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POSTED BY ON July 25, 2010 COMMENTS (86)
The Government has come out with new revised Direct Tax Code (pdf) and there are many changes which might look good to investors finally. Most of the people were not happy with the old tax code as it made some products taxable like PPF , Endowment Plans etc, which investors were totally worried about. Now Govt has made some changes earlier which looked extreme to investors and they were not happy about it, however still there are some things which will pinch investors. Old Direct Code tax was challenged and the govt reconsidered the Old Direct Tax Code and has finally come up with this new revised set of rules which I will list down here.
Finally, under New Tax Code: PPF, EPF, NPS, Pure Insurance products and Pension Products have come under EEE regime, which means that the amount you contribute, & any return or interest generated and the final maturity is exempt from tax. The major change in the revised Direct Tax code is that at the time of maturity of these products, you don’t have to pay tax on the amount you get. In the old Code the maturity was taxable.
These products are under EET regime, so the money you get at the end will be TAXABLE. (More)
Existing and prospective real estate buyers have some thing to cheer about. In the Revised Tax code, Interest will still be exempted upto 1.5 lacs, but principal would not be getting any place in sec 80C , which is again not a big problem as generally 80C gets filled up with EPF, Insurance, children’s tuition and other products for most people. (Returns from Real Estate)
Another big change which is there is that now on a rented flat, the gross rent for taxation would be actual rent received. Earlier, if you had not let out your flat and it was vacant, you still had to pay tax on the notional rent (the old draft it was said that it can be upto 6% of the value of the property.) But now, with revised tax code you don’t have to pay any tax if you don’t get any rent from your rented (and second house) house Would be nice to see your views on controversy of Buying vs Renting
Incase you have any existing Investments, which enjoyed EEE method of taxation, they would be treated the same way for their full tenure.
There are some big changes here. For sure your equity investments in shares and Equity mutual funds are going to be taxed now 🙂 But in a different way. The old tax code suggested that short-term capital gains on Equity should be added to the income and taxed at applicable tax rates and long-term gains (above 1 yrs) should get Indexation benefits and then they should be added to your income for taxation purpose.
However the new revised tax code has changed this and a new concept of “Deductions” is in . As per this rule , for any long-term capital gains, you will get certain specified deductions which will be some percentage of your profits, and then after deducting these, the rest will be added to your income and then taxed at applicable rates. The indexation concept is now gone . The short-term capital gains still gets added to income and then taxed . The short-term capital gains will actually be now beneficial to people who earn 10 lacs of less , as earlier they had to pay 15% tax , but now as they have to pay 10% tax as per the new slab , the tax on short-term capital gain part will be 10% only .There is no enough clarity on the deductions percentage as of now. (Using looses to reduce your tax)
One another major change is the definition of the holding period. As of now, it will be 1 yr from the end of the financial year when you bought your shares which means that if you bought your shares or mutual funds on 5th of Apr 2010 , then the end of that financial year would be 31st Mar 2011 and then 1 yr from that 31st Mar 2011 would be 31st Mar 2012 , so effectively your Holding period can range from 1 yrs to 2 yrs depending on when you buy the shares, so the short-term capital gain would be if you sell it before your holding period and long-term capital gains would be if you sell it after your holding period .
The long-term gains on these assets would now be after 1 yrs 🙂 . Earlier it was 3 yrs. The long-term capital gains would qualify for Indexation as it was applicable earlier and short-term capital gains will directly be added to income and taxed . Earlier the base date for indexation values was taken from 1 Apr 1981, however now the base date shifts to Apr 1, 2000. This will now reflect the inflationary changes in these asset classes in a better way.
What happens to the properties very old like 30-40 yrs ? Some thing new has come up !! , your original indexed cost price wont be considered , but the price on Apr 1 , 2000 would be Applicable, as per my understanding .
Interesting : So what about those who have invested in Equity after Mar 31 , 2010 ? If they sell it before 31st Mar 2011 , they will pay short term capital gains of as high as 30% or 20% (depending on which slab you come in this year) , OR the other option is to hold it and sell it later so that New Direct Code applies to you and you pay just 10% on the profits considering you taxable income is less than 10 lacs . Watch the video below on this issue .
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Hi
1. I am goi to invest in ELSS for some 60000 for this financial year. while redeeming after 3 yrs this will it be taxable or as i have invested before dtc implementation is it tax free ??
2. now only started sip in some five funds . I am a long term investor for the next 25 yrs. what would be the effect while redeeming the mutual funds after some 7 yrs?
pls tell me
Vignesh
1. It might not be taxable .. but still its unclear and the final rule will be clear once DTC is in force ..
2. Depends on tax laws at that time , for now , its will be tax free
Manish
anay clarity on whether lss funds will given exemption or the tax break is going to be more than three years
Anant
When DTC comes , there will be nothing called ELSS ,there wont be tax saving mutual funds atall
Manish
Manish,
In case of SIP’s what should you go opt for, growth option, dividend option or dividend reinvest option (in wake of the changes in DTC code).
regards.
amarawargaonkar
Amarnath
There is still 2 yrs left for DTC to come , for now go for growth only !
Manish
What if I have Tax saving mutual funds invested thru SIP for long periods say for 30 yrs.
How the DTC will affect my returns after 30 yrs, and do i need to pay tax while investing, after the DTC come in picture?
Praful
Yes , ELSS will get out of tax saving bracket . So you wont be able to save tax on your investments , also the returns would be taxable
Manish
in case of HRA received from employer.
Now what is the tax implecation of HRA rec and rent paid
gs chowdhary
Its the same thing like always , its not changes yet !
Manish
Hi Manish,
I wanted to know if dividend by company is taxable. Suppose I buy 100 share of a company and I get 1 Rs per share as the dividend then do I need to pay tax on 1*100=100 Rs?
Thank you,
Balbir
Balbir
No , you dont need to pay any tax if you have paid STT (which you have paid if you bought from recognised exchanges like NSE or BSE) , else you have to pay tax
Manish
Hi Manish,
Gone through that post..
So mainly changes are in captial gain ..short term investment period is reduce to 1 yrfrm 3 yr ..So take away is to do investment for long term period..
So that we need to pay less tax..right ?
I am still not clear from when new DTC rule be applicable..Is it applicable for all investment starting from 1st April 2010 or starting from 1st April 2011.
@yogesh,
the definition of long term capital gain and short term capital gain is not modified. short term is still less than 1 year and long term is above 1 year. only tax treatment is different.
DTC rule is applicable for the investments after April 1, 2011. Whatever you invest today, it enjoys the existing rule even if it matures in DTC period.
Morever, I found one change from TOI article here,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Direct-Taxes-Code-Bill-Youll-save-tax-but-not-much/articleshow/6442402.cms
Life insurance + health insurance + tuition fees maximum limit under tax saving is limited to Rs. 50,000.
Manish did you observe this?
first of all I don’t understand why separate tax slab for women?
and that too in DTC, women and senior citizens are offered same tax slab.
If any one knows reason why govt giving different tax slab for women. please share..
Simple.. They represent big Bank i.e., Vote Bank , It is just Sentimental, Emotional touch -in the name of weaker sex -to garner ‘ Votes ‘ , (another reason also they could influence their near &dear one’s -to connvert Vote bank at a larger extent.) ‘Humbly’ feels beyond that Nothing specific , as Politicians have to run their show.Its Reality.
Srinivas
Yes I looked at it yesterday night itself and included in the draft post I wrote last night , if you find more info , please share it with me on email so that I can include it too
Manish
Thanks srinivas .
Hi Manish,
Is it possible to put some information in post like what are advantage in current taxation system which can be availed before 1st april 2011 as after DTC it won’t be available.
Is there any better thing which we will going to lose in new DTC?
Regards
Yogesh
Yogesh
If you are ready to put some efforts and read comments , you will get more than what you want 🙂
Manish
Some good points..
1.
As of now, it is proposed to provide the EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) method of taxation for Government Provident Fund (GPF), Public Provident Fund (PPF) and Recognised Provident Funds (RPF) …”, the revised DTC released by the Finance Ministry said.
2.
revised proposal has also made it clear that tax incentives on housing loans will continue.
Yogesh
Did you look at tax slabs ? are you happy with it ?
Manish
Last year, FM projected DTC as a simple and revolution in Indian tax system after Independence. But finally it resulted in a same old story. They only know how to loot tax payers money in the name of common man, common wealth games…… -:(
Hi Manish,
I don’t have full information so can’t say whether changes are good or not.
But there looks some relief to common people like
1)No tax for income upto 2 lachs
2)For senior citizen its 2.5 lachs
3)people who were in income range of 5-10lach has to give 20%..there may be some discount here ..
Which point went in reverse directions ?In short can have some summary..I want to know in respect to investment ..like which were EEE and now changed to EET or so on..
I read DTC will be applicable from April 2011 so if we make
any investment now(till mar 2011) then will it still be applicable as per old/current income tax rule for future..Plz clear the doubs..
Regards
Yogesh
Yogesh
Looks like you have not gone through the recent article : http://jagoinvestor.dev.diginnovators.site/2010/07/changes-in-new-direct-tax-code-dtc.html
I will put the recent changes which happened yesterday soon 🙂
Manish
Srinivas
Yup , even i am disappointed on that , I expect them to come up with the explaination for why they dont have the earliar slab ?
Manish
New updates on DTC…
http://www.ndtv.com/article/business/new-direct-tax-code-major-relief-for-salaried-class-47396
Ajay
Thanks , I think the updates are new for the tax rates part only , which might be a disappointment , considering they are making most of the things taxable 🙂
Will post more details on this 🙂
Manish
why dividend reinvestment would be better option than growth under DTC?
Ranjan
I still have to study that , however seems like every reinvest ment would be treated as new investment and the dividends would be tax free . .
Manish
Under DTC i.e in 2011-12, if I do not withdraw from my equity mutual funds,growth option, shall I have to pay LTCG based on the profit accumulated?
Ranjan
Its not clear yet , i will let you know
Manish
Dear manish,
In case of SIP in equity related MF what should be the choice to invest – Growth, dividend or dividend reinvest option. I am asking this as LTCG and STCG have been changed in the revised DTC.
Thanks.
Amar
This needs further thinking 🙂 . So I will get back on this later . I think dividend reinvestment would work better .
Manish
From the discussions above, it is learnt that the investments made in MFs upto 31 March, 2011 will be subject to EEE in terms of LTCG. This is clear.
Can somebody please explain as to how and who will keep account of these investments [whether made before or after 31 Mar’11]? It appears to be difficult for fund houses also to keep track and monitoring investments!!!
Going by the discussions, one should invest maximum upto 31 Mar’11 so that the tax could be saved. Am I correct?
rckausal
no , you are correct on saving tax at the time of investing, but you have to consider withdrawal also , if the withdrawal lies after 31st mar 2011 , it would be taxable .
Also no one will keep track of things, its your responsibility to pay tax , and file the return , else if they catch you , you will suffer .
Manish
Thanks Manish Sir,
Will the DTC affect THOSE investments which were made before 31 Mar’11?
My interpretation is that since the investments in question were made before implementation of the DTC – their proceeds should be applicable to the Pre-DTC tax laws – means LTCG tax free. Please enlighten.
Thanks in advance
rckaushal
There is some confusion on that part, its mentioned in DTC that all the investments done before the due date of DTC coming into effect , will enjoy the same rules as it was earliar . But still more confirmation is needed
Manish
“Incase you have any existing Investments, which enjoyed EEE method of taxation, they would be treated the same way for their full tenure.”
So a SIP for 10years in ELSS if started today, will be EEE till I sell all the units?
No the investment made till the new Tax regime is in place will be eligible for EEE. That is any ELSS investment done till 31st March 2011 will be eligible for this. Any investment from the next financial year will not be eligible.
Correct 🙂
hi manish & all,
currently i have SIP Can i still enojoy tax exemption under 80C ?
Another thing pricipal of home laon is removed from exemption will be it going
to affect land/apartment prices?
Yogesh
Tax saving funds get Tax exemption , it can be lumpsum or in SIP way . SIP in normal mutual funds do not get tax benefit
principle on Housing loan will not get tax exemption from 2011 onwards if DTC comes into effect . It will not impact directly on price of apartments /
Manish
Why should LT gains be taxed? I feel this move is quite short-sighted.
There should be an incentive for staying invested, building a good retirement / other purpose portfolio and the new DTC should promote it. I feel that maybe instead of 1 year it could be made as 3 years. Also ST / LT gains should not be added to the income…tax them at say 10%…this will improve compliance, generate additional revenue, promote more retail participation in the market etc.
Murali
Thanks for putting your views , Lets see if this bill gets passed in parliament 🙂
Manish
🙂
I should become some sort of special advisor to the Fin Min!
🙂
is the 80c section limit still 1 lakh .was it not supposed to be 3lac?. if NPS has no 100% equity option, it is a serious pain,especially if the limit is 3 lac. there is no flexibility.and arent all the equity funds in NPS index funds?.with no history or tracking error knowledge,it will be a gamble to go for any of these funds.
I too am looking for something like NPS, but with 100% equity allocation.
Hi Manish,
First of all thanks for the great information and appreciate your blog which always helps to increase our financial literacy.
I want to know that what will be new DTC impact in terms of capital Gain on Mutual fund investments done by woman who is coming under Exemption Limit i.e. 1.9 lac.
Thanks,
Priyanka
Priyanka
You dont have to pay any tax if you are under exemption limits
Manish
Actually your short term gain will be added to your income. So if your income is 1.8 lacs and you have a short term gain of 20K then you will come inside the tax bracket. But you can claim tax breaks under 80C.
Priyanka
Incase you have any losses in equity, you can liquidate it and take the loss which you can offset with this profit and not pay tax on the profits 🙂
Manish
ELSS is not mentioned anywhere that means it is under capital gains now, which is taxable? Does that also means there’s practically no difference between elss and other equity schemes? Good thing is NPS’s inclusion in EEE, which is the only equity related scheme with tax benefits. An year back same NPS appeared like some unattractive document.
Shweta
Yes , after DTC comes into force , there will be nothing like ELSS , it will only be Mutual funds 🙂
Manish
i think i am in a mess then i have started a 2 ELSS of 2K each ie 4K a month.
The tenture investment period is from 0ct/10 to 0ct/11..and locking of 3 years
so after 3 years ,,when i get the maturity amount it will be taxable 🙁
Also i favour the opinion of transfer of fund from one mutual fund another without tax..in this new DTC it will consume everytime 10% if i am in that slab which along with inflation ideally eats out all you earned ..
Prabeesh
You have some relief , as per revised DTC , any investments made before DTC which enjoys EEE , will continue to get that benefit , so all your investments till Mar 2010 , will not be taxable at maturity , all the SIP payments after that will be taxable , at maturity also and you will also not get 80C benefit , so the best thing would be to only run SIP from oct 10 to Mar 11 , you can stop SIP in Apr 🙂
Manish
Manish,
Thanks for a very detailed explanation.
I feel they should increase the cap on medical expenses from 15k to 30k, 15k is peanuts in today’s world. Also increase the educational allowance for each child from Rs. 100 to Rs. 500 per month.
Rakesh
Rakesh
I am not sure if 15k is too little , i personally do not exhaust all the 15k even after including self , sibilings and parents .
And most of the tax paying community might also not exhaust it , my guess 🙂 .
Manish
First of all it is good that you don’t exhaust 15K limit…that means family members are healthy. But this varies from person to person…age of parents, their diseases….
I know one friend, his mother takes tablet which cost 700 Rs. He will exhaust his 15K quota within 3 months of starting of financial year.
Srinivas
hmm.. so at the end , the conclusion is that it would depend on individual situation , my point was is this category who exhaust their limits a big majority ? like 80-90% or is it 5-10% ?
What do you think ?
Manish,
I agree with Srinivas, in my case its 80-90%. Now a days vaccination for kids are so expensive that you end up spending Rs. 1500-2000 for one visit. Also doctors fees are gone up.
Rakesh
Manish,
What abou the endowment and money back policies which are already in force ?. Does that come under EEE or EET ? Can you clarify please.
Krishna
Any withdrawl after April 1, 2011 in these policies come under EET.
Krishna/Srinivas
I dont think so
As per the draft , any investment made before DTC which enjoys EEE , will continue enjoying that status for whole tenure. While DTC says this , i am myself little unclear on this point
Manish
Money invested in ELSS in this year will be EEE or EET?
I think that is a question whose answer which might require immediate action. 🙂
Thanks,
Sanjay.
The New Direct Tax Code is silent on ELSS. Is it part of 80C? If not, there is no incentive to buy ELSS as for the last couple of years, the diversified equity mutual funds have given better returns than ELSS with no lock-in period of 3 years.
Also the DTC has not come up with revised tax slabs.
DTC is not silent on ELSS. Instead it has listed down what all comes under 80C. So, that is implicit the other products not mentioned are out of 80C. After DTC comes in to effect, ELSS will lose the light. NPS will bloom.
I think I should have been more specific.
This is what Manish has mentioned
———
Existing Investments
Incase you have any existing Investments, which enjoyed EEE method of taxation, they would be treated the same way for their full tenure.
———
Since DTC draft is “proposed” and not yet “implemented”, ELSS for this year has to fall in 80C section with EEE method of taxation.
Can someone thrwo some light on this?
For this year , ELSS will be in 80C , so you get the exemption this year for what ever you contribute, but after 3 yrs , you pay tax if you withdraw .
Manish
Not providing tax exemption for policies other than pure insurance is a good move, hope this will bring change in the people’s mind. I read still industry wants what is the definition of “Pure”? Isn’t it implicit?
May be industry is confident that how govt can ignore traditional profit making policies.
NPS should be modified for the subscriber to select equity:debt ratio, atleast till he reach age 40, and open up portfolio details of the fund managers.
Srinivas
Pure life insurance money means money which some one gets when some one dies , so it can be from term insurance or from Tradtional policies .
So if a person holds an LIC policy and dies , his family will get the SA , which will not be taxable, but if a person does not die and gets his money back on maturity , it will be taxed .
I dont think govt will change NPS upto that level . Do you think there Mutual funds are better than NPS because of upto 100% equity allocation possible .
Manish
A small story I read somewhere explaining insurance 🙂
Its kind of like a wager against the Insurance company saying “I’ll bet you Rs.10000 (premium paid) that I’ll die this year and if I do then give my family so much amount”. The company says “We accept the bet and you will not die this year”
I win the bet and the family gets the SA.. I lose the bet then I lose the money i paid as premium 🙂
All this said “Pure” or Term Insurance is the best and cheapest form of insurance.
Yes – I think mutual funds with 100% equity are much better. Over the long term I can get returns that will blow debt products out of the water.
What percentage of deduction would be applicable for long term capital gain?
Also, it would be good if you can write a post on the new strategy which one need to follow for investing after DTC is in effect so that one would be benefit most considering DTC.
Asif
As of now there is no clarity on the Deduction percentage one can apply on long term capital gains . It is still to come .
Manish
What I want is tax free investment solutions like the NPS – but with 100% equity. The NPS doesn’t allow more than 50% as of now. Do you think that in the future, more retirement funds will come under the tax free bracket?
Bhagwad
Any retirement benefit is tax free as per this Revised DTC , so NPS , pension plans , all are Tax free
Manish
But I need 100% equity 🙂 . My investment horizon is 25 years – so I don’t need any debt component right now…
NPS caps my equity component at just 50%
Bhagwad
You should not worry so much about tax at this moment , 25 yrs is a big time, the current tax laws wont be there with all the probability, even if you have to pay tax you can make better returns over all i guess
Manish
My 2 paises…
TAX FREE INCOME – The basic tax exemption limit should be inflation indexed. If possible it should happen every year or at least once in 2-3 years. This should be an administrative action and should not be part of the annual finance bill to smoothen the process.
OPERATIONAL – Discretion at the hands of assessing officer should be reduced, perceived rent value Vs actual rent etc.,
REFUNDS – As much as DTC ensures/expects voluntary compliance, Government should also facilitate trouble/error/delay free refunds.
SENIOR CITIZENS – Senior Citizens should be eligible for a higher slab for tax free income as is the case now, but they should not be eligible for claiming deductions through investment (Sec. 80C). If they claim, the tax should be calculated for them as it would be applicable for a non citizen individual. Only one benefit (reduced tax due to higher tax free slab or reduced tax due to investment should be passed to them).
Personally, I am against the additional tax free exemption for Senior Citizens. But that is a different story.
WOMEN – The additional tax free income allowed for women currently should be limited to women who earn only upto that level. i.e., If the regular tax free income for the FYis 2 lakhs and women are allowed upto 2.5 lakhs, then women earning upto 2.5 lakhs alone should be eligible for the extended tax free income and not for women earning over 2.5 lakhs.
Personally, I feel the above provision is purely populist and not a right measure. If the government’s intention is to empower women, they should encourage/create Microfinance Institutions (by creating a corpus fund with the tax that could be collected without the additional exemption ) that would help women below poverty line. The lady who is selling Idly/Flower/Fruits/Vegetables on the roadside should benefit from such largesse (nominal interest or interest free credit). I don’t see a necessity for an individual that is part of an organized sector earning way beyond the national per capita income to be doled out additional few thousands every year. Of course, we should retain parity between Male & Female wherever possible and I strongly feel this is one such area.
LONG TERM TAX ON EQUITY – It is a good thought to add the long term capital gains through equity to the over all taxable income after providing certain deduction, but long term savings of individuals should be respected for what they are. If I invest in a SIP for 10 years and at the end of 7 years, the scheme is not performing as it has been in the past, I should be able to switch my entire investment to another scheme with no tax liability.
To fix, my thought is a certain window (180 days from the date of realizing the long term captial gains or the end of Financial year whichever is later ) – Long term capital gains generated by equity should be exempted from tax if the entire income is reinvested in equity/realestate etc.,
Totally agree with your point on ‘Long Term Tax on equity’. I wonder how come there is no discussion on this point by any experts.
Regards
Raja
I also agree on that point , there should be some thing like switching which can save us from paying tax, it should not be considered as sale , but reinvestment , this is where ULIP’s will score heavily 🙂
Do you think it can ever be considered from officials?
Manish
It is said that in 2003 LTCG is scrapped and govt started levying STT on share transactions. we have to pay this although we sell it for loss. Then govt is again bringing LTCG now with keeping the STT as it is. Is it fair???
I agree with your point on tax for women , Rest all is good 🙂
Manish