Timely and effective tax planning can play significant role in reducing overall tax liability of an Individual. Income tax planning must be a continuous exercise to have maximum tax benefits. Every individual whose gross total income before giving any effect of deduction under chapter VIA and exemption u/s 10A, 10B or 10BA, exceeds the maximum exemption limit is compulsorily required to file his return of income/ tax returns. There are numerous opportunities for minimizing the amount of income tax- Exhaust full limit of section 80C– Section 80C of the Income Tax Act allows deduction upto Rs.100000. So, one must plan investments well and spread it out across the various instruments specified under this section to avail maximum tax benefit like payment of LIC Premium upto 20% of actual sum assured, contribution towards Statutory Provident Fund, Public Provident Fund upto maximum of Rs.70,000, repayment of principal amount of Housing Loan, deposit in 10 years or 15 years account under the post office savings scheme, subscription to National Savings Scheme, contribution to ULIP of UTI & LIC Mutual Fund etc. Benefits beyond section 80C- You can avail deduction u/s 80CCF upto Rs. 20,000 for investment in infrastructure bonds. You can also get deduction for payment of medical insurance premium for self, spouse, dependant children or parents u/s 80D. Deduction can be claimed up to Rs. 15000/- in case of self and dependent children, an additional deduction of Rs. 15000 (Rs. 20,000 in case of senior citizen) is allowed for premium paid towards the medical insurance of parents. Avail home loan- Investing in a house is considered as one of the best tax-planning tools due to various tax-benefits and concessions provided under the Income Tax Act. Interest paid gets tax benefit on the interest portion of the loan section 24(b) while section 80C provides tax deduction for the repayment of the principal sum. If you are a salaried individual enjoying House Rent Allowances (HRA) from your employer and also own a residential house in the city other than your work place, then you can have an option to avail the deduction of both (a) HRA and (b) Housing Loan repayment & Interest deduction simultaneously. Further, depending on the income and taxes thereon, housing loan can be taken jointly in the name of both the spouses. Wherein, major loan portion can be portioned to the spouse having more tax incidence, to reduce over all tax liability. Ask your employer to include tax free or tax saving perquisites in your salary structure- The structuring of salary by including more of tax free /confessional perquisites can facilitate in reducing the total tax incidence on the salary income. Some of these are Medical facility provided to the extent of Rs. 15,000 per year, free meal provided by employer during working/ business hour which does not exceed Rs. 50 per meal, use of health club, sports or similar facility provided uniformly to all employees by the employer, employer’s contribution to superannuation fund etc. Tax exemptions for educational loans (under Section 80E)- Individual is allowed a deduction for payment of interest of a loan taken towards higher studies from any bank, financial institution, or approved charitable institution. Such a loan for pursuing higher education is enlarged to cover all fields of study including vocational studies after passing senior secondary examinations as well as full time studies including graduation of specified courses such as management, engineering and medicine for self, spouse & children (restricted to 2 children). There is no deduction allowed for principal repayment of an education loan. The last date for return of income/ online return filing/ online tax returns is march 2011 for the tax year ended march 2010 with some component of penal interest. The IT department can impose penalty for non-filing of return of income, if not filed by march 2011. Taxmantra.com which offers most comprehensive return filing service in India was launched to help individuals in their taxation matters. We just require your salary certificate/ other income details to file return of income. Taxmantra.com offers excellent tax support in addition to filing of return of income and comprehensive tax planning. At Taxmantra.com we do not put you at pain by asking to fill in long tax forms. You just need to fill in a form with basic details after attaching your salary certificate/ other income details, after which we take care to online tax return filing in most hassle free manner. So online income tax filing with Taxmantra is obviously a better experience. Get in touch with us to file tax return online today and stay hassle free. Join us in pursuit of simplifying individual taxation! We welcome you to Taxmantra for easy online income tax filing / online return filing!