Know Your Income Tax Ward, Circle, Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

While filing your Income Tax Return (ITR), you come across a column where you need to fill the Ward/Circle under which your return gets processed. Though it is very easy to find out this information, not knowing how to find it could waste a lot of your time. However, please note that it is not mandatory for you to fill this info while filing your ITR. If you leave it blank, the system will automatically route it to the assessing officer on the basis of your PAN details.

So, here is the link to land on the page of the income tax department where you can easily find your ward/circle just by entering your PAN number – Link

Know Your Income Tax Ward / Circle / Jurisdictional Assessing Officer

Know your PANAssessing Officer of this ward/circle will take care of your ITR and he/she has the authority to scrutinize your tax return in detail, issue notice(s) if any further info regarding your ITR is required and issue refund/demand notice wherever applicable.

Download Form 26AS

E-filing Video

Pay Self-Assessment Tax Online

Filing ITR – FY 2015-16 – ITR 1 (Sahaj), ITR 2, Form 26AS, Jurisdictional Ward

ITR Filing – FY 2015-16 (AY 2016-17) – ITR 1 (Sahaj), ITR 2, Form 26AS, Know Your Jurisdictional Ward

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

We are fast approaching July 31, the due date of filing income tax returns (ITRs) for the previous financial year i.e. FY 2015-16 or assessment year 2016-17. If you have not filed your income tax return till now and you think you are filing it late, don’t be disheartened. I think more than 80% ITRs get filed during the last ten days before the due date. But, don’t be lazy anymore, file it today itself and stay relaxed.

In the next 2-3 days, I’ll try to write a couple of posts covering some important aspects of ITR filing. In this post, I have covered various ITR forms which are applicable to you as an individual or your HUF depending on various sources of income you have.

Which ITR form is applicable to you?

ITR 1 (SAHAJ) – For Individuals having Salary Income or Pension Income, Interest Income from various investments and/or Rental Income from only one house property.

If you have a self-occupied house property and there is a home loan for which you are paying EMIs, you can claim benefit under section 24 for the payment of interest on your home loan. However, if you have more than one house property, whether self-occupied, let-out or vacant, this form is not applicable to you. Moreover, if you have agricultural income of more than Rs. 5,000 and/or income from capital gains, whether taxable or tax-exempt, then also you cannot use this form. In all such cases, you are required to use either ITR 2 or ITR 2A. Please note, HUFs cannot use ITR 1.

ITR 2A – For Individuals or HUFs having Income from various sources including Salary, House Property and/or Income from Other Sources, but other than Income from Business or Profession, Capital Gains and Foreign Assets.

In case you have more than one house property and/or have agricultural income more than Rs. 5,000, then you can use this form.

This is an extended version of ITR 1, seeking a little more information as compared to ITR 1, but a lot less than ITR 2. If you have taxable income from short term capital gains either on equity shares or mutual funds or income from foreign assets or any kind of business income, then you cannot use this form. Use either ITR 2 or ITR 4 instead.

ITR 2 – For Individuals or HUFs having Income from various sources including Salary, House Property, Capital Gains and/or Income from Other Sources, but other than Income from Business or Profession.

If you have Income from Capital Gains or if you have income from more than one house property or if your income from other sources is negative or if you have income from any of your foreign assets, then you need to use this form to file your ITR.

ITR 3 – For Individuals or HUFs being Partners in Firms, but not carrying out any Business or Profession in the name of any Proprietorship Firm.

This form can be used by an individual or HUF even if he/she has taxable income from other sources or has income from foreign assets or agricultural income more than Rs. 5,000.

ITR 4S – For Individuals or HUFs or Partnership Firms having Income from a Presumptive Business. In other words, if your business income is taxable on some presumptive or predefined basis, then this form is applicable to you.

You cannot use this form if you have more than one house property or have taxable income from capital gains or agricultural income of more than Rs. 5,000 or income from foreign assets.

ITR 4 – For Individuals or HUFs having Income from a Proprietorship Firm, apart from any other source of income.

Checklist of Documents required to file ITR

* Form 16 (For Salaried Employees)

* Form 26AS

* Bank Statement for FY 2015-16 i.e. from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016

* 80C Investment Proofs

* Other Receipts for Claiming Tax Benefits, such as 80D, 80CCD (1B) etc.

* Home Loan Annual Statement having Interest & Principal Bifurcation

* Last year’s ITR

* Balance Sheet, P&L Account and other Audit Reports wherever applicable

* Other Applicable Documents

I’ll try to cover the following topics in the next 2-3 days.

Know Your Jurisdictional Assessing Officer and/or Assessment Ward

Download Form 26AS

E-filing Video

Pay Self-Assessment Tax Online

Tax Treatment of Derivatives Trading

In case you think there is something more interesting to cover, please suggest.

Sovereign Gold Bonds – Series I – FY 2016-17 – July 2016 Issue

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

After three unsuccessful attempts of raising any meaningful amount of money from the investors by issuing its gold bonds, the government is launching its fourth tranche of Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) from today onwards i.e. July 18, 2016. This will be the first such issue in the current financial year and that is why it has been notified as Series I of FY 2016-17. The issue will remain open for five days from today to close on July 22.

To make it more attractive, the government and the RBI have made certain changes this time around. Below is the table having salient features of these bonds, some of which are different from its previous issues.

Salient Features of Sovereign Gold Bonds – Series I of FY 2016-17

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Issue Price – Price for this tranche has been fixed at Rs. 3,119 per gram of gold, which is substantially higher than the price of these bonds in the previous three issues. Issue price for the first tranche was fixed at Rs. 2,684 per gram of gold, that of the second tranche was Rs. 2,600 per gram of gold and it was Rs. 2,916 per gram of gold in the third tranche.

The government could raise only Rs. 246 crore from its first issue in November issuing bonds with around 916 kg of gold, Rs. 798 crore from the second issue in January with around 3,071 kg gold and Rs. 329 crore from the third issue in March with around 1,128 kg gold.

Issue Price Methodology – The issue price of Rs. 3,119 per gram of gold has been fixed on the basis of simple average of the closing prices of gold with 999 purity of the previous week (July 11, 2016 to July 15, 2016) published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd. (IBJA).

Coupon Rate @ 2.75% p.a. –  As in earlier tranches, coupon rate has been fixed at 2.75% p.a. payable semi-annually i.e. twice in a year. As mentioned earlier as well, these bonds offer two streams of return – one in the form of regular interest income @ 2.75% and the other in the form of increase or decrease in the market price of gold. A decline in their price would result in a negative yield from capital gains point of view, but 2.75% p.a. interest would remain fixed throughout its tenor of 8 years.

Allotment Date & Tenor of Investment – These bonds would get allotted on 5th of August and carry a maturity period of 8 years from the allotment date. However, the investors can ask for redemption of their bond holdings from the 5th year onwards. This option will be available for the investors in the 5th, 6th and 7th year of investment only on the interest payment dates.

Demat Option Available Now – In its previous issues, you were allowed to apply for these bonds in physical form only. But, in order to cut the allotment/listing time, the government has allowed to introduce the demat option as well. Now, you can get these bonds allotted directly into your damat account.

Tradability & Exit Option Before 5 years – These bonds are redeemable back to the RBI, but only from 5th year onwards. But, what to do if I want my money back in an emergency? So, in that case, you can sell these bonds on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) or the National Stock Exchange (NSE) where they will get listed for trading after allotment.

However, previous issues of these bonds have faced a considerable delay in the allotment and listing of these bonds. Redressal mechanism of your grievances is also considerably poor. So, if you apply for these bonds now, you might again be required to have a lot of patience in getting them allotted and see their listing in a timely manner.

Online Bidding Platforms Launched – BSE and NSE have also launched their respective online bidding platforms for these gold bonds. With these platforms in place, applying for these bonds should become easier now. These bidding platforms will remain open for all 24 hours in a day for the next 5 days to close on July 22 at 12 midnight time. There will be a cooling off period of 30 minutes from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Premature Redemption – In case of premature redemption (after 5 years), investors can approach the concerned intermediary 30 days before the coupon payment date. Request for premature redemption can only be entertained if the investor approaches the concerned intermediary at least one day before the coupon payment date. Redemption proceeds will be credited to the customer’s bank account.

Taxation in case of Redemption/Sale – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech had proposed to make these bonds tax exempt if redeemed after 5 years. These bonds also enjoy indexation benefits if sold after 3 years from the allotment date. As per the Budget speech “It is proposed to provide that redemption by an individual of Sovereign Gold Bond issued by Reserve Bank of India under Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme, 2015 shall not be charged to capital gains tax. It is also proposed to provide that long terms capital gains arising to any person on transfer of Sovereign Gold Bond shall be eligible for indexation benefits”.

So, as an individual, whenever you redeem these gold bonds after holding them for 5 years, you are not liable to pay capital gains tax. Indexation benefit will also result in a substantial tax saving.

Interest @ 2.75% is Taxable – Interest income earned every year @ 2.75% p.a. is taxable and the investors will have to show it as an Income from Other Sources in their income tax returns (ITRs).

Minimum and Maximum Investment – Investors are required to buy a minimum of 1 units of these bonds i.e. 1 gram of gold or a minimum investment of Rs. 3,119. In the previous issues, you were required to buy a minimum of 2 units of these bonds. On the other hand, you can buy a maximum of 500 units of these bonds or 500 grams of gold, which works out to be Rs. 15,59,500.

NRI/QFI Investment Not Allowed – Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs) are not eligible to invest in these bonds. Only Resident Indian Entities, including individuals, trusts, universities and charitable institutions are eligible to invest in these bonds.

Transferability – Though these bonds are tradable, trading is allowed only once it is notified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Bonds can be transferred also by execution of an Instrument of Transfer, in accordance with the provisions of the Government Securities Act.

Collateral for Loans – If required, these bonds can be used as collateral for seeking loans from various lending institutions.

Sovereign Gold Bonds vs. Gold ETF vs. Physical Gold – A Comparative Chart

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When I compare these bonds with Gold ETFs or physical gold, I am not able to find any point which goes against these bonds, except liquidity. As you can check from the table above, almost all the points of comparison are in favour of these bonds.

Should you invest in Sovereign Gold Bonds – Series I, FY 2016-17?

An uncertain global economic environment amid Brexit concerns, China slowdown, weak US jobs data and upcoming presidential elections in the US has pushed up the prices of gold in the last six months or so. But, whether this jump in gold prices will be able to sustain itself or is it a good time to sell your gold holdings and preserve your profits? These are million dollar questions to be answered with a high degree of accuracy.

Though I am bearish on gold prices and carry a view that these are not the best of the times to invest in gold, investors with a bullish view and a medium to long-term investment horizon can consider investing in these bonds. This way of investing in gold is cheap, tax efficient, risk-free in terms of a credit default and do provide you a stream of regular cash flows. If your portfolio has some scope of gold investment, I think these bonds are the best way to invest in gold.

Edelweiss Housing Finance 10% NCDs – July 2016 Issue

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

Edelweiss Housing Finance Limited (EHFL), a subsidiary of Rashesh Shah’s Edelweiss Group, is launching its public issue of secured and redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) from tomorrow, July 8th. The issue will carry a maximum of 10% coupon rate with monthly, annual and cumulative interest payment options and tenors of 36 months, 60 months and 120 months.

The issue is scheduled to close on July 27th. However, I think it should get oversubscribed in a day or two due to high demand. Let us check other salient features of this issue.

Size & Objective of the Issue – The company plans to raise Rs. 500 crore from this issue, including the green shoe option of Rs. 250 crore. The company plans to use at least 75% of the issue proceeds for its lending activities and to repay its existing loans and up to 25% of the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Coupon Rate & Tenor of the Issue – The issue will carry coupon rate of 9.50% p.a. for a period of 36 months (3 years), 9.75% p.a. for 60 months (5 years) and 10% p.a. for 120 months (10 years).

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Minimum Investment – Investors need to apply for a minimum of ten bonds in this issue with face value Rs. 1,000 each i.e. a minimum investment of Rs. 10,000.

Categories of Investors & Allocation Ratio – The investors have been classified in the following three categories and each category will have the below mentioned percentage fixed in the allotment:

Category I – Institutional Investors – 20% of the issue i.e. Rs. 100 crore

Category II – Non-Institutional Investors – 20% of the issue i.e. Rs. 100 crore

Category III – Individual & HUF Investors – 60% of the issue i.e. Rs. 300 crore

Allotment will be made on a first-come-first-served basis.

NRIs Not Allowed – Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), foreign nationals and qualified foreign investors (QFIs) among others are not eligible to invest in this issue.

Credit Rating & Nature of NCDs – CARE and ICRA have rated this issue as ‘AA’ with a ‘Stable’ outlook, while Brickwork Ratings has assigned it AA+ (Stable) rating. As mentioned above, these NCDs will be ‘Secured’ in nature.

Listing, Premature Withdrawal & Put/Call Option – These NCDs will get listed on both the national exchanges i.e. Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as well as National Stock Exchange (NSE). The listing will take place within 12 working days after the issue gets closed. Though there is no option of a premature redemption, the investors can always sell these bonds on the exchanges.

Demat Not Mandatory – Demat account is not mandatory to invest in these NCDs as the investors have the option to apply for them in physical form as well.

TDS – Though the interest income would be taxable with these bonds, NCDs taken in demat form will not attract any TDS. The investor will have to pay tax on the interest income while filing his/her income tax return.

About EHFL & Its Financials

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Note: Figures are in Rs. Crore, except per share data & percentage figures.

Edelweiss Housing Finance Limited (EHFL) is a non deposit taking housing finance company offering financing of various sort to individuals and corporates. Edelweiss Financial Service Limited and Edelweiss Commodity Services Limited are the promoters of EHFL and hold 22.39% and 77.61% stake respectively. EHFL offers home loans – 37% of loan book, loan against property – 26% of loan book, construction finance 20% of loan book and rural finance – 16% of loan book.

Should you invest in these NCDs?

Interest rates of 9.50% to 10% from a private company don’t attract me much. It will take 10 years for these NCDs to provide me approximately 160% return. I would rather invest in good quality stocks than take risk with these kind of NCDs. I think investing in diversified equity mutual funds will generate much higher returns in the long term than these NCDs. Moreover, the interest earned is taxable, which reduces our after-tax returns.

However, these NCDs are still suitable to those investors who are not liable to pay any tax or fall in the 10% tax bracket. Also, I would suggest investors to go for either 36 months option or 60 months option. Investing for a period of 120 months (10 years) with a private company becomes risky sometimes. Risk-averse investors, falling in 20% or 30% tax bracket, should invest in debt funds or tax-free bonds for medium to long term.

Application Form of EHFL Finance NCDs

Note: As per SEBI guidelines, ‘Bidding’ is mandatory before banking the application form, else the application is liable to get rejected. For bidding of your application, any further info or to invest in EHFL NCDs, you can reach us at +919811797407

Investment Options Post Brexit

This post is written by Shiv Kukreja, who is a Certified Financial Planner and runs a financial planning firm, Ojas Capital in Delhi/NCR. He can be reached at skukreja@investitude.co.in

SB on July 1 asked me to do a post on investment options post Brexit. Here is what he had to say:

SB July 1, 2016 at 5:17 PM

Hi Shiv, can you provide your expert comments /article on the following topics: 1) Investments advice in the current circumstances / post BREXIT era. 2) Real estate investments pros and cons post budget 2016.

Brexit has left most of us clueless about the future of the world economy. It is very difficult for somebody like me to guesstimate the impact of Brexit on any of India’s macroeconomic factors. But, with the clues I have got from whatever relevant I have observed so far, I would like to share my views about investment options we can consider in the present scenario. Here is what I think about such investment options.

Fixed Income – Tax-Free Bonds, Debt Mutual Funds – Post Brexit, there is a panic in the bond markets the world over. Bond yields globally are falling like there is some kind of financial crisis. While German bond yield has moved into negative territory, bond yields in the U.S., the U.K., France, Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden, all have fallen to fresh historical lows.

All this had a negligible impact on the Indian bond yields so far. But, going forward, I think bond yields here in India should also fall to a range of 7% to 7.25% soon. This should result in a jump in bond prices and NAVs of debt mutual funds. So, it is still a good time to invest in debt mutual funds and tax-free bonds. But, the investors should be cautious on 2 fronts – monsoon rains & inflation. Disappointment with any of these two factors could again put pressure on the bond yields and it could jump to 7.60% to 7.75%.

Real Estate – Most major cities in India have seen a correction in real estate prices in the last 2-3 years. Delhi-NCR region has got 20-40% correction in prices from their peak levels. While there are a large number of reasons for this price correction and lack of demand, I would call it a sentimental U-turn to be the primary reason which has resulted in buyers turning their backs to make fresh investments in real estate these days.

I personally think that there was and there still is a requirement of a sharp correction in real estate prices across major Indian cities. Property prices had touched sky high during 2012-2014 period and the bubble had to burst sooner or later. Though we have seen a healthy correction in property prices in the last 1-2 years, I think they are still ruling at an unreasonably high levels. If we need a healthy growth in this sector and want sale-purchase transactions to resume again, we need the sellers to lower down their expectations to fairly reasonable levels and try to engage good real estate agents in our transactions.

I would advise people not to buy flats or builder floors for at least 1-2 years more as I think there is still a good scope of property prices falling further from here. If you still want to invest, you should try buying a piece of land after negotiating hard with the seller and then get it constructed on your own.

Invest in Construction/Renovation – As mentioned above, I think this is one of the best times to get your home renovated, get one or two rooms added to it or get it constructed if there is a vacant piece of land you have. Global commodity prices are under pressure due to a slowdown in China and a big uncertainty over macroeconomic impact of Brexit. This has resulted in a fall in prices of some of the key raw materials required to get your home constructed or renovated.

So, if you have been planning to get your home constructed or renovated, then this might be one of the best times to do it.

Gold – Nobody knows what will be the ultimate outcome of Brexit. But, everybody is certain that it has resulted in a huge uncertainty over its macroeconomic impacts. Whenever there is an economic uncertainty, gold prices start moving higher and the same has been the outcome this time as well. Gold prices have jumped to their highest levels this year and analysts are expecting a further 5-10% jump in the rest of this year.

But, I have a different view here. I think Gold prices should fall in the months to come. Sentimental shift towards gold should be short lived and I think investors should take this opportunity to cash in such gains.

Direct Equity & Equity Mutual Funds – Had you asked any of the analysts in the morning session of June 24 to guess the NSE Nifty levels of July 5, I am sure most of the analysts would have predicted it to go down to 7200-7800. But, it stands closed at 8,335.95 as of tuesday, a level which is actually higher than the Nifty closing of 8,270.45 as of Brexit voting day.

There are three primary reasons behind it – negligible impact of Brexit on the Indian economy, healthy monsoon rains in the last 10-15 days and hopes of GST getting passed in the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning July 18. I think all these are valid reasons for our markets to move up and we should remain cautiously optimistic going forward as well. Though markets may correct in the immediate short term, I think Indian markets should be up from these levels from 6-12 months perspective and substantially higher in 3-5 years from now.

I think equity investment should outperform any other asset class from an investment perspective of 2-5 years and that is one of the reasons why Indian markets recovered very sharply post Brexit outcome. Risk-averse investors should take the SIP route to build their equity portfolios, passive investors should make lump sum investments in 3-4 installments whenever there is a quick correction in the markets due to any reason and active investors should invest in fundamentally sound businesses with a medium to long term horizon.

Till the time you take any of your investment decisions, you should keep your ideal funds in a liquid fund or a fixed deposit.

Please share your thoughts about any of the investment options you think makes sense in the present scenario.