Chinese Mobile Phones: Indian Man dies after being electrocuted by China Made Phone

As per the reports, a 25 year old person from Gujarat's Panchmahal district died after being electrocuted while using his China Made Mobile Phone.

Man Dies from Electric Shock from Chines Mobile Phone

The person is said to be using the Chinese Cellphone while it was plugged in for charging. The deceased is being reported to be 25 year old Dhanji Damor.

This news should send the shock waves and a word of caution among the hundreds of thousands of Indians (and the people around the world), who have been purchasing and using China Made mobile phones without giving a thought to security, guarantee period and safety measures which are supposed to be looked at and offered by established companies.
Although the government has been tightening the rules to ban the use of illegal handsets like those without poper IMEI numders, there are still many safety concerns that need to be looked at when it comes to Cheap Chinese Phones.
Few months back it was the nokia phone battery (made in China) which was reported to have bursted. That had caused a major problem for Nokia brand.
Although the rules are in place, still the grey market in countries like India is filled with Cheap Chinese Phones which are being sold on the street shops as well as online at much discounted price compared to other branded phones.
People go in for the "cheap and best" offers, ignoring the required guarantee/warantee and most importantly hardly worrying about the safety hazards and problems they may face.

LIC Jeevan Arogya Policy: Review Analysis & Details

Details about LIC Jeevan Arogya Policy & review, analysis and opinion about LIC Jeevan Arogya Policy.
All of you may have seen the LIC Jeevan Arogya Policy ad on television as well print - the ad has a punchline - "A Comprehensive health plan that takes care of your EXTENDED Family too". Generally, the words used in punchlines of any ads adefine its USP. So what do we conclude from this punchline about LIC Jeevan Arogya Policy? The first thing comes to mind is that this health plan from LIC will cover your extended family as well, that will include your parents-in-law.

Section 80C Tax Benefit on Expenses

Details about tax benefits and deductions which can be claimed under section 80C of Income tax
Continuing further from our previous part: Section 80C Tax Savings: Complete List of qualifying investments, here is the list of expenses which give you tax relief or tax deductions under section 80C.

Children’s Education Expense:
If you are paying for the education for your own children, then you can claim tax benefit on tution fee paid to the school or education institute. You need to maintain the receipts for claiming the tax benefit under section 80C.

Stamp Duty and Registration Charges for a home:
If you have bought a home (on your own or home loan), then you can claim tax benefit under section 80C for the registration charges and Stamp Duty charges paid towards purchase of your home. To see more on Home Loan related Tax Benefits, please check Home Loan Tax Benefits and All Home Loan Articles

So, these 2 options add to the list of qualifying expenses and investment which can be claimed for tax relief under section 80C.
Please note that investments usually have a lock-in period where you get your money back, while expenses are those which you have to pay like school fee, registration charges, etc.

What are the problems or disadvantages of section 80C ?
Nothing in this world comes without problems.
the first problem with section 80C investments is that ALL COLLECTIVE SUM of tax benefits that can be claimed is Rs. 1 lakh ONLY.
So if you have your provident fund amount at 65,000, you buy a life insurance policy by paying a premium of 30,000 and invest in a pension plan Rs 40,000 and repay your home loan PRINCIPAL amount as 25,000. Total of all your investments comes to 1.6 Lakhs.
However, since there is a limit of ONLY 1 Lakh under all collective investments you make under section 80C, you can claim tax benefit of only 1 Lakh Rs. even though you are investing Rs. 1.5 lakhs under all qualifying section 80C investments.

The second problem goes clubbed with this 1 lakh limit - there is so much wide variety of options available under section 80C, that individuals soon see their limit of 1 lakh getting frozen.
Other problem is with the ignorance about these limits. People end up buying policy after policy and investment after investments. What they dont know is that because of all these multiple investment options clubbed into on single section 80C with a limit of 1 Lakh, their investments have goen way above the limit, but they can get benefit only upto Rs. 1 lakh.

So take your own call. Decide on your own and then make a calculated investment for maximum and optimum tax benefit.

Section 80C Tax Savings: Complete List of Qualifying Investments

List of qualifying investments under Section 80C Tax Savings
Continuing further from our previous article part I Tax Savings details for Section 80C, here is the list of Qualifying Investments which are eligible for tax deductions under section 80C. The list is huge, that means you have lots and lots of options to select for tax saving as per your individual need and risk appetite. However, there are also some shortcomings of this huge no. of options.

Provident Fund (PF) & Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF):
Now-a-days, almost all companies are legally required to deduct Provident Fund from employees salary. This itself forms a major constituent of the investments under section 80C, for all the salary class employees.
Apart from the normal PF, any investments you make on your own in the Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) also qualifies for tax saving under section 80C.

Public Provident Fund (PPF): On the lines of PF and VPF, the 15-year long PPF contributions also qualify for tax savings under section 80C.

Life Insurance Premiums:
Any premium you pay towards life insurance policies for you own self, your spouse or your children, qualifies for tax savings. However, please note that you can NOT claim tax deduction for life insurance premiums paid for your parents, in laws, siblings, etc.
If you have multiple policies, you can add all of their premiums together and claim for the collective sum. And most important point - manay people think that only LIC policies premiums are eligible for tax deductions, its not so - any life insurance policy premium paid to private insurance firms also qualifies for tax benefit under section 80C.

Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS):
For the high risk takers, the ELSS scheme which has a minimum lock-in period of 3 years and invests your money in equity mutual funds also qualifies for tax savings.

Home Loan Principal Repayment:
If you have taken a home loan, there are two components you need to repay back to the bank or NBFC - first is the interest component on the loan amount and second is the loan amount itself, i.e. the principal amount.
Under section 80C, you get a tax relief on the repayment of principal amount. To see more on Home Loan related Tax Benefits, please check Home Loan Tax Benefits and All Home Loan Articles

National Savings Certificate (NSC):
If you have bought the 6 year long tax saving NSC, then that amount can be claimed for tax deduction under section 80C.

Infrastructure Bonds:
Recently, government came out with the new section especially for tax deductions to be offered for investments in Tax Free Infrastrucutre Bonds.
See more details on them and a list of available Tax Free Infrastructure Bonds.

Pension Funds – Section under 80CCC:
This is a special sub-section called 80CCC, which is a part of section 80C, exclusively for investments in pension funds. So if you are investing in any qualifying pension funds either from government or provate financial companies, then you can claim tax benefit on that investment.

Tax Saving Bank Fixed Deposits (5-Yr FDs):
Special Fixed Deposits issued by bank in the name of minimum 5 year long Tax savings fixed deposits give you another option for tax savings.

Senior Citizen Savings Scheme 2004 (SCSS):
This is recently introduced scheme under which ONLY senior citizens can invest and get returns of around 9% per annum. Any investments made in this SCSS scheme is eligbile for tax deductions.

5-Yr post office time deposit (POTD) scheme:
There are multiple post office savings scheme available for investments for various tenure. However, only one of them, that of 5 year and currently offering 7.5% interest rate is eligible for tax benefit. No other post office saving scheme qualifies for tax deductions.

NABARD rural bonds:
NABARD i.e. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has issued special bonds called the NABARD Rural Bonds. Investments in these bonds is tax free under section 80C.

Unit linked Insurance Plan ULIP Investments:
Any ULIP investment, basically a mix of investment and insurance gives you tax deduction under section 80C. However, one must be aware about the long lock in periods and heavy policy charges which vary from one ULIP scheme to the other.

All the above mentioned schemes qualify for the tax benefit under section 80C. However, they are all investment schemes where you need to put in money for a certain period of time (lock-in period) to claim tax benefit. Apart from that, there are other certain expenses also which can give you tax relief under section 80C. Head on to next part Section 80C Tax Benefit on Expenses

Tax Savings Section 80C: List of Qualifying Investments under section 80C

Details about List of Qualifying instruments under Section 80C of the Income Tax for tax savings and tax benefit purposes
We all know the need for tax savings. Especially the salaried employees take this very seriously. In this article, we specifically cover the details of investments which can be made under section 80C, for benefit of tax savings.

Section 80C Tax Benefits

The section 80C allows for a limited amount of your taxable money to be deducted from your taxable salary, thereby giving you the benefit of tax savings. So how much tax savings can you make for the various savings under section 80C depends upon your individual gross salary and the investments you make under section 80C.
Let's take an example:
Suppose your taxable salary/income is Rs 5.8 Lakhs. Based upon the current income tax slabs, you need to pay tax on the entire 5.8 Lakhs at the rate of 0% for first 1.8 Lakhs, then at 10% for the income of 1.8 Lakhs to 5 lakhs, and 20% for the rest 80,000 Rs., which is above 5 Lakhs. The total tax on 5.8 Lakhs (including cess and surcharges) will be around 51,500 Rs.

Howver, now suppose that you make an investment of say 85,000 in tax saving instruments which qualify under section 80C. Now all the maths changes for your tax calculations.
Reduce the 85K from your income, you are left with net 4.95 Lacs only. Now, you need to pay 0% tax on forst 1.8 laks, and then 10% for the income from 1.8 lacs to 4.95 lakhs. Now, the total tax on 4.95 Lakhs (including cess and surcharges) will be around 34,505 Rs
Hence, in this particular case, just by investing 85,000 Rs., you were able to save taxes worth almost Rs. 17,000. You also brought down your effective tax slab from 20% to 10%.

Let's take another example. Suppose there is someone who has a net income/salary of Rs. 8.8 Laks. So his tax will come to around 121,540.00
Now suppose He too invests the same 85,000 in tax saving instruments under section 80C. Hence, his taxable income comes down to 7.95 Lakhs. Now, his effective tax is 95,790.00 only.
Hence, in this particular case, just by investing the same 85,000 Rs., this person was able to save taxes worth almost Rs. 25,750.

Most importance Point from the above example: Effective Tax Benefit from section 80C depends upon your individual total income, and your tax slab. The higher income bracket you are in, the more you save on taxes by investing in tax saving instruments under section 80C. You can attempt to bring down the tax slab to a lower bracket depending upon your own income details.

Now, from the above example it is clear that one can benefit by investing in section 80C qualifying instruments. Then we proceed to the next step - What all options are available for investments under tax savings under section 80C?. Please note that not just investments, some of your expenses can also be eligible for tax deductions under section 80C. Proceed to the Complete List of Qualifying investments under section 80C

Tax Benefit On Home Loan

Details about Tax Benefit On Home Loan as per the Income Tax Guidelines for year 2011 With the increasing real estate prices, especially in metro cities, it is next to impossible for an individual to purchase a house on their own. The only option left for him/her is to go for a Home loan or a House Loan. Although its a big long term commitment to take a home loan, but there are certain benefits attached to it in terms of Tax deductions on home loan or commonly known as Home Loan Tax Benefits. Let's see all the possible scenarios which an individual (or joint applicants) can fall into after taking a home loan, and we explain what all tax benefits can be achieved for home loan borrowers, as per the Income Tax rules of the year 2011.

Tax Benefits, Tax Rebates, Tax Deductions available On Home Loan

Let's begin with the basics first: We all know that once you take a home loan, you need to repay that through EMI. The EMI you repay each month to the bank is made up of two components - (1) Your INTEREST accrued on the Loan amount and (2) the part which goes to PRINCIPLE Loan Amount. In the remainder of this article, we will refer them as Interest and Principle components.
Good news is that as per the Income Tax rules for the financial year 2011-2012, both the above mentioned components of home loan qualify for tax rebate. Here are the details:

On the Interest Component Payment - Tax rebate is possible under section 24(b) upto a maximum of Rs. 1.5 Lakhs.
On the Principle Component Payment - Tax rebate is possible under section 80C, but there is a OVERALL limit on section 80C of 1 Lakh.

But, please note that there are 2 important conditions to be met for claiming the tax benefits on Home Loan:

1. The applicant must have taken the Home loan after April 1st, 1999.
2. The possession of the property must be within 3 years from the year in which loan was taken by the borrower.

Hence, in total, in a given financial year (say April 2011 to March 2012), you can claim a MAXIMUM tax rebate of Rs. 2.5 Lakhs for your Home Loan Repayment. However, note the use of the word MAXIMUM - one hardly gets a chance to claim the entire 2.5 lakhs tax benefit. How? Let's see.

Please note that these are "DEDUCTIONS". Hence, whatever qualifying amount you are eligble for (say 2.5 Lakhs), that gets deducted from your income completely. To understand this, let's say there is a salaried person who has an annual income from salary as 7 lakhs. Now, if he manages to get the full 2.5 lakh tax deduction for his home loan, then his net taxable income comes down to only (7-2.5) = 4.5 Lakhs only.
So how does he benefit?
Earlier, his taxable income wa 7 lakhs which took him to 20% tax bracket as per the Income tax slabs 2011-2012 for General tax payers.
After taking the home loan and being eligible for maximum home loan tax rebate of 2.5 Lakhs, his taxable income has come down to just 4.5 Lakhs. Hence, he is now in 10% tax bracket.
That's a big benefit - coming down from 20% tax bracket to 10% tax bracket.

Related: All Home Loan Articles
If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

The tax benefit you can claim depends upon what you are repaying as interest and what you are repaying as principle of your home loan component.
As mentioned above, On the Interest Component Payment - Tax rebate is possible under section 24(b) upto a maximum of Rs. 1.5 Lakhs. Generally, there is no problem in claiming tax benefit for this interest component. Why? Because there are no other things clubbed with section 24(b). Now a days, with EMI's running in the range of 30K per month, on an annual basis it is possible that you end up paying more than 1.5 lakh rupees as interest component. Hence, it is possible to claim full 1.5 Lakh as interest component tax benefit.
Continue further to details of Tax Benfits available on Principle repayment of home loan in the article: Home Loan Tax Benefit

Home Loan Tax Benefit

Continuing our series on home loan articles, in this article we discuss the case of Tax Benefits on Principle repayment on Home Loans. Previous article was on Tax Benefit on Interest Rate Repayment of Home Loan. You can have a look at the other Home loan Tax Benefits Scenarios at All Home Loan Articles where we discuss various scenarios on eligibility for home loan tax benefits.
The problem is with the component of Principle repayment of home loan. Why? The reason is that this component is considered under section 80C of the IT act. Unfortunately, there are lot more other investments which are clubbed in section 80C, and the ENTIRE SUM TOTAL of all these components has a maximum tax benefit limit set to 1 Lakh ONLY.
What are the other Components clubbed into Section 80C along with Principle Portion of Home Loan Repayment for Tax Benefit?
Along with Principle Portion of Home Loan Repayment, there are Provident Fund, PPF, NSC Savings, Life Insurance Premium, ELSS, Pension Funds, Tax Savings Fixed Deposits, etc. For a full list of what all is covered, please see our article on Tax Benefit Section 80C.
Now that causes a problem - especially for salaried class people. Usually, Provident Fund gets deducted for each salaried person and that takes away the cream (or majority) of investment under section 80C. If your annual PF contribution is Rs 60,000, then you only have another 40K left for claiming tax benefit under section 80C.
Add to that a scenario if you also have a Life Insurance Policy with annual premium of Rs. 15K, then you are left with only 25K. Hence, to consider your tax benefit eligibility for repaying as principle of your home loan component, you must sum up all the investments/expenses you are making under section 80C. If that sum crosses 1 lakh, then you cannot claim any tax benefit for repaying as principle of your home loan component.
If that does not cross 1 Lakh (say it is only 75K), then the maximum you can claim for tax benefit on the principle home loan component is 25K.

Related: All Home Loan Articles
If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Let's see that with an example.
Scenario No 1: Home Loan & Home Possession in the same Financial Year: i.e. say you took the home loan in April 2011 and got the possession of your home in February 2012 (both in same financial year (Apr 2011 to March 2012)
Suppose you are paying an EMI of Rs. 35,000 per month. So total you pay 35K *12 months = 4.2 Lakhs.
Out of this, suppose your interest component is 3.5 Lakhs and Principle component of home loan repayment is 70K.
Now, since the maximum limit on interest repayment tax benefit under section 24(b) is 1.5 Lakhs, your interest tax benefit will be only 1.5 lakhs, even though you have repayed 3.5 lakhs for interest component repayment.

Now come to the principle repayment, which is 70,000.
Here this comes under section 80C, which has a collective limit of 1 Lakh ONLY. Hence, if you are having Provident fund of Rs 60,000 and have also taken an Life Insurance policy of 20,000 making it a total of 80,000, then you have only (1Lakh - 80K) = 20K left for claiming principle repayment on home loan.
So even though you repayed 70,00 as principle of your home loan component, you can claim only 20,000 in the given scenario.

Scenario 2: Home Loan taken NOW for under-construction property. Possession received in next Financial Year: This is the typical scenario which occurs mostly. You book a flat in an under construction apartment. The builder promises possession after 1 year taking it to next financial year. So here is the example: Continue to next article Tax benefit on Pre-EMI home loan payment for under construction property

Home Loan Pre-EMI Tax Benefit for Under Construction Property

Continuing our series on home loan articles, in this article we discuss the case of Tax Benefits on Home Loan Reapyment for under construction property and pre-EMI. Previous article was on Tax Benefit on Principle Repayment of Home Loan.

Scenario 2: Home Loan taken NOW for under-construction property. Possession received in next Financial Year: This is the typical scenario which occurs mostly. You book a flat in an under construction apartment. The builder promises possession after 1 year taking it to next financial year. So here is the example:
EMI starts in Apr, 2010
Possession of Home Received in Jan, 2012 (next financial year with respect to EMI starting year)

Monthly EMI in pre-possession year, say 20,000
Annual EMI for 1 year in pre-possession = 2,40,000
Principal part of EMI in pre-possession 60,000
Interest part of EMI in pre-possession 180,000
20% of the Interest part of EMI in pre-possession period: 36,000

EMI after possession 20,000
Annual EMI after possession 240,000
Principal part of EMI after possession 60,000
Interest part of EMI after possession 180,000

Related: All Home Loan Articles
If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Now because of this pre-possession period, tax benefit on home loan changes.
During the pre-possession period, you can claim tax benefit ONLY on the PRINCIPLE component under section 80C. So as per the above example, in the financial year 2010-11, you can claim tax benefit only on the 60,000 Rs. you paid for the principal component. You CANNOT claim anything for the interest part during the pre-possession period or the PRE-EMI period.

Come next financial year i.e. the year in which you get the possession, now you can claim for both Interest as well as Principal amount repayment.
Hence, in the year 2011-12, you are paying interest of 180,000, so you can claim for the maximum tax benefit upto the limit of 150,000.
For the principal part of your home loan after possession, same rules apply for the section 80C (collective tax benefit of Rs. 1 lakh).

Then, how about the interest you repaid during the pre-emi period?
Although you cannot claim any tax benefit for the interest paid on your home loan during the pre-EMI period, you can still avail some tax deductions once you get the possession of your home.
As per the rules, once you get the possession, you can get tax rebate for the amount of interest you paid during the pre-EMI period, but in 5 annual installments. i.e. each year you can claim a maximum of 20% or 1/5th portion of the pre-EMI interest component payment on your home loan.

However, there is an additional condition attached to claiming this pre-EMI tax benefit after getting the home possession. That is, your total interest component (Current Year post-possession interest component + Previous year's 20% pre-EMI interest component) cannot exceed 1.5 Lakhs limit.
Hence, in the example above, since post-possession, your Interest part is 180,000 and 20% of your pre-EMI interest part is 36,000 taking the total to 216,000. You can still only claim for a maximum of 1.5 Lakhs only for interest.

If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Joint Home Loan Tax Benefits

Scenario 6: Joint Home Loan

Scenario 3: Home Loan taken and Possession of home received. But currently NOT staying in the loaned Home: This might happen in case you purchase a home on loan, get the possession, but then due to say work related requirements you shift to another city.
Hence, you can leave your home vacant or put it on rent.
The conditions in scenario 1 applies.
But please note in case you put the house on rent, you are earning rent from it. That rent should be added to your taxable income, apart from the tax benefits you will get from home loan as mentioned in scenario 1 or scenario 2.

Scenario 4: Can I claim both Home Loan Tax benefit and HRA (House Rent Allowance)?
YES. That is possible. Many individuals believe that they cannot claim HRA and Home Loan Tax benefits at the same time, even many corporate office's finance and payroll department do not accept such claims from the employees, but as per the IT rules, it is very much possible to claim both HRA and Home Loan Tax Benefit. However, again there are multiple scenarios depending upon which one can and cannot claim both HRA and Home Loan Benefit.
To explain that scenario, we encourage you to check our dedicated article HRA & Home Loan Tax Benefit can be Claimed Together
But before taking a decision on Home Loans, do check the benefits of going for a Joint Home Loan, where your tax savings can be multi-folds, depending upon the no. of applicants. Although there are some disadvantages also, see the next article on Joint Home Loan Tax Benefits

Joint Home Loan Tax Benefits

Continuing our series on home loan articles, in this article we discuss the case of Tax Benefits on Joint Home Loans. You can have a look at the other Home loan Tax Benefits Scenarios at All Home Loan Articles where we discuss various scenarios on eligibility for home loan tax benefits.

Scenario 5: Home Loan Taken, Possession received but given the house on rent:
You are eligible for home loan tax benefit for both your principle repayment and interest repayment.
You can also be eligble for getting HRA tax benefit. Check the link for details : HRA & Home Loan Tax Benefit can be Claimed Together

If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Joint Home Loan Tax Benefits

Scenario 6: Joint Home Loan
The case of Joint home loan with your partner or other family member is the most beneficial one. Why? Because both (or all) the joint home loan applicants can claim for tax benefit on both the interest payment under section 24(b) and principal repayment under section 80C.
Assume the following case where you and your partner went for a joint home loan (with 50:50 share), and over a financial year you both individually repayed 80,000 each for principle repayment and 180,000 each for interest repayment.

So together you both paid 160,000 as principle repayment and 3.6 lakhs as interest repayment.
Had it been a single person home loan, he would have claimed only a max of 1 Lakh for principle repayment and 1.5 Lakhs for interest repayment. But in this case being a joint home loan account between two people, both can claim for 80,000 as principle repayment and 1.5 lakh each as interest repayment. Hence, jointly you both can double your tax benefit in case of a joint loan.

However, you must be a bit careful with the joint applications.
The reasons are that joint loan applications are scrutinized deeply by the home loan offering bank and are liable to get rejected on many basis. For e.g., a sister-brother jointly applied for home loan but that might get rejected because the home loan bank might raise objections citing problems in future leading to "rights on property" between the sister and brother. Similar case can occur between 2 brothers, cousins, etc.
The best combination for a joint home loan is husband and wife, as they are supposed to live together and usually the chances of disputes are less.

However, please remember that even if you take a joint home loan with your spouse, it locks both of you till you repay the entire loan.
Take this case. A couple - husband IT engineer and wife doctor - applies for joint home loan. Since doctor wife was not working because she has a 1.5 years old kid to look after at the time of loan application, they decide to go with 90:10 share ratio.
The thought was that after 2 years or so, when the kid will start going to school, the doctor wife can start her clinic and then she can claim for the tax benefit on her share of 10%.
But after 2 years, the wife tried getting a business loan to setup her clinic and she was denied. The reason, she already has a joint loan running in her name. She cannot get another one till this one gets cleared.

Although this might vary from bank to bank, but it is a thought which needs to be kept in mind before going for Joint Home Loan applications

Stock Market Best Performing Shares - July 2011

All stock traders like to buy the best performing stock - i.e. the one which gives them the best returns. Very often the traders try to get the details from the general market sentiment, and that can be reflected by what the majority of the market players think.

Many Business related channels, and business newspapers, magazines (business media) conduct regular polls and opinion gathering from stock brokers, market experts, and even general public. So we decided to give our readers a chance to participate in a similar manner, and collect this data about the stock market performance. Read further to take part.

Winers of June 2011:
Although we got only 336 responses (minimum requried were 500), we still decided to give away partial prizes as this being the first month of our competition:
Prize 1 - Rs. 200 - Mr. Vipul Agarwal - Correct Prediction of ICICI Bank
Prize 2 - Rs. 200 - Ms. Manjari Nigam - One of the majority of predictors of Reliance

Conditions for Stock Market Opinion Participation:
It's a stock market business. Can anyone really predict the stock market? That's the million dollar question to answer.

So, what conditions can be put up for any such stock returns prediction? Basically - No one has the answer. But there ought to be some atleast to keep us safe :-) as this is a game. So here are the basic few:
- Participating in this does NOT require any purchase or payment by the person taking part - So please, dont hand over your credit card details to us, dont send any cheques or transfer any money to our accounts for any participation. We dont really need a single penny from you :-)
- The winners will be decided based upon the random no. generated through excel-sheet macro. The program takes up a list of numbers and returns one of them randomly. Two such nos. will be generated as there are two prizes. The participants do NOT have any right to question the selection.
- Once the nos. are generated, those participants will be contacted via email and asked for their full postal address. Hence, while filling in your details in the form below, please provide your correct email address.
- We need to ensure that there are sufficient and genuine no. of stock market responses. Hence, there should be a minimum of 500 unique responses. If there are less than 500 responses by the deadline, the game stands cancelled - no prizes will be given. So not just you, also request your friends, family members and other relatives to participate.
- At last, by taking part you agree that you do not have any claim on prize of this, you will not sue us if you do not get the prize, you are aware that no claim can be made on anything, there are only 2 prizes and rest will not get anything.... You are anyways not paying a single penny - right?
- The results or responses should not be used for making bets in the stock market - If you do so, you do it at your own risk. Dont come back to us saying that you lost money in this. You agree that you cannot have us or anyone responsible for any action that you take based upon the responses of this. Blah, Blah, Blah....
- That's all. No more rules, No more terms and No more conditions.

Why are we giving these prizes away? Nothing specific - just simple site promotion! Either we spend money on adwords or give it directly to our loyal readers. The second option we think is better!

How do I know the exact no. of responses till date?
We're going to be real-time transparent on this :-)
So, that's why we want you to enter your details in 2 steps.
First Step - respond to the few questions in the "Stock Market Best Performing Share" form below and click on "Submit".
Second Step - Once you get the confirmation message of your submission, Click on "Post Your Comments" link below. It might require registration by Blogger of your Google Account. In the comment form, put your first name, city & your selected stock in the comment.
Do NOT put your other personal details like email-id.

So at any given point of time, you can see how many responses have been received till date. People will also know who all are eligible, in real time.
Please note - you will be eligible only if you complete both the steps - 1) fill up the form and 2) post it in the comments

How do you make calculations about the best performing stock?
The 5 shares which are listed below have the following closing price on 31st May 2011:
DLF - 210.45
ICICI Bank - 1086.10
Ranbaxy - 551.90
ONGC - 281.05
Reliance - 951.85
What you need to tell us is which of these stocks will give the highest monthly return percentage-wise, in the month of June. The calculations will be simple.
Percentage Change in Share Price = (Closing Price on 31st July)/(Closing Price on 30th June) * 100%

Whichever stock will have the maximum Percentage Change in Share Price (as calcualted by above formula) will be the correct answer. All the respondents who would have selected that stock will qualify for the first prize.

That's not all. There is second prize as well. Irrespective of which stock turns out to be the best performer, we will also reward another person from the majority group. Suppose there are 2000 responses and best % change is by ONGC stock. But out of 2000 responses, majority (say 1500) predicted Reliance. Hence, the second price will go to the person from the group who predicted Reliance.

What can you get for Predicting it correctly, or predicting it correctly/incorrectly but being with the majority?
Rules are simple, so are those for Rewards.

No. of Responses	First Prize (Rs.)	Second Prize (Rs.)
>50,000	10,000.00	8,000.00
>25,000	7,500.00	4,000.00
>10,000	3,500.00	2,000.00
>5,000	2,000.00	1,000.00
>500	500.00	500.00

- The minimum prize amount is Rs. 500 each. But the condition is that there should be atleast 500 unique responses to this best performing stock opinion game. If the no. of responses is less than 500, then the game stands cancelled - there will be no prizes at all.

So, not just you, also request your family members and friends to participate in this.

The deadline for this is end of day 00:00 hrs 28th July 2011 IST - any entries received after that will be disqualified.

How can one make good prediction about high return stocks?
There are multiple ways to predict stock market returns for the best performing stocks, they are as follows:

1) Make a random guess - This works the best, but you need to be lucky :)
2) Go for technical analysis and charting knowledge
3) Get into fundamental stock analysis
4) Take tips and consult with friends. But dont pay your stock broker for advise, they are usually wrong :)

HRA & Home Loan Tax Benefit can be Claimed Together

Details about how to claim HRA & Home Loan Tax Benefit together
Many individuals feel that if they have a Home Loan for which they are paying an EMI but not residing in that home, and staying in a rented apartment, then they cannot claim for both the tax benefits of HRA and Home Loan repayment. However, this is NOT true. The Income tax rules allow you to claim both HRA (House Rent Allowance) Tax benefit and Home Loan Repayment Tax benefit together, based upon certain conditions. Let's see the details of it in this article.

Claim Both HRA & Home Loan Tax Benefits Together

Majority of the people who take home loan belong to the service class. Among them also, the majority are those who migrate from their native town to usually a large metro city for employment reasons. Now the struggle begins - take a home on rent, if real estate rates permit affordability and home loan is available, book a flat to be purchased.
However, majority of the flats being sold are under-construction flats. That leads to a problem - unless the flat is ready to move in, the loan borrower has to continue his stay in a rented apartment, while he still has to pay EMI for his home loan on the under-construction flat. That leads to a situation where one ends up paying both EMI (or pre-EMI) for his home loan as well as House Rent.
Take the second case - you bought a flat in Mumbai on home loan, but after that you move to Bangalore as you got a better high paying job there. So, your EMI is going on for your Mumbai based Flat, while you are paying rent in Bangaloe for your Bangalore based flat. Again, the situation is where you are paying both EMI on Home loan and rent for your rented flat.
If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Here, we discuss the possible scenarios where you are eligible for claiming tax benefit on home loan and HRA (House Rent Allowance):

Scenario 1: You buy a house by taking Home Loan, get the possession and are currently staying in that house:
Since you are staying in your own purchased house, you can NOT claim for House Rent Allowance.
Please remember that HRA can be claimed only if you (as a tax payee), are staying in a rented home.
In this case, since you are not staying in a rented house, you cannot claim for HRA.

However, you can surely claim for Home Loan Tax benefits.

Scenario 2: House purchased on Home Loan in one city, Living in another city on rent:
This is the scenario we described above with the example of Home purchased on loan in Mumbai and working and living in Bangalore on rent.
In such a case, you are eligible for both claiming both HRA (House Rent Allowance) Tax benefit as well as the Tax benefit on your home loan repayment.

Scenario 3: Home purchased on Loan but not ready for possession, staying on rent in same city:
This is the most common scenario - you have booked an under-construction property and it will be ready after a few months to few year for you to get possession. Hence, you are currently staying on rent in the same city where you have booked property on home loan.
So there are two phases here:
Phase I - Under-construction & stay on Rent :
You are eligible for HRA claim, but you are NOT elgibile for Home Loan tax benefit. This situation will remain till the date you get the possession of your purchased flat.
Phase II - Purchased Flat possession given, you vacate the rented apartment & move in to your purchased flat:
After you get possession of your purchased flat and you move in there - the situation reverses. Now, you CANNOT claim for HRA, but you can now claim for Home Loan Tax benefits (both principle and interest repayment of home loan).

Also, whatever EMI (or pre-EMI) you paid during the Phase I, you can claim 1/5th or 20% of that in a period of 5 years starting from the year you got possession - See this article for details

Scenario 4: Purchased Home possession received, but not suitable for staying. You take another rented flat in same city:
This is the when you purchase home on loan which is on the eastern end of the city and get the possession of house.
Your EMI is going on. Suddenly, your employer shifts his office to western end of the city making it impossible for you to travel such a long distance daily. Hence, you vacate your self-possessed home on loan, an take another one on rent which is near to your office.
Now, we are not aware of any hard and fast rules on this case, because the reason for such a case has to be genuine. We dont know if there is any specific distance prescribed in the IT rules for claiming it to be a genuine reason for getting into such a situation.
However, you are eligible for claiming both the HRA and Home loan tax benefit in such a case. It is possible that the Finance and Payroll department may deny your claim, but you must check with a qualified tax expert about your case and file for a tax benefit refund if your case is genuine and not accepted by your employer.

If you have any questions/queries regarding home loans or HRA claims, the FT Times team will be happy to address them. Please post your questions in the comments section by clicking on the link "Post a Comment" at the end of this page

Scenario 5: You have a possession ready home on home loan, but you put it on rent and stay in another rented apartment
This scenario can occur as an extension of Scenario 4 where you put your owned house on rent as you move to other part of the city.
It can also occur when all of a sudden rental rates in the locality of your area have increased, say to 20K and you can get a cheaper rented flat near your office for just 8K rent. So, you put your purchased house on rent for 20K and take another home at 8K rent, reaping the benefit of 12K plus the proximity to your office.
In this case also, you should be eligible for both HRA tax benefit as well as Home Loan Tax benefit on both principle as well as interest payment. Employer might deny it, but again check with a tax expert.
However, you must note that the income you are getting from putting your house on rent is taxable. So make sure to pay taxes on that income