

3.    What are the Tax implications:

In mutual funds schemes we get certain tax benefits which should be kept in mind while investing.

For equity mutual funds, all dividend is tax free in the hands of investors and capital gains are tax free after one year of investment. For less than one year 15% is the tax rate on equity mutual funds. Balanced funds having equity part of 65% and more are treated as equity funds.

In debt funds an investor get indexation benefits after three years which comes under long term capital gain rules. For less than three years the short term capital gain is added to the income of investor and taxed according to the tax bracket he/she falls in. In debt funds the dividend is tax free in the hands of investor however there is dividend distribution tax paid by mutual funds which is in the range of 28.84%- 34.608%

Therefore it is very important to keep the tax implications in mind while deciding the investments.

4.    What are Entry or Exit load:

Few years back, while investing in funds we need to pay some entry charges called as entry load. However, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has stopped funds from levying an entry load. So, now, the only time we pay is when we are exiting/redeeming a fund before a specific time this is called an exit load. The fee varies with scheme, investment tenure and amount. For example, there is a fund which has exit load of 1% if redeemed before one year and we have invested one lakhs rupees and it grows to 1.10 lakhs in ten months and we wish to withdraw now then we will actually get 108900 /- only (1.10 lakhs -1% of 1.10 lakhs). Exit loads too are regulated by SEBI and all the fund houses have to follow the directives.

5.    How the fund has performed in the Past:

Past performance of a funds many not necessarily be repetitive however still it makes lot of sense to analyse the historical performance of the funds vis a vis other funds.  Performance does not includes returns only but we should also analyse its volatility, excess returns earned by fund manager’s ability, returns compared to benchmarks and other peer schemes. A comparison of historical performance will tell us how strong or weak a fund is and whether it can withstand market volatility. We should avoid funds that perform strongly when the market is high but collapses as soon as the market also falls. When studying the trends, we should look more on long term, say 5 years and 10 years and avoid a myopic view.

6.    What are the expenses:

This expense ratio comprises management fee and administrative costs, and is essentially a fund’s annual fee which it charges to perform its duties. A mutual fund scheme which have higher assets under management usually have lower expense ratios, making them a go-to option. A difference of 0.5% in expense ratios of two funds may not look significant but should not be taken lightly. Consider Fund A with an expense ratio of 2.5% and Fund B with 2%. Now, for these two funds to give same returns, Fund A will have to outperform Fund B every single year. While this may seem possible, in the long term, maintaining this performance could be difficult. Simply put, a high expense ratio can pull down a fund’s performance, however we should also look at how much alpha (additional return) a fund manager is generating if the expense ratio is higher. If our research has filtered down to funds that are similar in nature, we can choose among them on the basis of expense ratio.

7.    Who is the Mutual Fund Company:

Every mutual fund company have its own systems, process, peoples etc. These factors impacts the overall performance of its various mutual fund schemes. A fund is as good as its fund house. The decisions taken by the mutual fund company shapes a fund’s return-yielding capacity and growth. If the fund house does not take the right calls, investors will end up losing money. Before investing, read about the fund house and the fund scheme you intend to invest in. We should get a copy of the scheme information document and key information document to get details about the fund house’s investment approach, number of schemes offered, funds/products designed with investors in mind, and more. Answers to these questions will enlighten us to decide which fund house will be able to help us reach your investment goals.

Finally, investment is not just a numbers game but an emotional decision. It is not just one time decision but a long term continuing process. Hence it is very important that we should consult an expert not just to understand what is it as of now but also to understand the future implications and how should we carry on so as to achieve our financial goals comfortably without any shocks and surprises.

Why should we file our Income Tax Return on time

Tax filing time is back again. Yes, it’s that time of the year when we have to file our income tax. For many of us, filing tax returns can be a tedious process. Although, the government has simplified the tax filing process making it much easier and less cumbersome for taxpayers to file returns many of us still find it difficult to understand.

It may be simple for few and complex for others however we should not delay it which can cost us dearly.

For this year government notified a simpler one-page form for filing your tax returns. Along with this, quoting Aadhaar number is now mandatory. Linking Aadhaar can now be completed in a few simple steps. By linking your Aadhaar, we can e-verify our returns, without having to send the physical return form for processing, thus, adding to the convenience.

Income Tax Filing Dates

July 31, 2017	Due date for filing annual return of income for the assessment year 2017-18
	for all assesse other than –
	(a) corporate-assesse or
	(b) non-corporate assesse, whose books of account are required to be audited
	or
	(c) working partner of a firm whose accounts are required to be audited or
	(d) an assesse who is required to furnish a report under section 92E
September 30, 2017	Due date for filing annual of income for the assessment year 2017-18 if the
	assesse is –
	(a) corporate-assesse or
	(b) non-corporate assesse (whose books of account are required to be audited)
	or
	(c) Working partner of a firm whose accounts are required to be audited).

Why we should file it on time, here we have outlined few major reasons to file our income tax return early –

1. Fast processing of IT returns

If we file our returns well before deadline dates, our files are processed much faster. As we approach closer to deadline dates the processing time increases due to increase in volume.  Further the servers also slows down due to due to heavy volume as the tax return deadline comes nearer. So it it always advisable to file the return well in time so as to avoid the rush and possible delays.

2. Reducing the chances of errors

If we start working on our returns early we get enough time to gather all the information and enough time to do it properly and error free. When we file in last minutes, in haste, we may forget to include certain incomes/exemptions resulting into a wrong information. Although we can file a revised return before the end of the next assessment year, which is March 31, 2019 for AY2017-18. But it is always advisable to file the things correctly at first time itself.  Further from next year the deadline for filing revised returns has been reduced, i.e. AY2018-19, the deadline for filing revised returns is March 31, 2019. So it’s better to start early so as to avoid errors and delays in processing.

3. Refunds are faster
Normally the IT refund processing takes more time than processing forms with a tax due. So If we file your claim in advance and have a tax refund, our return may get processed faster. As the time goes by, it may get delayed due to the rush. So if we get our refunds sooner we can put it to productive use early and reap earnings. The longer we delay, means missing out on the income which could be earned on that amount. Further, if our refund amount is greater than 10% of the tax payable, government pays an interest @6% p.a. calculated from the date of filing the return. We lose this benefit if the returns are filed after due date.

4. It gives sufficient time to get all documents in order

We need to collect all the required documents i.e. income details, home loan EMI details, various tax savings investments, accrued income, TDS certificates, Form 26AS etc. before filing our IT returns. By starting for our income tax preparation early, we will get enough time to gather all these documents from various sources. Although we are not required to attach these documents however there details are necessary to complete the returns so we need to have all the details with us before filing the returns.

5. This will avoid late payment and penal interest

As per Income tax Act if we file the returns after due date we are liable to pay interest and also penalty. Under Section 234F of the Income Tax Act) there will be two set of penalties, first, a Rs 5,000 penalty for belated returns filed on or before December 31 for that assessment year and Rs 10,000 for any other case. For small taxpayers whose total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh, the penalty amount is reduced to Rs 1,000. Apart from this, under Section 234A, interest would be levied @1% per month, calculated from the due date. So there is another advantage of filing returns well in time so as to avoid this extra cost.

6. Your Tax Consultant will pay more attention

If you file the return through Chartered Accountant or some professional, by reaching them well before the deadline you will get sufficient time to discuss with them and they will give you good hearing. This will also give them enough time to examine your documents and eradicate errors and/ or be able to save you more tax.. In last moments they are also filled with lot of files and may not be able to pay as much attention.

7. Faster processing of loans, visa, credit cards

Currently IT return is compulsory for getting loans, credit cards and most of the financial services. Because income tax return acts is proof of the income we earn. Therefore, if we are planning to take home loan or any other financial services, it is pertinent to have all your income proofs ready. In addition, paying your tax on time adds to your credentials as a trustworthy and law-abiding citizen.

8. It gives ideas for future tax planning

When we file returns early, we may get ideas on how to save tax in the current financial year. As every year the tax rules changes; thus, filing returns early, may give ideas on how to save on tax for the current financial year. By tis we can optimise tax deductions available. In addition, we can negotiate with our employer to alter and optimise your salary structure to save more tax. 

9. It eliminate stress

When we do anything in last moment it increases our stress level and chances of mistakes are also high. So by filing the returns on time we can avoid the additional stress of missing the due date or being charged a late fee and penal interest. Stress has been known to adversely affect our health. By submitting our tax returns before the deadline, we will be happier with a host of benefits.

We should have a proper and well planned tax planning at the start if the year. Tax planning is not just tax saving or filing returns and paying taxes but a larger financial plan which should be taken into consideration after accounting for age, financial goals, ability to take risk, and investment horizon (including nearness to financial goals).

We must file your tax returns on time and should also ensure that taxes are paid before the due date. This will not only provide you with several benefits, but also defer additional costs in the form of penalties that can arise later.