Sandesh Goel

Tax evasion is pretty widespread in India, and a lot of chartered accountants make a living out of suggesting creative ways to evade tax for their clients and channeling their "black money". I really don't understand why can't the government come up with ways to tackle it, when all of us see it and know how it is being done. I seriously believe the problem with this is "political will", since a lot of politicians will probably be at the receiving end. Instead of being too negative about this, I was trying to think if there is some way to incentivize paying taxes. Can we offer something to tax payers, so that they feel good about paying taxes? I think one way to do that is to offer perks, for which the sole eligibility is being in a certain tax bracket. I feel we as Indians do crave for prestige and social stature and our tax department could exploit that to lure a few more eligible tax payers to pay up. For example, we could have some convenient reserved par...

Here's a quick summary of all that I have assimilated about personal financial planning over the years Insurance : Don't go for ULIPS or complex insurance plans, stick to simple term insurance, it is the cheapest method. Insurance cover should be about 10 times your annual expenses (not income). Online only insurance policies will give you the best deal since they cut out the agent's commissions, consider icici pru's iprotect or aegon religare's iterm. Btw, you need insurance only if you have dependents, so no child insurance policies please. also, never lie on the insurance application, it's a sure shot way of claim rejection Investment : Consider asset allocation to all the following asset classes - liquid, gold, equity, debt, fixed income, real estate Liquid : Keep aside some amount as liquid investment for contingency requirements - either in a savings bank account or some good liquid fund, expect returns of 4-6% p.a. on this. 6 months expenses is a good ...

We figured monsoons would be over by sep-end, so planned a trip to kasali in the last weekend of september. Kasauli is a small, quiet hill station about 350 kms from Delhi. Shimla is another 60-70 kms further on the same route. We figured shimla is too commercialized and Kasauli would be more relaxing, and the shorter drive is preferred with kids. It took us about 7 hours to get there, with a couple of stops in between. For food stops, Haveli is highly recommended (there's one is murthal, and another in karnal - the one in karnal is quite happening with shops and all). In kasauli, we stayed at the Kasauli Resort, and had a good overall experience there. The view from the rooms was great, which is very important in such a stay. Also, they had a nice campus with swings for kids. Pretty decent restaurant, but we didn't like the food too much. There are three floors, but no lift which can be a problem for some. Also, it would be nice to have heating in rooms, which was not there. ...