Aligning Tax Planning With Financial Goals

It should always be seen as a by product while investing

- Ashfaque Ismail

As humans, we all have desires, which we want to fulfill, be it an expensive foreign trip or purchasing a luxury car, and to be honest, these cannot be fulfilled at the flick of a wand. Therefore, it becomes pertinent to align tax planning with your financial goals.

Many of us plan our taxes with the sole purpose of saving tax and subsequently saving “that extra money.” For instance, the premium paid on life and health insurance qualifies for tax benefits, this is the only reason why most of the policy-holders go for insurance. On the contrary, a minuscule minority focusses on financial goals at the time of planning for tax. Financial planners and wealth managers are unanimous on the fact that tax planning should be in sync with financial goals.

“If an individual’s aim is to create a corpus to meet his longterm goals, then the approach will be to invest in specific tax saving products. For instance, if a person’s financial goal is to accumulate a sizeable corpus of funds at the end of a specific tenure, he may invest in equity linked saving schemes or the national pension scheme (NPS),” explained Kusal Roy, MD, Tata Capital Financial Services.