Check Your PF online soon

Checking your PF account balance will soon be hassle free. Central Provident Fund Commissioner has announced that come September and subscribers of the employees provident fund organisation will soon be able to monitor their account online.Officials stated that 'EPFO' has already put in place a software for all its 120 regional offices for updating accounts year-wise that will help it meet the finance ministry's challenge of updating all pending accounts by September this year. Apart from facilitating the subscribers , this move is expected to ensure that employers make timely payment in to the PF account and also pressurize the regional EPFO office to maintain regular updated account. Once the system goes online subscribers will only have to put in their account numbers and select their regional office to see the amounts in their accounts up to the last updates.

Good Government decision for Aam Junta - Salaried persons below Rupees 5 Lakh taxable income need not file IT Returns

Lakhs of Indian salaried taxpayers whose taxable income, including salary and interest income, is up to Rs 5 lakh, will not be required to file income-tax return from now.

No income tax returns is required for salaried persons whose annual taxable income including salary and interest is up to Rs 5 lakh.
However, this would not cover income from other sources like house property , capital gains and gains from profession and business.

The scheme would be applicable from assessment year 2011-12 onwards. This means that salaried persons eligible under the scheme would not have to file returns for the financial year 2010-11 in 2011-12 (assessment year).

Under the scheme, those salaried persons who want to claim tax refund, would have to file income tax return.

As per the Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2011, the government will be issuing a notification exempting 'classes of persons' from the requirement of furnishing income tax returns.

Under the scheme, the salaried person wants exemption from filing IT return, has to disclose about the incomes like dividend and interest to his employer for tax deduction. In the scenario, the Form 16 issued to salaried employees will be treated as income tax return. At present, it is obligatory for all salaried persons to file income tax return under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The idea behind the move is that in cases where there are no other sources of income, filing of a return is a duplication of existing information.

Investment Tips for Beginners

• Pay yourself first every month
• Automate your investments through ECS
• If you are a beginner, do not invest directly in the stock market, instead take equity exposure through mutual funds.
• For long term capital building safety of principal amount is important.
• Make sure your savings are not sitting idle, they should stay invested to beat inflation otherwise while you are thinking that your savings would make you rich over time, actually they would get eroded by the monster of inflation in the long run.
• Your investments should depend upon your financial goals and objectives, don’t follow heard mentality.
• Equity investments are always good when done from the long term perspective, suggest you also invest in equity with long term perspective.
• Diversify your investments. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Put no more than 10% of your total investments in one company.
• Build a contingency fund of liquid cash to meet your emergency needs.
• Take a balanced approach to investing. Avoid risky investments as well as an overly cautious approach to Investing.
• Monitor your investments once a quarter and take corrective action, if required.
• Do not try to time the entry and exit of your investments.
• Adapt SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) for your investment and then you would realize that every time is a good time to invest if you have a long- term outlook and if you keep investing regularly. You will enjoy the benefit of averaging and see the power of compounding.

Retirement Planning

These days most of the people are worried if they would be able to retire peacefully and gracefully as majority of private employers do not provide pension to the employees and the inflation is high, the price of everything is changing very fast and it becomes difficult to visualize how much would the same thing cost during the retirement years. Instead of getting lost on retirement, this aspect should be taken heads on, a few beginner's tips on retirement planning:-
1) Start Saving early
2) Create a Retirement Plan
3) Understand your risk tolerance and balance your investment strategy
4) Diversify your investments and assets allocation
5) Save and invest regularly as per the plan
6) make sure you pay yourself first
7) Make sure that your investment is mechanical and automated
8) yearly review your investments and make change if required
9) Never dip into your retirements savings
Sit back and relax..you should do fine in your retirement years..

Aircons - adding to the woes of environment

The weather is so hot and humid. how does it matter..these days everybody has aircons in offices, shopping malls, homes..the aircons are running full blast and we find short term solace from the heat and feel good, without possibly realizing that how much pressure we are putting on the environment and how much we are contributing to the woes of environment and endangering the future and contributing to the adverse climatic changes.

I feel ashamed of this..how to go about the much needed change..before its too late..!

Kids and Chaos Day at office - a great experience

We had Kids and Chaos Day at my office, organized by HR department which was quite a success.

My son and I had great time together.

It was a great experience. I would say a rare experience to be with your child in office on a working day.