Financial Must do's in 2013

On: Monday, 7 January 2013 by Pradip Chakrabarty | Personal Finance

December 21, 2012, we all waited for the world to end. But fortunately or unfortunately the world still exists and so do we. We moved on, bid adieu to 2012 and welcomed 2013. Let us begin this year by marking out what is important to us financially.

INCOME TAX – An alert to all those who have not filed their Income Tax return for the FY 2011-12. The last date is March 31, 2013.

To calculate your tax liability log on to:http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/DIT/Xtras/taxcalc.aspx.

While filing return also check whether you got refunds (if any) for the last FY 2010-11. If not, check the status here https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin.html

RGESS - This year brings to you the Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme. New retail investors with annual income of Rs 10 lakh and below are eligible to claim a deduction of 50% on a maximum investment of Rs 50,000. Applicable for those who invest for the first time into equities, Exchange traded funds (ETFs) and Close Ended mutual funds listed on stock exchange and invested only in BSE 100, CNX 100 and blue chip public sector stocks. Shares of PSU firms categorised as Maharatna, Navratna or Miniratna by the central government will be eligible for RGESS. Follow on public offers and IPOs of PSUs will also be eligible (Under sub-section (1) of Section 80CCG of Income Tax Act 1961). Talk to your Tax Consultant to know more.

SIGN UP WITH EPF - It is necessary that you know more about your EPF (Employees’s Provident Fund) account now that it is online! Sign up by clicking http://www.epfindia.com/. This helps you know your current balance etc. thru one time mobile number registration.

CTS CHEQUES - It is time to get a check on your cheque. Cheque Truncation System (CTS), is a project undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India – RBI, for faster clearing of cheques. CTS is basically an online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically.

Based on the experience gained and the benefits that would accrue to the customers and banks, it was decided to implement CTS across the country. Starting April 1st, 2013 only CTS-2010 compliant cheques would be accepted for clearing. Check, whether your bank has sent you the CTS compiled cheques.

UNIFORM KYC - Effective 1st Jan12, the Market regulator the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) announced introduction of uniform forms and documents for the purpose of customer identification by different market intermediaries like stock brokers and mutual funds, a step intended to bring uniformity to the process.

With a view to bring about uniformity in securities markets, it has also been decided that the same Know Your Customer [KYC] form and supporting documents shall also be used by all captioned SEBI registered intermediaries.

Those who have done their Mutual Fund KYC prior to 1st January 2012, should get their IPV (In-Person-Verfication) done immediately else they will not be able to invest in Mutual Funds (apart from existing folios). Therefore, contact your Mutual Fund Advisor and get it done. However, if you have it already, you can check the status of your KYC at https://www.cvlkra.com/kycpaninquiry.aspx (if you have done from CDSL) or athttps://kra.ndml.in/ (if you have done from NSDL)

INCOME TAX CONCESSION TO EMPLOYERS UNDER NPS: For those who are Entrepreneurs or Owner of Companies, please note that The Finance Act, 2011 amended section 36 so as to provide that any sum paid by the assessee as an employer by way of contribution towards a pension National Pension System (NPS) to the extent it does not exceed ten per cent of the salary of the employee, shall be allowed as deduction in computing the income under the head “Profits and gains of business or profession”. Use this as a tool to retain your employees!

This amendment will be effective from 1 April 2012 and will be applicable to the assessment year 2012-13 (for the income earned in the financial year 2011-12) and subsequent years.

NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME – Have you opened your Account yet? Started by PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory And Development Authority) it is one of the low cost models for creating your retirement corpus. Please contact one of the service providers and get your account opened http://www.camsonline.com/PensionSystemServices.aspx

KNOW YOUR CREDIT SCORE - Your Credit Score is critical to the loan approval process. It provides lenders an indication of how likely it is that you will pay back a loan. The credit information is based on the millions of updates received by CIBIL from its strong member base comprising of Banks, Financial Institutions, State Financial Corporations, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Housing Finance Companies and Credit Card Companies.

Get yourselves "your score" before the bank rejects your loan request for a reason which even you are not aware off, example – your old credit card dues which you cleared but still showing as outstanding in the books of the Credit Card issuing bank or some wrong bills raised by the credit card company and not received by you and showing as outstanding! These all are going to minimise your score which affects you overall score. Contact http://www.cibil.com/help-center or http://www.experian.in/consumer/index.html

OBTAIN AADHAAR CARD – Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on behalf of the Government of India. This number will serve as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India. Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI can enrol for Aadhaar.

Each individual needs to enroll only once which is free of cost. Each Aadhaar number will be unique to an individual and will remain valid for life. Aadhaar number will help you provide access to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Govt and Non-Govt services in due course.

Aadhaar will ensure increased trust between public and private agencies and residents. Once residents enrol for Aadhaar, service providers will no longer face the problem of performing repeated Know Your Customer (KYC) checks before providing services. They would no longer have to deny services to residents without identification documents. Residents would also be spared the trouble of repeatedly proving identity through documents each time they wish to access services such as obtaining a bank account, passport, or driving license etc

Locate the nearest enrolment Centre: http://appointments.uidai.gov.in/easearch.aspx

This is just a bird’s view of everything that you need to check and do for your finance during the year. Wishing you all a great year ahead!

This article was also published in "Chatterpiller", the newsletter of Carma Connect https://carmaconnect.in/newsletters/2013/01/16/finger-food-7/