Women and income tax

The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.

-- Albert Einstein.

That’s it, even the great Albert Einstein found it difficult to understand income tax and we poor women thought it was only us. Also, after this statement I believe even men like us sail in the same boat, but pretend to be know-it-all of the financial bandwagon. But all said and done, finances are indeed very important part of our daily life. To not try to understand is not only foolish but also very dangerous. We women very often proudly delegate all financial paperwork to our male counterparts and feel relaxed. However there is nothing wrong in doing this, it really helps that we keep ourselves up-to-date and aware.

 

What better time to do this, than at the start of a fresh financial year. Also in wake of the recent demonitization it is very important that we learn and equip ourselves with variuos digital ways to transact. Most of us who are empoyed, atleast are at speed with the digital wave that we are riding with respect to financial transactions. But I think it is equally inportant for the housewives, to be aware and fluent in these aspects. To begin with I will list a few must haves:

 

• At least have one savings bank account on your name.

 

• Hold a debit card and use it for your day to day expense transactions.

 

• NEFT/IMPS, are the need of the day. Learn ebanking, it dependable. Gets work done from home and no time restrictions.

 

• Get familar with atleast one of the many UPIs availabe today. They make money transfer easy and hassel free. Few that I can recommend will be BHIM, TEZ, PhonePe. All of us hold a smart phone today and have all the time in the world to use watsapp. Believe me these UPIs are also very easy to use and transact on.

 

So done with the basics, lets now talk about few ways in which you can save tax, while making good savings and protecting your health.

 

• If you have a girl child under 10 years, you can benefit from the Sukanya Samridhi Yojna under Section 80C.

 

• Section 80C also allows you to get tax benefits by investing in life insurance plans.

 

• Section 80D of the Income tax act allows a tax deduction of up to 25,000 per year for paying health insurance premium with an additional deduction of 5000 for policies purchased by or for senior citizens.

 

• Section 80E calls for a tax deduction for expenses done on disease and illness specified under 11DD

 

• First time home owners can take tax benefit under Section 80EE

 

• Section 24 gets tax dedcution for housign loans.

 

I really hope this information helps us get some foothold in the financial teritory, which for very log had been foreign for us.

 

Disclaimer: I am no financial expert. I unearthed all this information, while trying to familarise my self. Thought it may help more women if it was all collated and presented as a summary.