Taming Your Taxes with Perfection

If you get up early, work late, and pay your taxes, you will get ahead - if you strike oil.   - J Paul Getty     This famous quote by J. Paul Getty, the American-British industrialist, drives home the point. However, the irony here is that Getty himself was a petrol tycoon, but most of us are not so lucky! As dutiful citizens we are liable to pay tax on our incomes and ironically, this very act can eat away into our earnings, especially if we are salaried. The Government has provided various tax deduction methods to lower one’s income tax liability and smart tax planning implies that one does not unnecessarily end up paying more tax. Plus several tax-saving avenues are designed in such a way, that they encourage people to save and invest. Tax saving just for the sake of it, may not always be a wise thing, as long as it is not aligned to an individual’s...