The New Case For FDs


wealthymattersYou can’t run a shop without cash in the till. And in the same way you can’t get through life smoothly without a certain cushion of readily accessible cash that you can dip into as per your need. For quite a while now, readily accessible money meant various types of bank accounts, stocks and mutual funds that you could cash in fast whenever needed even as they continued to grow quietly in the background.

However, this year’s budget has changed the situation a bit on account of the 2 quotes below:

The return on investment in equity is already quite attractive even without tax exemption. There is therefore a strong case for bringing long term capital gains from listed equities in the tax net. However, recognising the fact that vibrant equity market is essential for economic growth, I propose only a modest change in the present regime. I propose to tax such long term capital gains exceeding Rs1 lakh at the rate of 10% without allowing the benefit of any indexation. Read more of this post

PAN Cards And FDs


wealthymatters.comUnder section 139A of the I-T Act,only persons whose income is chargeable to tax are required to obtain a PAN.However section 206 AA of the same Act, which became effective from assessment year 2010-11, makes it mandatory for every person to furnish PAN card in their transactions with banks and financial institutions.So section 206AA compeled even those without a taxable income to obtain a PAN, failing which tax would be deducted at source.

A writ petition was filed before the Karnataka High Court by A Kowsalya and two other small investors, who had made investments in financial institutions (F Is). They do not have any income other than the income received from F I s and they have declared this under Form 15G. Form 15G is usually used for declaring that a person’s income is below taxable limit, and therefore, the bank or FI is not required to deduct tax at source while making payments.The FIs, however, told the petitioners that tax would be deducted at source if they did not furnish PAN cards as required under section 206AA of the Income-Tax Act. The petitioners challenged the validity of Section 206AA of the Income-tax Act in their writ petition. Read more of this post

Investing in NCDs


wealthymatters.comA non-convertible debenture is a fixed income instrument where the issuer agrees to pay a fixed rate of interest to the investor. An NCD cannot be converted into equity of the issuing company unlike convertible debentures.NCDs are good substitutes for fixed deposits,especially company deposits.

Debentures are of two types secured and unsecured. The debentures with a “charge” on the assets of the issuer are called secured debentures. So in case of a default by the issuer, the secured debenture holders are paid by selling the assets against which the charge was created. Secured NCDs offer lower interest than their unsecured counterparts. Read more of this post

Bank Fixed Deposits


wealthymatters.comA bank FD is a savings instrument where you deposit an amount with the bank for a fixed duration.You earn a fixed rate of interest on this investment. The interest rate is fixed at the time of the investment – even if interest rates change during the tenure of the FD, the interest that you earn on your FD remains fixed. A FD is also called a Term Deposit at times, as it is an investment for a pre-defined term.

All banks have their own rules on minimum deposits.Most nationalized banks will start a FD with just Rs.1000.

The tenure of a FD can be anywhere from 15 days to 10 years.The rate of interest offered on a FD depends on various parameters: the prevailing interest rates, the duration of the FD, the amount of the FD, your age, etc.Usually, the longer the tenure of the FD, the higher is the interest rate.However,when the economy has a liquidity crunch,banks do offer higher rates on short-term deposits too.They also come out with Special Term Deposits of more unusual tenures such as 555 days, 1001 days etc.Most banks offer a different rate of interest on FDs of more than a certain amount, usually Rs. 15 Lakhs.Also, most banks offer an extra 0.5% per annum to Senior Citizens.Some banks also offer different rates for Trusts and Societies. Read more of this post

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