How to plan your tax saving investments for 2022?

With just 10 days left to usher in the New Year 2022, it is the time of the year when people go high on making resolutions for every sphere of life. Among New Year resolutions, financial pledges related to investments and tax planning of all sorts are generally high on most individuals' promise lists including of near and dear ones.

Some have even a tendency to go overboard when it comes to investments and tax planning. Not just that, the start of the New Year also means there is just less than three months left before the fiscal or financial year ends.

While talking to CNBC-TV18, Vikas Singhania, CEO at TradeSmart said that careful planning is required through the year not only to ease the year-end pressure, but also to get better returns.

An individual can avail deduction of up to Rs 1.5 lakh under section 80-C of the Income Tax Act. There are various options available under this to avail the exemption. Some of them give fixed returns, while it may vary for others as they are market-linked instruments.

While approaching tax planning, individuals should also ascertain how much taxes they have already saved, said Sujit Bangar, Founder at Taxbuddy.com.

"During the normal course, we do many things and those have tax saving incidences. For example, we pay for tuition fees of kids, do health and life insurance, have regular health checkups and maybe there is a home loan. All these activities are saving taxes for us unknowingly. It's important to take note of these," Bangar said while talking to CNBC-TV18.

After this, individuals can have an idea of how much portion of tax saving bracket of Rs 1.5 lakh from 80C has been unutilized.

Salaried people should further identify which tax regime is good for them (the old one or the new one), Bangar said.

"It doesn’t matter which tax regime has been considered by the employer while doing TDS. Individuals can choose the tax regime anytime before filing a return if they are salaried," he added.

While insurance is a must have in portfolio, more as a safety net, Singhania said that individuals should definitely invest in Equity Linked Saving Scheme scheme or ELSS.

"ELSS not only give the benefits under Section 80C, but also help in growing wealth. A mandatory lock in of 3 years in ELSS funds actually helps investors create a healthy corpus. I would also recommend parking a percentage of money for investing in the stock market too, since the gains accrued can be deployed in tax saving funds and insurance," Singhania told CNBC-TV18.

If there is the possibility of further investment beyond 80C then one should also invest in National Pension System or NPS.

As per Aarti Raote, Partner, Deloitte India, one should also claim all deductions like donations made during the year. If supported by the employer, the employees can also avail of LTC benefit by meeting the required conditions.

For individuals in mid 50s who don't want to take risks, should opt for fixed return instruments such as fixed deposits, National Saving Certificate (NSC)  and Public Provident Fund (PPF) is a better option.

For people in the late 40's, FD or NSC is a better option as the lock-in period is just 5 years as compared to PPF whose lock-in period is 15 years.