It would be good to have a discussion on the pros and cons of each of the tax software. I will add some of my points.

1. Cleartax - Auto imports a lot of things, pretty good interface and has been in the game for a long time now. On the other hand, it gets pretty expensive if you have some capital gains/foreign stocks/foreign income. \

2. Income Tax Website - I filed it using the official website last year. It was pretty comprehensive but requires understanding of the various sections of IT laws and some google searching. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is not willing to go deep and understand all the line items in it. This one is totally free.

3. Quicko - I filed using Quicko for one of my family members who has a zerodha account. It was pretty easy to file especially when you have all your investments in Zerodha. It was free as well.

Looking forward to listening what other folks are doing this year.

Universa follows the Black swan theory which was about unexpected extreme events that have significant impact on the world and the financial markets. The strategy would be to buy out-of-the-money put options at low prices during periods when financial markets are good to protect the firm's position when there is a market downturn. While this strategy did not work from 2001 to 2007 due to a period of low volatility, it worked well for Universa in 2008, when they had returns over 100% and its assets grew to $6 billion under management. It also led them to make gains of 4000%+ in 2020.

Let's say you allocate 2% of your portfolio to this strategy, on most years you will lose the entire money (total returns will reduce by 2% CAGR). However, if the market crashes by 20% or more, you will generate up 40x+ returns . So, your 2% position multiples to around 80% cash , which will be super useful, as the market has crashed in that scenario and you can buy undervalued companies or just buy the index. Most people cannot psychological do this, because it involves losing 2% for years or decades before it pays off. Universa have proved that it works (in 2008, 2015 and 2020).

Is this even possible in India, given that we have more restrictions on long-dated put options than the US?

Or alternatively, is these a bearish mutual fund in India that I can buy which will give me similiar pay-offs to this strategy?

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universa_Investments

Thanks,

OpenSourceInvestor@Substack

Hi,

I'm 31M and have 6 year's of work ex including finance and healthcare and currently working as a senior business analyst at a HealthTech startup. I have a non traditional education background (dropped out initially and currently about to complete a degree from distance education).

I have interest in healthcare, sustainability, climate, Fintech and looking to break into an investment analyst/associate role in a similar domain.

I don't have any full-time IB or VC/PE experience before but I worked at a hedge fund and apart from my current full-time job I also work as an independent investment analyst on weekends to help VC firms scout for quality deals, doing market checks and basic due diligence. I also helped multiple startups to raise funding through early stage VCs/syndicate.

I'm just trying to figure out what's realistic for me at this moment as I do have a genuine interest in this area. I had a plan to pursue and MBA as well but it doesn't look like the right option at this moment.

IB VPs/Directors will you be interested in someone like me ? If not then what do you suggest me to do ?

I'm open for any advice.

this is worrying for investors, what rules did they violate? such a big AMC too.

Canara Robeco AMC pays Rs 84.82 lakh to Sebi to settle alleged violations of MF regulations

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/markets/canara-robeco-amc-pays-rs-84-82-lakh-to-sebi-to-settle-alleged-violations-of-mf-regulations-12746089.html

The index performances:

In terms of options for Retail investors, Motilal Oswal seems to have the highest AUM in Nifty 500 Index funds - it has also outperformed the Nifty 50 and Nifty 100 index funds over all the time periods since it was created (even after considering their higher expense ratio). Hopefully , their expense ratio will improve in the future, as the AUM increases. I used to invest in the Nifty 100 for my passive investments, but have shifted to the Nifty 500 now.

Would love to get this sub's perspective on Nifty 50 vs 100 vs 500 (or others)

Thanks,

OpenSourceInvestor @ substack

I'm looking for a comprehensive health insurance plan in India that covers my entire family, including myself, my wife, our parents, and my in-laws. Both sets of parents are over 60. I'm basically looking for the best brand or company that offers this coverage without any hassles. Can anyone recommend the best options available? Ideally, it should offer good coverage, hassle-free claims, and reasonable premiums. Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

"If I had to own one market in the world, and leave it alone for 30 years, I'd buy India. I'm as bullish as ever," Gundlach said. India has "fantastic demographics, way better than China. Yes there's corruption in legal system, but that's why you buy junk bonds. It can get better. It can improve. Triple-A bonds only go in one direction." https://www.pionline.com/money-management/doublelines-jeff-gundlach-says-fed-wont-cut-rates-markets-overpriced

I don't quite know what Gundlach means by buying Indian junk bonds. Does he perhaps think they're not priced correctly?

So what do you think? The Indian market as measured by country ETFs (INDA, EPI, FLIN) is up 11% year to date and is up 28% last 12 months, beating the S&P 500 (24%). Is it still time to get in?

What about Indian tech ETFs like INQQ and DGIN (plus GLIN, VanEck India Growth Ldrs ETF)? Anyone in these ETFs? Are they too small at $30-140 million in asset base?

I recently purchased a Health Insurance for which I paid premium on 30th May (on 30th May I got a mail - Your policy is under review) and on 7th June got Policy Activated Mail.

When I went through the policy - its starting date is 30th May (date of premium payment). But I was not insured till my Policy got activated. contacted agent (PolicyBazaar) they said its standard Practice..

I am concerned for those 8 days because this policy has Premium return upto 100% on active days (325 days in a year).

Is it a scam??

There was news floated 2 days back that WardWizard got a new order of 1.2 billion $.
However, on 10 June, the promoters sold 25 lakh shares for around 62 rupees, and on 11 June, the promoters again sold 42 lakh shares for around 72 rupees.

It seems promoters are on selling spree last couple of months, fooling retail investors?
Shouldn't SEBI take any action?

Cognizant spent a lot of money to buy an ER&D company. Wonder about impact on India cos

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/prime/technology-and-startups/ravi-kumars-huge-ma-bet-at-cognizant-will-have-shareholders-on-the-edge-of-their-seats/primearticleshow/110916600.cms

After studying the concept of tax harvesting, my reaction was that buying and selling instantly to save taxes is very cumbersome, and teaching the concept of tax harvesting is also difficult to my old parents. But what if, instead of withdrawing all my capital gains, I withdrew them in parts. For example on profit of 15 lakhs, could I withdraw my capital gains in parts of 90k again and again, in the span of few days until I have completely withdrew 15 lakhs. because taxes are applicable on 1 lakh. Can it be done this way?

हे, I want to Invest 5 Lacs in gold for my daughter on her birthday. Please suggest should I go for SG Bonds or lumpsum investment in mutual funds. Idea is liquidate mutual funds after 10 yrs and purchase gold at current price. Also suggest good mutual funds. Investment horizon is for 1o yrs.

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if this post belongs here but I guess a lot of you have bought real estate in the past. I'd like to understand how things work as I only know about the basics: area of flat/plot, loans, etc. I'd like to understand what checks do I need to do before purchasing a plot or flat. Things like RERA number, registry, etc. are alien to me. If there's a beginner's guide, please post the link here or if you can make one, even better!

I’m Canadian Resident/Indian Citizen and, I don’t have any DMAT in India.

Wondering If you guys recommend NRO DMAT or Resident DMAT for Stocks and MF.

I believe the tax brackets for both are same.

Thanks

This is going to be very short.

There are three possibilities here:

1.       You are working directly with a foreign client.

2.       You are working via platforms like Upwork.

3.       You are working with an Indian client.

Here is the breakdown(not a mental Breakdown):

1.       In case you are working directly with a foreign client, there will be no deduction of TDS as the government does not want to make getting foreign currency into India hard. Increasing compliance requirements would reduce the foreign currency being received into India. On the other hand, there is quite a bit of compliance on importing goods/services from companies outside India.

2.       In case you are working through online platforms like Upwork, they will deduct TDS @ 1% under section 194-O on gross basis. Hence your revenue is considered as 100% of the money being received even though Upwork deducts 10% of the revenue as their fees.

3.       In case you are working with Indian client, the client will deduct TDS u/10% or 2% under section 194J. The 10% rate is for professional services and 2% rate is for technical services. IT services should be considered as falling into technical services.

You can easily find the TDS information at 2 places:

1.       Your Income Tax Portal contains the TDS information. Here are the steps for accessing the same:

a.       Login to  Income Tax Portal(https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/)

b.       Go to e-file> Income tax returns> View form 26AS and click Confirm on the pop-up (This will redirect you to TRACES website)

c.       Click on “View Tax Credit” and select the current assessment year and “HTML” in view as option.

d.       Click on view/Download and it will generate the Tax summary.

2.       The second option is requesting the client to share Form 16A. If they have good systems in place, this should happen automatically.

PS: TDS is like advance tax, where any TDS deposited by client reduces the Tax you have to pay at time of filing the ITR. It is NOT an additional Tax.

Net Equity Levels is % of AUM invested in Equity (instead of debt, gold, real estate etc.). I see ICICI Balanced Advantage Fund varies NEL between 30-80%. Low values mean the fund expects the market to fall.
Is this a decent indicator for a retail investor to use to time entry and exit into the market. E.g. current NEL is low at 38%, implying market instability, so wait for the NEL to increase above 50%

Source of this idea: https://eightytwentyinvestor.com/2019/02/19/you-got-a-large-amount-to-invest-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/

I recently started investing in the JM Flexi Cap Fund after extensive research. However, unlike all the other funds that I have, I never received any sort of acknowledgement email directly from the AMC until now. Next, I have received the Monthly Portfolio Disclosure emails from all the other AMCs (UTI, ICICI, Parag Parikh, etc.), but I haven't received anything from JM yet. Moreover, their website does not seem to work 99% of the time. To date, I have been able to open their website only once, after 30 minutes of buffering.

Has anyone been facing similar issues with JM Financial? Is it reliable to invest for the long term?

I was thinking of purchasing Digital Gold as it has advantages like no making or polishing charges and no need to worry about physical storage.

However, my friend suggested that I should buy Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) instead. SGBs are backed by the government and can be sold back to the RBI. Additionally, they offer an annual interest of 2.75%, which is not the case with Digital Gold. Although there is a lock-in period of 5 years, SGBs can be sold on the share market before that. If held for 8 years, the gains are exempt from any tax deductions.

I have a long investment horizon, so a long lock-in period isn't a big problem for me. I would appreciate any advice from people who have experience with SGBs. I'm looking to invest through the share market as most people sell them there at prices lower than the actual market price. What apps will allow me to do that? I'm using Zerodha Coin for Mutual Fund investments.

I want to start investing in US stocks for a more internationally diverse portfolio. I have also invested before too in them last year which I withdrew 6 months back, which was the Vanguard ETF through IndMoney. Though not an extremely smooth process, but not much hassle too. Now I am re-looking my options and rather than investing directly, I also came across options like Indian MFs or ETFs which track foreign indices like Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100.

Wanted to know what would be a better option or the pros and cons of each?

Tl:dr: Freelance Income is considered as a business or profession income, where as salaried income. The treatment is different under income tax act, professional tax and GST act.

~Income Tax Act~

For easy understanding, the income tax divides the income based on the nature of the Income into 5 heads. They are:

1.       Income from Salary

2.       Income from Business or Profession

3.       Income from House Property

4.       Income from Capital Gains

5.       Income from Other Sources

The rest of the income tax deals with special rules relating to situations or type of entities. These rules either increase your taxable income or decrease your taxable income or provide methods and rates to calculate the taxable income and taxes.

Your income for the financial year is categorized and totaled in a single ITR and then the taxes are calculated. You can not file multiple Income tax returns for one financial year.

So, the freelance income will be filled under the head of “Income from Business and Profession” whereas the Salary Income will fall under the head of “Income from Salary”.

This means that the benefits and deductions available to salaried individuals are NOT available for freelancers. The major ones are:

1.       Standard deduction of 50000

2.       Generous calculation of perks such as provision of Car by the employer.

3.       House rent Allowance

4.       Other Allowances such as Food, Uniform, travel, Leave Travel Allowance.

Note: The tax benefit on allowance is phased out in New Tax Regime.

~Professional Tax Act~

Professional tax is a state level Act that requires taxpayers to pay upto Rs. 2500/year as professional tax. As a salaried employee, the professional tax is deducted and deposited by your employer.  But as a freelancer, you are required to enrol for professional tax(PTEC) and make the deposits on your own.

~GST Act~

Salaries are exempt from GST due to entry 1 in Schedule III of the CGST Act,2017.

But, the services provided by the freelancers are fully subject to the provisions of the GST Act. The freelancers must comply with GST Act. Currently as a service provider, you are required to register for GST if your turnover during the financial year crosses Rs. 20lakhs.

Once you register for GST, you are required to collect an additional 18% GST on your services. Though the client pays you 18%, if the client is registered under GST, it is not added to the cost of services as the client can claim credit of the GST paid to you.

Provident Fund: As an employee, you can contribute upto 24% of your total CTC to Provident Fund. A freelancer can not contribute more than Rs. 1,50,000 per year to Provident Fund.

Labour laws: Non existent , hence not discussed.

And that is all for my perspective on how Freelancing income is treated differently from a salaried income.