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Key Takeaways
Most investors rush to invest in January–March just to save taxes, often ignoring long-term financial goals.
Last-minute tax-saving may lead to financial stress, poor returns, and misaligned investments.
Tax-saving investments like PPF, ULIPs, and NPS are designed for long-term goals like retirement, education, or family security.
Investing early in the financial year helps you maximise tax savings while achieving key life goals.
Smart investors match their tax-saving options with personal financial objectives, not just tax exemptions.
Every year we celebrate 1st April as April Fool’s Day, just for fun, trying to fool around with friends and playing pranks. Also, when it comes to investing, April feels more relaxed than other months, especially the previous three months, i.e., January, February and March.
Given the annual investment trends in the country, these three months see more money flowing into tax-saving investments than the entire remaining nine together. Be it ELSS mutual funds or life insurance plans, it seems as if suddenly there’s an influx of interest in these schemes during January, February and March.
The month of April, however, has seen a net withdrawal from the tax-saving investments at times.
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The April Fool’s Tax-Saving Trend
This trend of investment and withdrawal sounds more like April Fool’s Day investment decisions. It seems like a majority of the investors are trying to fool the Taxman and not give much thought to their own financial goals.
This kind of last-minute investing for saving taxes has major long-term consequences on your finances. A few of them are:
Insufficient savings
Loss of hard-earned money
Not having money in a time of need
Unnecessary stress with investments
Did You Know?
More than 93% of income tax returns were filed online in FY 2023–24 using e filing 2.0.
Source: The Economic Times.
Why should you avoid the April Fool’s Tax-Saving Trend?
Investing anywhere only to save tax and without a definite long-term goal will mostly lead to one or more of the mentioned consequences. The reasons for these risks are simple:
The majority of tax-saving investments are long-term investments; for example, 5 to 15 years or more.
Almost every tax-saving investment has a lock-in period.
Most tax-saving investments are designed keeping in mind the common financial goals for a family, like a child’s marriage, education, retirement, etc.
Let’s look at this kind of investing in numbers. Assuming your age is below 60 years and your taxable income is ₹ 12 lakhs in this financial year, your maximum tax bracket is going to be 10%. Also, if you use every investment option available to minimise your tax outflow, your money will look something like this:
Description
Your Money
Govt's Tax
Total Taxable Income
₹12,00,000
₹1,02,500*
Total Investment Under Section 80C (Life Insurance, ELSS, PPF, etc.)
₹1,50,000
Total Investment U/S 80CCD(1B) NPS Contribution
₹50,000
Total Spend U/S 80D (Health Insurance Premium for Family & Parents)
₹75,000
Total Tax Saving Investment/Spend
₹2,75,000
Net Taxable Income
₹9,25,000
₹27,500@
Total Benefit Received as Tax Saving
₹75,000
*without tax-saving investments
@ with maximum tax-saving investments
So, to reduce your tax liability by ₹ 75,000, you are risking ₹ 275,000. Even mathematically, investing just to save taxes in the present year’s income does not seem a wise decision.
Thus, why should you simply not invest in tax saving plans in the current year?
Why do you Need to be Smart with Tax Saving Investments?
Although it was probably not a lot, you also lost a big chunk of your income to tax. So, you would probably want to take it easy in April and for the next few months and splurge.
However, smart investors will have certain advantages that you are missing out on by investing only for tax-saving. Change is not easy, even if it is something like switching from the April Fool’s method of saving tax to the April Smart method. However, you should bear this pain for the following reasons:
Maximise your annual tax-savings
Earn sufficient money to meet your short-term and long-term financial goals
Be better prepared for financial contingencies
Provide adequate financial protection to your family
Accumulate tax-free money in the future
How to Save Tax like a Smart Investor?
The short answer is, ‘by starting your tax-saving investments in April.’ However, if you are not doing that already, you will find it harder than it sounds. After all, you just invested almost your entire monthly income so that you can save tax.
The smartest way of going about being a smart investor is by prioritising your goals over tax-saving. You simply need to select tax-saving investments as per your financial and investment goals, even if it is only to accumulate wealth.
So, here’s a list of common financial goals and the tax-saving investments you can use to achieve them:
Financial Goal
Investment Options
Maturity/ Lock-in Period
Family’s long-term financial safety
• Term Insurance Plan (Tax-free death benefit)
• Health Insurance Plan (80D)
• Critical Health Insurance Cover (80C/80D)
• Personal Accidental Cover
No lock-in
Wealth Building & Retirement Goals
• New/National Pension Scheme (NPS) (80CCD)
• Public Provident Fund (PPF) (80C)
• Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIPs) (80C)
• Deferred Annuity Plans from life insurers (80C)
• Up to the age of 60 years
• 15 years with a withdrawal lock-in for 5 years
• Lock-in of 5 years
• The vesting age could be up to 80 years
Child’s Higher Education & Marriage Goals
• Guaranteed Income Plans from life insurers (80C)
• Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) (80C)
• Public Provident Fund (PPF) (80C)
• Equity Linked Saving Scheme (ELSS) (80C)
• Up to 5-30 years
• Lock-in of 5 years
• 15 years
• 3 years lock-in only
A Little About Tax Saving Investment Options
Another thing about smart tax-saving is that you should know a little more about the tools of saving taxes, which may help you in planning your financial goals accordingly. Let’s take a look at the tax-saving investment options that are available:
Term Insurance Plans
If you are 30 years old, term insurance will save you between ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 under Section 80C, depending on your income and applicable tax bracket
Health or Mediclaim Insurance
You can reduce your taxable income by up to ₹75,000 (₹25,000 for self and family + ₹50,000 for parents) every year with the two health plans. The claim for parents varies as per their age group.
Unit Linked Insurance Plans or ULIPs
You can reduce your taxable income up to ₹1.5 lakhs in a year with ULIPs.
You can invest up to ₹2.5 lakhs in ULIPs in a financial year for a tax-free maturity value.
Guaranteed Savings Plan
You can reduce your taxable income by up to ₹1.5 lakh in a financial year under Section 80C with this investment
Hopefully, this information will be sufficient to initiate you onto the path of being a smart investor.
Conclusion
You now see that wise tax saving involves coordinating your finances with long-term objectives rather than relying solely on impulsive purchases. You must begin early and select the appropriate Canara HSBC Life Insurance products. In this manner, you might grow wealth, lower your tax burden, and safeguard your family's future without having to worry about money or make rash decisions.
Glossary
e filing 2.0: The advanced income tax filing platform by the government of India for simpler and quicker ITR filing.
Income Tax Slab: The structure of tax rates against various ranges of income under the New and Old tax regimes.
Section 80C: A provision of the Income Tax Act for deduction up to ₹1.5 lakh for particular investments.
ULIP: Unit Linked Insurance Plan brings insurance together with equity/debt investment.
Section 10(10D): Tax-free maturity benefits from life insurance policies, subject to specific conditions.
Disclaimer - This article is issued in the general public interest and meant for general information purposes only. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Canara HSBC Life Insurance Company Limited or any affiliated entity. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to the blog or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the blog for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. You should consult with a qualified professional regarding your specific circumstances before taking any action based on the content provided herein.
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