e-filing your taxes

It is already mid of May and you would be busy planning for filing your tax returns. Some of you (especially the corporate employees) rely on TRPs or tax agents to file their tax returns. These agents charge you anywhere between 100 to 250 rupees. You give them your Form 16 and provide your details like date of birth, mail ID etc.  They fill out a Saral form on your behalf and submit the returns. Once your returns are filed, they give you the stamped copy of the Saral/Sahaj form in a fancy stick file.


Your really don't need an agent to do this simple task for you. You can do it yourself here. You can even submit the returns for previous years. Some of the agents don't provide this service. They don't even accept requests for the current assessment year if it is past the due date. 


One more reason for opting this is, e-filing is secured. You can never entrust your financial details to others. We have been hearing about lot of identity theft cases recently. So, why take chances?


Here are the steps for e-filing your returns

1. First register yourself in the e-filing site to use the e-filing option. 
2. Download the form (excel sheet) which is relevant to you (ITR-1, ITR-2) for the assessment year you want to submit the returns.
3. Fill out the form. You have detailed instructions in the form on what and how to fill. Most of the information would come from your Form 16 
4. Verify your information and calculate the tax
5. Generate the XML. Don't worry, you need not write any code here. The form has a button to do that for you.
6. Upload the XML back to the site
7. You will get an ITR-V from via email.
8. Sign the form and post it to the Centralized Processing Center, where your tax returns are processed. Here is the CPC address: Income Tax Department - CPC, Post Bag No - 1 , Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka. You need to send it only by ordinary post. Speed posts and couriers are not accepted.
9. You will get an acknowledgement on e-mail once the CPC receive your ITR-V
10. CPC processes your return and send you the IT intimation in a password protected PDF file. If you are eligible for any tax credit, it will be credited to your bank account. Only selected banks like SBI, Axis, ICICI has this feature. You can even view your tax credit in your form 26AS. I will give you more details on form 26 AS in a separate post.

Thats it. You are done. Isn't it simple?

Green gifting

Off late there has been a lot of buzz on Go Green. Companies, organizations, electronic and print media has been advertising and advocating a lot on this. Individuals often blame the government or companies that they are not doing enough to be green. But how are we as individuals contributing to the green initiatives? Many of us would have felt at some point in time like ‘what can I alone do’ or ‘I don’t have that zeal in me’. I feel the approach needs to be changed to get better results for ‘Go Green’.

Most of us live in a concrete jungle. People barely have time or opportunity to bond with the nature. Bonding with nature is one of the key factors in driving you to plant trees. We seldom get a chance to observe the beauty in a germinating seed, plant flowering or bearing fruit. It is an awesome feeling to closely observe a growing plant.

I can remember the first time I have seen this happen. It was almost a magical moment. When I was very young I once buried a bunch of corn seeds in our back yard. It was a rainy season. I was eagerly waiting for them to germinate. I used to go to the place I buried the seeds and see every now and then. The first thing I used to do when I get out of the bed is to go to the back yard and see if my corn seeds germinated. Nothing happened for a few of days. I was very impatient all the time. But one fine morning when I woke up, it was slightly drizzling and it was an awesome climate. I walked to the place where my treasure was. I was amazed to see a bunch of sprouts shooting out of the ground. Green little ones. It was an amazing feeling. It seemed magical. That was the first time that I felt bonding with nature. To this day I can vividly remember the color of the sprouts and soil. I feel gifted to get that opportunity. I bet many people out there wouldn’t have had this wonderful opportunity

Gifting is a part of our lives now. We give gifts to friends, relatives and acquaintances on occasions like birthday, marriages and anniversaries. Most of the time the gifts would be some fancy article, a decorative piece or some cards. Sometimes these gifts might not be really useful for the person you give. In some cases they would already have had a similar article with them. Instead of such gifts imagine you giving a plant as a gift. And that plant bridges the gap between a person and the nature. You are bestowing a green virtue to your friend !! People might not have land to plant the trees. But any home can readily accept a bonsai plant. It hardly asks for a square foot of space in your home. And in return it gives you lot more pleasure. What say?

Man and the market

Ever wondered what the similarity is between a human and a stock market? Well, I think both are similar in many aspects. Stock markets are very sensitive. Probably more sensitive than a human being. The market movement is like your moods. Your mood rises on hearing good news and falls on hearing bad news. Markets react the same way. Any small piece of info could tickle the market. It could be about a price hike, tax cut, interest rates, government decisions and what not. It reacts even to the weather changes!!

Humans love gossiping. So does the market. Not always you have genuine news. And in today’s world with media so much entwined with our lives, the news spread real fast, like a wild fire. Be it genuine or fake, there will always be people who are ready to spread it. Some having ulterior motives, some unknowingly and some just for the sake of it.

If there is a fake good news and more people are fooled (or fool enough) to believe it, they create a bubble, making the markets go bullish. And when there is a bad news, it is the reverse. As an individual investor your success partially depends on how you react to the news. Why partially? Because you don’t have full control on the market. If the market goes down, your net value might go down as well.

Investing in stock is like gambling. It depends on what cards you have and how well you play your cards. If you have a dealer like Harshad Mehta or Ketan Parekh, you have more chances of losing. So, don’t get carried away by rumours. Exit on a rally, enter when the market is stable. Use your head and not your heart. This philosophy leaves you unscathed in a volatile environment.

Here is a small story on how stock markets work. Thanks to the author and to the person who forwarded the mail (long live mail forwards!!)

A cold winter!

It was autumn, and the Red Indians asked their New Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

Since he was a Red Indian chief in a modern society, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be.

Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his Tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

'It looks like this winter is Going to be quite cold indeed,' the weather man Responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more Wood.

A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. 'Is it going to be a very cold winter?'

'Yes,' the man at National Weather Service again replied, 'It's definitely going to be a very cold winter.'

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find. Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again.

'Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?'

'Absolutely,' The Man replied. 'It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever.'

'How can you be so sure?' the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, 'The Red Indians are collecting wood like Crazy.'

Now you know how stock markets work!!!