Top Ten Tips for avoiding insurance claim rejection

At some stage during our life, most of us will need to make an insurance claim or be involved in an insurance claim settlement. If you follow few simple steps and precautions on your part can ensure a smooth and hassle-free claim settlement and, thus, provide all the intended financial support to the family and loved one at the time when it is needed the most in your absence.
The purpose of this article is to provide you with insurance claim help and to educate you about the insurance claim process. You will learn the important parts of an insurance claim and what all the precautions you need to take to get a speedy insurance claim settlement without much difficulty. The life insurance settlement is how the beneficiary receives payment of the death benefit. If all information on the policy is correct and it is in force when the policyholder dies, a life insurance provider cannot deny a life insurance claim. Since they are contractually obligated to pay, the only thing they can do is to withhold the benefits you are entitled to by delaying payment. This is where the insurance company assesses your insurance claim and determines whether they will pay out as per the conditions specified in your insurance policy. It is extremely important that you are honest and accurate in your statements for all life insurance claims. If you misrepresent the truth in any way, this is considered fraud and your claim will automatically become void, leaving you without recourse or reimbursement for your loss.
1) First of all ensure to provide correct details at the time of filling up the insurance policy application A material misrepresentation/ providing of wrong information is any distortion of facts given to the insurance company by the policyholder. This could be anything from concealment of the truth like hiding your existing illness or providing incorrect date of birth or giving any wrong information such as income level, occupation, residential status (Resident Indian or Non-Resident India etc) at the time of applying for the insurance policy. In order for the insurance company to deny coverage, the material representation must cause a significant difference in the amount of risk sustained by the policyholder. However, many life insurance providers will cite a misrepresentation that has nothing to do with the assessed risks or cause of death to avoid payment. So ensure to provide correct details at the time of filling up the insurance policy application. Otherwise your loved one will suffer in your absence.

2) Nomination - Nomination is a right conferred on the holder of a Policy of Life Assurance on his own life to appoint a person/s to receive policy moneys in the event of the policy becoming a claim by the assured’s death. The Nominee does not get any other benefit except to receive the policy moneys on the death of the Life Assured. A nomination may be changed or cancelled by the life assured whenever he likes without the consent of the Nominee.
Ensure nomination exists in the policy for easy settlement of claims.
Please ensure to nominate someone you wish to pass on the benefits after your death. If the nominee dies during the tenure of the Policy, the Life Assured should nominate another person in place of the deceased Nominee under section 39 of the Insurance Act.
a) What happens if there is no nomination on death of the LA (Life Assured) or what happens if both the LA and the Nominee expires in the same event?
Such claim is considered as Open Title claim. In such an eventuality a “Succession Certificate" or “Probate of will” will have to be submitted by the Claimant. A Succession Certificate is issued on application by a competent court on the question of the right to the property of the deceased. The Succession Certificate should specifically provide for disbursement of policy monies. If, however, the deceased has left a will, a probate of the will is required along with the copy of the will.

b) What if there are two or more nominees, how will the Policy Monies be paid?

The claim will be paid to nominees according to the percentage declared in the proposal. A joint discharge will have to be given. Alternatively all the nominees can give a joint discharge for payment of claim benefits in favor of one nominee, in which case the claim proceeds would be made in the name of the designated nominee

3) Ensure your beneficiary designations and static details are updated with insurance companies on a regular basis. This would ensure prompt claim settlement in the unfortunate event of death of the Life Assured.
4) Pay premiums regularly - This would ensure that Policy is in force. A lapsed policy would mean no death benefits payable to the nominee. Also, if continuing premium payments is not possible due to any reason, the insured should inform the insurance company before the policy lapses. Most insurance companies take into account genuine circumstances and make necessary provisions like making the policy a paid-up policy to help the customer
5) Keep a record of all your insurance policies and make a file of it. Maintain record of the Insurance Agent/ Insurance Company with their address and contact particulars. Ideally share this information with your loved one and educate the loved one on the process to lodge a claim. It is the responsibility of the beneficiary to inform insurance company about the claim. Inform your beneficiary or immediate family members about the policy you have taken.
6)Keep your policy pack safely.
7)It is very important to read through the Proposal form and submit factual details at the proposal stage and provide genuine documents at the time of buying a policy. In order to ensure that your claim does not get rejected, please ensure the following: Ensure that you read and answer all the questions correctly and accurately to the best of your knowledge. Ensure that you have disclosed all material facts to the Company. In case of any doubt as to whether a fact is material or not, the fact should always be disclosed also ensure that all the documents submitted by you (E.g. Age Proof, Income Proof etc) along with the proposal form are genuine. Don’t leave this responsibility to the agent, after filling up the insurance proposal form, verify once again and ensure that, all details provided in the form is correct. In normal case people used to entrust this job with the Insurance agent and they will just sign.

8) Upon receipt of your policy document, please perform the following checks - Go through the copy of your signed proposal form enclosed along with the policy document, review and ensure that all the static and other details have been recorded correctly and accurately in the policy document, In case you come across any discrepancy, please take up with the insurance company and get discrepancies corrected immediately to avoid future complications.

9) Revival of lapsed policy – If the policy has lapsed, it can be revived during the life time of the life assured, so please ensure to revive the lapsed policy to avoid future complications.

10)Loss of Policy Document – The policy document is an evidence of the contract between the Insurer and the Insured. Hence the policy holder should preserve the Policy Certificate till the contracted amount is settled. Loss of Policy Document should be immediately intimated to the Insurance company and obtain duplicate documents as soon as possible.

Understand the difference between term life insurance and whole life insurance
All life insurance involves a contract between an insurance provider and the policyholder. Upon the policyholder’s death, the insurance company pays a sum of money to the policyholder’s family. After the period of contestability in a life insurance application has passed, the contract cannot be canceled by the insurance provider for any reason.
There are two main types of life insurance: Term life insurance provides an agreed-upon amount to the insured’s beneficiaries only if the policyholder dies during the length of time specified in the policy. In contrast, whole life insurance remains in force until the policyholder’s death.

How to calculate Wealth Tax

Wealth tax is not a very important or high revenue tax in view of various exemptions. Wealth tax is a socialistic tax. It is not on income but payable only because a person is wealthy. Wealth tax is an annual tax like income tax. It is another type of direct tax by which tax is imposed on individuals coming within its purview. Pensioners, retired persons or senior citizens have not been accorded any special benefits under this Act. The valuation date for wealth tax computation is 31st March, The twelve months immediately before the computation date is considered as previous year for which wealth tax is calculated. Net wealth means taxable wealth. It means the amount by which the aggregate value of all assets (excluding exempted assets) belonging to the assessee on the valuation date including assets required to be included in the net wealth, is in excess of the aggregate value of all debts owed by the assessee on the valuation date which have been incurred in relation to the taxable assets. The wealth tax needs to be paid at the rate of one per cent (1%) of the amount by which net wealth exceeds Rs. 30 lakhs. No surcharge or education cess is payable.

The direct tax code (DTC) is expected to come into force with effect from 1 April, 2012. In it, there are lot of changes proposed and one among them is the enhancement of wealth tax exemption limit from the current Rs. 30 lakh to R. 1 crore, so everyone will, therefore, need to review their tax situation next year once the DTC comes into play.



The liability to pay tax in the case of an individual depends upon his residential status and nationality. Residential status is decided as per the provisions of the Income-tax Act

The scope of liability to wealth tax is as follows:
a.In the case of an individual who is a citizen of India and resident in India, a resident—HUF and company resident in India;
Wealth tax is chargeable on net wealth comprising of
i.All assets in India and outside India;
ii.All debts in India and outside India are deductible in computing the net wealth.
b.In the case of an individual who is a citizen of India but non-resident in India or not ordinarily resident in India, HUF, non-resident or not ordinarily resident in India and a company non-resident in India;
i.All assets in India except loan and debts interest whereon is exempt from income-tax under section 10 of the Income-tax Act are chargeable to tax.
ii.All debts in India are deductible in computing the net wealth.
iii.All assets and debts outside India are out of the scope of Wealth Tax Act.
c.In the case of an individual who is not a citizen of India whether resident, non-resident or not ordinarily resident in India:
Same as in (b):

The credit balance in a Non-resident (External) Account is exempt from wealth tax provided the depositor is a person resident outside India as defined in the Foreign Exchange Regulation.



Taxable assets under the Wealth Tax include

· Residential house or commercial building or Guest house

· Automobiles

· Jewellery, bullion, utensils of gold, silver, or other precious metals;

· Yachts, boats and aircraft;

· Urban land located within specified limits; and

· Cash in hand in excess of Rs.50, 000/-

Assets exempted from Wealth Tax

· Property held under a trust or other legal obligation for any public purpose of a charitable or religious nature in India subject to the satisfaction of the stipulated conditions;

· House occupied for the purpose of business or profession;

· One house or a part of house used for residential purpose;

· Property held under a trust

· Assets held as stock-in-trade in business;

· Urban land on which construction is not permissible;

· Co-parcenary interest in a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF);

· Certain specified government bonds;

· Resurgent India Bonds;

· NRI Bank Account Deposits and FCNR Deposits; and

· Assets belonging to Indian repatriate.

Deemed Assets
Assets as specified above and belonging to the non-resident are included in computing the net wealth. In some cases, certain assets which do not belong to the non-resident are included in his net wealth when they are held or are transferred with the intention to avoid wealth tax. These are referred to as deemed assets, which include:

· Assets transferred by one spouse to another;

· Assets held by a minor

· Assets transferred to a person or an association of persons;

· Assets transferred under revocable transfers;

· Assets transferred to close relatives;

· Interest of a partner in a partnership firm;

· Self-acquired property converted into joint family property;

· Gifts made by mere book entries; and other assets which would otherwise belong to the non-resident.



Wealth tax is levied on the ‘net wealth’ which means that from the aggregate of all assets (including deemed assets but excluding exempt assets) the value of debts owed on the valuation date shall be deducted subject to the satisfaction of the following two conditions viz. Only debts which are ‘owed’ on the valuation date are deductible.

Debts should have been incurred in relation to those assets which are included in the net wealth of the assessee



Every person is required to file a return of net wealth in form prescribed by Income Tax Authorities from time to time if his/her net wealth or net wealth of any other person in respect of which he is assessable under the Act on the valuation date is such an amount as to render ‘ him liable to wealth tax. The dates of filing the return are the same as under the Income-tax Act for filing returns. Where wealth tax is payable on the basis of return to be furnished

Why Retirement Planning is important?

When we ask about the life after retirement, some people answer this very casually, they have not even thought about their life after retirement. This type attitude is not good; everybody must agree one fact that, retirement is a reality that will happen today to tomorrow. In any case, you can’t escape from this. Everyone grows old. It’s inevitable. The question is, will you be ready when retirement gets here? We all know it’s coming, but unfortunately, few of us are adequately prepared for its arrival. There are several things we can do to prepare for retiring, even if that important day is far away.

The relevant question here is, how you will live after your retirement ? What will be your main source of Income? Whether the money you saved is enough for the rest of your life? How you are going to fund for any unexpected contingencies? What sort of help you expect from your children?. The only one answer for all the above questions is to plan for retirement well in advance and start savings according to the plan and predefined asset allocation to achieve the retirement/financial goals.

When making your retirement plans you have to consider several things. First, why am I planning? What is your motivation, reason for planning? Also, what plans are out there? There are many paths to the same goal. Finally, of those paths, which one is right for you?

It's never too early to start saving and investing for a comfortable retirement, and those who wait until late in life face additional problems. The good news is that it's never too late to start putting money away for retirement. Even if you are nearing your retirement years, every rupee you put away is one more rupee that can work for you in your retirement years. You can enjoy a great retirement even if you start late, but it's important to control your risk and put away as much as possible in the intervening years.

Why should I plan?

You might be thinking, why should I think about retirement now? I’m young and fit, I can think about it later. This thinking can be a costly and financially dangerous mistake. Everyone should be looking to the future and planning for the day that they will no longer want or be able to work to earn a livelihood. The fact is, average life expectancy in the India is around 75-80 years. Most people will retire well before that age (most of the cases 55-60 years). So you need to plan in advance to find sufficient money to lead a comfortable life for another 20-25 years after retirement.

Furthermore, those individuals who think Government Pension Plans will be enough to take care their after their retirement life, they are fooling themselves. That program was never intended to and never will take the place of good planning, for employer or employee. There will always be a need to supplement this government program. Individuals who plan their retirement are able to supplement this base income with other sources that greatly improve income potential over the course of a retirement. Basically they need an inflation adjusted return. Nobody can predict the financial situation or inflation figures after 20-25 years. So we have to be extra cautious in all our retirement planning process, asset allocation, re-allocation or periodical review of resources according to the changes in the financial market, economic situation, return expectation, increase in the medical expenses, changes in inflation data and changes in the family situation, government taxes etc.



a) The first step in the retirement planning is to decide your retirement age i.e, at what age you wish to retire in other words how many years you have to work until you are ready to retire. The longer you have to save and invest before retiring, the better off you will be.

b) Review your budget carefully to get an idea of how much you are likely to spend in retirement. You need to consider so many aspects while reviewing your budget as discussed in the previous paragraph.

c) Prepare an estimate of your retirement benefits which you are going to receive from your employer as retirement benefits also the expected amount of monthly pension.

d) Estimate how much of a monthly shortfall you are likely to have between the retirement benefits you will receive and what you expect to spend in retirement. Before retiring, you should strive to save enough to meet that shortfall.

e) Use a retirement calculator to determine how much you will need in assets to generate the monthly income you expect to need in retirement. If you search in internet you can find free retirement calculators in various websites

f) Use the number of years until retirement as your guideline when choosing your investment mix. Never invest money in the stock market, Sector specific mutual fund schemes or similar risky financial instruments that you expect to need within the next three to five years. You might be some times forced to sell these investments at a loss, if the market is down at the time need the money. So avoid investment in risky assets for short term.

g) Invest money you expect to need within the next five years in safe investments, such as Mutual Fund schemes investing in bonds and government securities, government bond or other public sector company bonds, bank term deposits etc. Those money require after five years can be invested in direct stock market (selected performing stocks with expert advice), Equity based Mutual Fund Schemes, Company FDs, Commodities like Gold, Silver, Post Office Savings Schemes like, Post Office Monthly Income Schemes, National Savings Certifies, Public Provident Fund (PPF) etc. When you select Mutual Fund Schemes, select schemes having a minimum 3-5 years consistent performance track records and also avoid investing in NFO (New Fund Offers)

h) Keep sufficient money liquid in the savings bank accounts or other liquid schemes for contingency purposes.

i) Invest in good selected Retirement Insurance Plans. Before investing in a retirement plan, please find answer to the following questions; how flexible is the plan? How flexible do you need to plan to be? Looking at issues like early withdrawal of dividend or principal or the possibility of loans for hardship or other life events is essential when weighing the pros and cons of each plan. Retirement Plans offered by life insurance companies are bundled products, offering the benefits of both insurance and investment (I never recommend Insurance products for retirement planning) . A typical retirement plan has two phases.
The first is the accumulation phase, during which you pay premiums and the money accumulates through the tenure of the plan. The accumulated money is then invested in securities approved by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the insurance regulator. These products are designed to protect the value of your principal while at the same time supposed to provide you with steady returns (don’t expect huge returns form insurance products). The accumulation stage is followed by the vesting age, which is the age when you start getting payouts from the investment. This can be selected by you. The vesting age in most plans is 40 to 70 years. The period when a person gets pension is also called the annuity phase. During this phase, in most of the plans there is an option to withdraw up to certain percentages of the accumulated amount in one go. The rest is paid as pension. In the immediate annuity option, a person can pay in lump-sum, instead of over the years, and start getting income immediately. The frequency of payments received can be monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually. Presently so many retirement plans are available in the market offered by almost all insurance companies. You have to be very careful in selecting the insurance company as well as the insurance plan. While selecting the insurance plans, please keep in mind that, this is a long term investment made out of your hard earned money. You can’t afford to lose it.

j) Avoid the temptation to maximize yield at the expense of safety. Nearing retirement, you do not have as much time as a younger person to make up market losses. Avoid reaching for yield in junk bond funds and similar risky investments

k) As you go through the decision making and planning process you need to keep your goals in the forefront and decide what is going to be the best way to get there. There are many retirement planning sites on the Internet with a wealth of knowledge to share. Some of these websites that charge for their services. A bit of savvy searching should lead you to a site to fit your needs and help you meet your goals.

We all want to be comfortable as we get older. No longer can we depend on employers to help us ensure that we will be financially stable as we age. We must take the initiative to make sure that we are taking care of our tomorrow by a bit of careful planning today.

In case you are not experienced enough to plan your retirement properly, it is recommend to take the help of an expert Financial Planner. He will definitely prepare a good retirement plan for you after carefully studying your financial situation and retirement goals.

How to get Income Tax Refund

A tax refund is a refund on taxes when the tax liability or the amount of tax to be paid is less than the amount of taxes paid by the individual. However, you can also claim a tax refund in case the taxes were deducted because you did not declare your tax savings investments details to your employer or the bank deducted tax at source on Term Deposits where the interest income on a particular financial year exceeds Rs. 10,000.00 but you don’t have any other taxable income. For salaried individuals, it is possible that that the company deducted excess tax because you did not declare any of your tax savings investments to the employer. In such a case, a tax refund may be helpful. Towards the end of the financial year, most of us are dogged with the thoughts about filing investment declaration, filing tax returns and basically save as much money as possible from being deducted as tax. Once the formalities are completed, we think little about any tax refunds. Tax refunds are something that a few of us might get and a few of us might not. To be prepared it is prudent to know some basic information about tax refunds.

There is an incentive for taxpayers who file their income-tax returns electronically — they will get their refunds normaly within 1-2 months time. To speed up refunds and encourage electronic filing of tax returns, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has promised expeditious refunds. The wait for refunds in the case of physical tax returns may ranges between 5-10 months. CBDT want tax-payers to file electronically as that helps in faster processing of refunds. The verification of the paper tax returns filed is a tedious process that also delays tax refunds. This has become a bigger issue with the rising refunds. E-filing ensures that tax payers' information on income, taxes and refunds are uploaded in the tax system instantly and tax computations are processed on a real-time basis. Income-tax authorities send data to State Bank of India/other banks which in turn issues refund orders directly to tax-payers under the refund banker scheme. As notified by the Income Tax authorities, the small salaried tax-payers having annual income of Rs 5 lakh who will not be required to file tax returns if they do not have refund claims. Such tax-payers will not be required to file return unless they have tax refund.

If you do not want to wait for a long time to get your tax refund, you need to make sure that you do tax planning as early as possible. You need to assess your tax liability and if need be, take additional help from a tax expert. You also need to invest or save money according to the assessment of your tax liability. Finally, if you are a salaried individual, you need to declare your tax savings investments and other incomes details to your employer so that they can deduct the correct amount of tax from your salary.

To see whether you are eligible for a tax refund, you need to file your tax returns or check the Form-16 that you receive from your employer if you are a salaried individual.

The tax return will show the amount of refund (if any). In case if the tax return already shows that you are getting a tax refund you need not apply for it. The tax return cheque/refund order directly comes to the address mentioned on the Return of Income document filed with the Income Tax department. Tax refund can also be credited directly to your bank account which needs to be mentioned on the tax return. In a situation where you think that you forgot or did not have the proper documents to show the investments made, a Revised Return of Income needs to be submitted. The Income tax department has recently started an initiative where you can check your tax return status online.
Individual tax payers can track their income tax refund online using the following link https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin.html

Tax refund needs to be claimed with one year of the last day of assessment year.

If you do not receive your tax refund within a reasonable time (may vary from case to case) which normally is within a maximum of one year from the date of filing the tax return, you can either visit the tax department's office for the follow up of the refund or you can write a letter (along with the copy of acknowledgement of the tax return) to the concerned Income Tax Assessing Officer. If it is still not redressed then you may write a letter to the jurisdictional Chief Commissioner of the Income Tax with a copy to the Grievance Cell and the concerned Income Tax Officer. This letter may be accompanied by the copies of previous letter/s written to the Income Tax Assessing Officer and a copy of the tax return filed. In case you have tax refund, it is recommended filing your tax returns electronically (E-filing) to avoid the delay in getting the refund orders

Rupee posts biggest single-day loss in 1-1/2 month

The rupee posted its biggest single-day loss in a month and half on Wednesday, hurt by broad dollar gains against major currencies, while weak local shares bogged down by a Moody's downgrade of the banking system also added to the downward bias.

Traders said demand for dollars by a large corporate and for defence-related payments also weakened the unit.

The partially convertible rupee closed at 50.1750/1850 per dollar after hitting 50.1825, a level last seen on Oct. 21, and 1.4 percent weaker than its previous close of 49.4750/4850.

This is the rupee biggest one-day fall since a 2.5 percent decline on Sept. 21, which was its biggest fall in nearly three years.

"The equity markets turned negative and euro came off pushing the rupee lower," said N.S. Venkatesh, treasurer at state-owned IDBI Bank.

He expects the unit to trade in a range of 49.50 to 50.50 over the next couple of weeks.

The unit moved in the wide range of 49.3950- 50.1825 per dollar in the day, with traders cautious ahead of a market holiday on Thursday.

The main 30-share BSE index ended down 1.18 percent at 17,362.10 points -- its lowest close in two weeks.

Financials led the decline after ratings agency Moody's lowered its outlook on the country's banking system, citing slowing growth and concerns about asset quality.

The euro was at $1.3643, compared with $1.3770 when the rupee closed on Tuesday, while the index of the dollar against six major currencies was at 77.460 points versus 76.948 points.

The euro fell against the safe-haven U.S. dollar and Japanese yen on Wednesday as the euro zone's escalating debt crisis saw investors such as macro funds step up sales of the single currency after Italy's 10-year bond yield hit 7 percent.

"There was steady import-related dollar buying today by corporates, oil companies and defence firms," a dealer with a private bank said.

Oil is India's biggest import and refiners are the largest buyers of dollars in the local currency market.

Dealers said the rupee was likely to continue to weaken in the near term with the broad trend towards safe-haven assets including the dollar because of euro zone and trade deficit issues.

"A breach of the 50.20 level would push the rupee down to 50.50 with the next target then being 52.00," said Ashtosh Raina, head of foreign exchange trading at HDFC Bank.

Trade deficit in October is seen at $19.6 billion, the highest in four years, the country's trade secretary said on Tuesday, citing provisional data. At this rate, the trade deficit for the year could breach $150 billion, Rahul Khullar said.

The one-month onshore forward premium was at 25.25 points from 24.75 points on Tuesday, the three-month was at 65.25 points from 65 and the one-year was at 167.75 points from 178.75.

One-month offshore non-deliverable forward contracts were quoted at 50.17, at par with the onshore spot rate.

In the currency futures market, the most traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange were at 50.35, on the United Stock Exchange they were at 50.3225, while on the MCX-SX they were at 50.3125. The total volume was at $3.64 billion.

How to calculate Gift Tax

High value gifts were a safe mode to show one's love to others financially. But the tax authorities have made rules to tighten the provisions related to gifts. In fact the rule has become so strict to end the high value gifts people normally used to make to escape from paying tax. The rule thus effectively prevents money laundering in the in the name of high value gifts. Gift tax in India is regulated by the Gift Tax Act which was constituted on April 1, 1958. It came into effect in all parts of the country except Jammu and Kashmir. As per the Gift Act 1958, all gifts in excess of 25,000, in the form of cash, draft, check or others, received from one who doesn't have blood relations with the recipient, were taxable.
The change in the rule related to gifts says that the receiver has to pay tax for receiving any gift valued at Rs 50,000 and more. The 'any gift' clause means that not only cash but all gifts of any value. So if someone receives a gift of a house worth Rs 20 laky, then he/she is automatically in the highest income bracket and has to pay 30% + surcharge on value of the house as tax.
According to the law, individuals can receive gifts from the following sources:
• Relatives or Blood Relatives
• At the time of Marriage
• As inheritance
• In contemplation of death

Gifts Exempted from Tax
There is exemption for gifts received from certain people. The gifts that one receives from relatives on the occasion of marriage, the gifts receives from parents and grandparents, the gift received by a daughter-in-law from her parents-in-law, and gifts received by way of a will and inheritance are exempt. The gifts received by a son-in-law from his parent-in-law will be taxed.
A Non-Resident Indian can gift to his/her parents in India from their NRE (Non-Resident External) account without their parents suffering any tax.
The gifts received in the names of one's minor children will be clubbed with the parents' income for taxation purpose. Also the tax authorities alert in saying that, in case of both parents having income, clubbing will be done with that parent who is earning more. So one cannot hide under the cover of their minor children receiving the gifts.
Not only gifts, but any real estate deal done for values lower than the state governments fixed rates, will also be taxed. Here the tax will be charged on the difference between the state government's rate and purchase price. The tax needs to be paid by the buyer of the property.
Movable properties outside the country, unless the donor
a) Individual: is an Indian citizen, who is originally a resident of India, or
b) No-individuals resident of India during the year of gift
c) Out of balance gift by NRI (Non-Resident Indian) in his Non-resident account.
d) Foreign currency gift of convertible foreign exchange, remitted from overseas by an NRI to a resident relative.
e) Foreign exchange asset gifted by NRI to his/her relatives.
f) Special Bearer Bonds, 1991.
g) Saving certificates issued by the Central Government (notified as exempted).
h) Capital Investment Bonds up to ` 10, 00,000 per year.
i) Relief Bonds gifts by an original subscriber.
j) Gifts of Certain bonds from the NRI to his/her relatives, which are subscribed in foreign currency (specified by the Central Government).
k) Gift to government or any local authority.
l) Gifts to any charitable institutions.
m) Gifts to notified temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras and other places of worship.
n) Gift to children for educational purpose (Reasonable amount).
o) Gifts by an employer to its employees in the form of bonus, gratuity or pension.
p) Gifts under will.
q) Gifts in contemplation of death.

Health Insurane Plan from SBI - Hospital Cash’

SBI Life Insurance has recently launched a health insurance plan called ‘Hospital Cash’. It provides fixed daily allowance for every day of hospitalisation, irrespective of the hospital bill. The plan is also available online. In case the insured is admitted into an ICU, twice the amount of fixed daily allowance is allowed. The plan is available for a fixed policy term of three years and has flexibility of premium payment, including annual, half-yearly and quarterly. It is offered for sum assured (SA) of Rs2 lakh to Rs5 lakh. The fixed daily allowance can range from Rs2,000 to Rs5,000. The ICU benefit varies from Rs4,000 to Rs10,000. A mediclaim policy reimburses only the expenditure incurred on the treatment of an illness at a hospital. There are several other expenses which mediclaim policies do not reimburse—travel, attendant’s lodging, loss of income (for patient and/or attendant), pre-hospitalisation diagnostic tests, medicines, etc, that can run up to as much as 30%-40% of the total treatment cost. The Hospital Cash plan—no substitute for mediclaim—is a supplement for these extra expenses.

Hospitalisation due to pre-existing diseases is not covered for the first two years of policy. The benefit illustration specifies annual premium of Rs3,240 for a healthy 32-year-old opting for Rs3 lakh SA which means fixed allowance of Rs3,000 per day for hospitalisation, subject to a maximum of 100 days (renewable till the age of 75). By way of comparison, the Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Hospital Cash 60-day plan (renewable up to the age of 65) offers daily allowance of Rs2,500 on premium of Rs1,985, while Tata AIG General Insurance HealthCare Level 4–180-day plan (renewable up to the age of 54) offers daily allowance of Rs3,000 on premium of Rs4,086.

How to verify TDS -Form 26AS details online

What is Form 26AS?
Form 26AS is a consolidated tax statement issued under Rule 31 AB of Income Tax Rules to PAN holders. This statement with respect to a financial year will include details of:
a) tax deducted at source (TDS);
b) tax collected at source (TCS); and
c) advance tax/self assessment tax/regular assessment tax etc. deposited in the bank by the taxpayers (PAN holders). Form 26AS details are available only from Financial Year 2005-06 onwards

It is the rule of Income Tax Act is to deduct tax at source (TDS) for certain type of income eg. In case the interest income earned on a bank deposit for a financial year exceeds Rs. 10,000.00, bank will deduct tax at source. In case your salary for a particular financial year is above the minimum taxable limit, your employer will deduct tax from your salary. When you deposit the advance tax or the self assessment tax with designated banks, Banks upload challan details to TIN (Tax Information Network) on a T+3 basis after the realization of the tax payment cheques .On the day after the bank uploads the details of self assessment/advance tax to TIN it will post these details into your Form 26AS. Actually we don’t know, whether the amount deducted as TDS is credited in Government Account (Income Tax). However, the Form 26AS will provide the complete details regarding the tax amount remitted to Government Account on your PAN. In case you do not find your tax deducted details in the Form 26AS, immediately you need to follow up with the bank or the employer or deductors. This could be because the bank has made error in data entry. You should take up the matter with your bank for rectification of amount or other details.

Every person/ entity that has deducted or collected tax at source is required to deposit the tax to the government account through a bank. Banks will upload this payment-related information to the TIN (Tax Information Network) a central system. These deductors are also required to file a quarterly statement to TIN giving the details of their TDS (Tax Deducted at Source)/TCS (Tax Collected at Soruc). The TIN central system will match the tax payment-related information in the statement with the tax receipt information from the banks. If both of these match TIN will create a comprehensive ledger for each PAN holder giving details of the tax deducted/collected on its basis by every deductor who has filed the statement.

How is Form 26AS useful for you

a) The credits available in the tax statement confirm that:
a) the tax deducted/collected by the deductor/collector has been deposited to the account of the government;
b) the deductor/collector has accurately filed the TDS/TCS statement giving details of the tax deducted/collected on your behalf;
c) bank has properly furnished the details of the tax deposited by you.

In future you will be able to use this consolidated tax statement (Form 26AS) as a proof of tax deducted/collected on your behalf and the tax directly paid by you along with your income tax return after the need for submission of TDS/TCS certificates and tax payment challans along with income tax returns has been dispensed with by the Income Tax Department (ITD). However as of now for claiming the credit for tax deducted/collected at source you may be required to enclose TDS/TCS certificates (Form 16/16A) issued to you by the deductor.

The following are the are the possible reasons for no credits in Form 26AS?
The possible reasons for no credit being displayed in your Form 26AS can be:
a) Deductor/collector has not filed his TDS/TCS statement;
b) You have not provided PAN to the deductor/collector;
c) You have provided incorrect PAN to the deductor/collector;
d) The deductor/collector has made an error in quoting your PAN in the TDS/TCS return;
e) The deductor/collector has not quoted your PAN;
f) The details of challan against which your TDS/TCS was deposited was wrongly quoted in the statement by the deductor or wrongly quoted in the challan details uploaded by the bank.

To rectify these errors you may request the deductor:
a) to file a TDS/TCS statement if it has not been filed;
b) to rectify the PAN using a PAN correction statement in the TDS/TCS statement that has been already uploaded if it has made an error in the PAN quoted;
c) to furnish a correction statement if the deductor had filed a TDS/TCS statement and had inadvertently missed providing your details or you had not given your PAN to him before he filed the TDS/TCS return;
d) to furnish a correction statement if the deductor had filed a TDS/TCS statement which had mistake in the challan details;
e) to take up with the bank to rectify any mistake in the amount in the challan details uploaded by the bank.

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