6 things to note before buying a Health Insurance

6 things to note before buying a Health Insurance

Health Insurance is one of the most important insurance products to own. In fact, it is a mandatory financial product to own after-term insurance to achieve your financial well-being.

We have listed below the things to note before buying health insurance.

1) Decide the Sum Insured from the Long-Term perspective

The biggest mistake one makes when buying Health Insurance, is to consider the expenses that you may incur today. However, in reality, health insurance is bought for 20-25 years from now.

Hospitalization costs today would be ranging from 50,000 INR to 300,000 INR. Assuming you are 30 today, at modest average healthcare inflation of 7.5% for the next 20 years, single hospitalization bills will range at around Rs. 13 Lakhs when you are 50 years old.

It is very important to think in the long term while deciding on the cover of the policy and hence, you must take a higher cover.

2) Know about the things that you must ignore and consider.

There are many features in a health insurance policy. You must have read the same in the insurance brochures and pamphlets. It is important to be able to distinguish between the features that must be considered versus the add-on features which should not be your deciding factor.

Features like Ambulance, Daily Hospital Cash, Domiciliary, and any other benefits that don’t get used often, have low consequences in your health planning. These should be overlooked so that you could focus on the main features like the network of hospitals, fees for a doctor consultations, Room rent Limit, and ICU charges. Check if they are paying for medicines or not and these kinds of expenses make the major part of your overall bill.

Things like Ambulance charges are not more than Rs 2,000, if you have to pay it from your own pocket, even that it's totally fine. Why choose a policy based on this feature? It's always a bonus advantage and nothing else.

3) Know about the Sub-limits in your health insurance.

Many Health Insurance policies have room rent capping, which means you are eligible to claim expenses of the room renting up to the decided cap limit. In case you opt for a room above this cap, you will have to bear the additional proportionate expenses on your own. Let me give you an example

Let's say, as per your policy you are room rent limit is Rs 4,000 per day. Now if you get hospitalized and you choose a room that has room rent of Rs 10,000. You might think that you will just get 4,000 per day for room rent from the insurance company and other charges you will get as per the limit. But that's not true.

Other hospital expenses such as doctor's consulting fees, medicines, reports, scanning fees, etc are also dependent upon the room that you opt for. If you select a room that is higher than the room cap set. The expenses based on the room rent cap will be reimbursed not on an actual basis but based on the cap set. Other expenses are also proportionate to the room capping

Hence, your preference for health insurance should be in the following order:

Policies with Private Room eligibility.
Policies with No Room Rent capping.
Policies with Room Rent capping.

4) Check for the cost-sharing issue or the co-pay

Many private health insurance companies have a co-pay policy where you have to bear 10%-20% of your health bills. With a big surgery or a huge expense, this amount can also be huge and you may not be in a position to bear it when the time comes. Hence, ensure that all the major expenses of your health bill are covered in your insurance.

5) Tax deduction under section 80 DD of the Act

Ensure that your children, spouse, and parents are also covered by appropriate health insurance. Anyone can suffer from any health issue and insuring them will reduce your personal financial burden. The benefits of getting your family covered do not end at the level of security rather it offers great tax benefits as anyone paying premiums for parents, apart from themselves, spouse, and children can claim deductions up to INR 55,000, according to Section 80D.

6) Don't be late in buying a health insurance

We always advise that term insurance and health insurance should be bought at the earliest possible. These financial products are obtained when you are in good health and young age to reduce the cost of them, After you have developed any health issue it will be very difficult to obtain a health insurance policy without co-pay criteria.

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Insurance / Tax - 01/11/2019

Reduce taxes without investing any money

‘People in my office were suggesting me as to how I should make a fixed deposit from now itself to save my taxes at the end of the financial year.’ ‘Do I have an LIC policy? Do you think that would be enough to avoid taxes on my payslip?’ ‘I do not have money at the end of the year to invest to reduce taxes.’ I am sure most of us have either said such statements or heard people make them. Irrespective of the above, most of us do wonder why our salary is being taxed and we want to know how to avoid paying taxes or pay the least possible taxes ever. I have mentioned ways to reduce your taxes without making any investments i.e. just by understanding your salary structure and its components. It is very important to know that the entire CTC amount of an individual is not taxed at the same rate but various components in the salary structure affect your taxability differently. This is the main reason why we are not paid an X amount as salary but the same is divided into the components. We have discussed the compensation structure in our Article - Understand your salary structure As discussed earlier, salary can be divided into 4 basic components and we shall discuss the taxability with respect to each component now

Running away from your tax queries is not the solution to reduce your taxes.

Reimbursements and allowance: You can reduce your taxes on the reimbursements and allowances by submitting proper bills and other required documents/forms withing the due dates provided by your employer.

Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) – Did you know that the annual leaves and holiday that you were taking would actually help you to reduce your taxes? LTA lets you do just that. LTA remunerates employees for their travel within the country. The amount of LTA would be mentioned in your salary structure. Where you submit appropriate and eligible bills of your travel to your employer, the amount shall be paid to you and will be considered tax-free. There are a few conditions/rules which are to be followed while claiming for your tax-free. We have mentioned the same in our article How to save taxes through LTA.

House Rent Allowance (HRA) – Your Company pays for your rent and when you submit appropriate rent receipts, no taxes are charged on the same. This benefit is available only to those employees who are staying on rent. Given that in metro cities, many of us are living on rent, it is a great benefit to save taxes. As always, there are certain rules based on which this becomes tax-free, we have mentioned the rules in our Article How to save taxes through HRA.

Standard deduction towards medical and conveyance: From April 2018, a standard deduction of INR 40,000 is available towards medical and conveyance expenses of the employees. You are not required to submit any bills to claim this benefit. INR 40,000 would be directly deducted from your gross salary to compute the taxable salary numbers. Ensure that the same is deducted when you receive your Form 16.

Food, telephone, internet and other reimbursements – Some employees have other reimbursement items such as food, telephone, internet, uniform, newspaper etc. which are reimbursable and no taxes will be deducted on these if you submit bills as required by your employer.

Contributions – Payments made by the employer on behalf of their employees towards EPF, NPS, insurance or gratuity for the retirement benefits or otherwise

Employee’s provident fund (EPF) - Contributions made by the employer and employee (which are deducted from the CTC) is tax-free. The same is not included as a part of your taxable salary. Please refer to our Article – Taxability of EPF to understand the same in detail.

National Pension Scheme (NPS) – Deductions made from your salary each month towards NPS and your employers’ contribution is tax-free. In fact, NPS provides additional tax benefits to the employees. We have discussed the same in detail in our Article – Taxability of NPS.

Gratuity – Gratuity is only received when on resignation (after completion of 5 years of service), death or retirement. A part of the gratuity amount received is exempt based on the formula specified under the Income-tax Act. We have discussed the same in detail in our Article – Taxability of Gratuity.

Insurance - Any premium paid by your employer towards your health insurance, life and others which is included in your CTC is tax-free and the same is not included in your total taxable salary.

Variable salary i.e. Bonus paid in any form is taxable. Bonus is added to your total taxable salary and taxed based on the slab rate you fall under after the receipt of the bonus. Fixed Salary Components: This includes the basic salary, special allowance, Dearness allowance etc. They are generally fully taxable.

Basic salary is generally is 40% - 50% of the CTC amount.
Dearness allowance is not paid by many private companies; it is generally paid by government companies.
Special allowances are the balancing number in your CTC. Whatever may be the amount, it is fully taxable.

Professional Tax - Professional tax is the tax levied by Governments of certain states on salaried employees. The states where professional tax is applicable are Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Odisha, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, and Sikkim. The amount of profession Tax that is deducted varies from state to state where they are applicable. You get a credit of the professional tax paid while computing your income-tax liability. From this article, you would have understood the simple ways (if applied) that can reduce the taxes without making any additional insurance or investments. These ways are inbuilt in your salary components and not many people know how to make most of it. Understand your salary structure and work on reducing your taxes. It is the first step towards a healthy financial life. In our salary series of articles, we have discussed the taxability of each component.

Salary / Tax - 01/07/2019

Leave Travel Allowance - LTA

Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) is my favorite allowance. As per LTA, the government gives us tax benefits for our holiday. It is the best tax saving scheme ever – as I just don’t save tax, I take a vacation too!! As per this allowance an employee gets to cover his travel expenses when he is on leave from work by his employer. Sometimes it is also known as Leave Travel Concession (LTC). LTA is exempt from tax u/s 10(5) of Income Tax Act, 1961. It is the travel concession or assistance received by you (an employee) from your employer for yourself and your family towards your travel expenses within India while you are on leave from work or post-retirement or termination of service. Family includes:

Spouse of individual
Children of individual
Parents of an individual (mainly or wholly dependent on the individual)
Brothers and sisters of an individual (mainly or wholly dependent on the individual)

Lets plan and travel from the tax perspective this time

There are certain rules that are to be followed:

LTA amount is generally fixed by the employer and is a part of your compensation structure (refer our article Understand your salary structure)
Thus, the relevant expenses incurred up to the specific limit are tax-free.
To claim the benefit, you must have a copy of your travel tickets and bills.
Expenses incurred only on traveling are permitted. Expenses made on food, shopping, etc. are not tax-free.
One drawback is that you cannot claim tax-free LTA each year. An exemption is allowed for only two travels within a block of four years.
LTA covers only domestic travel, i.e. only within India. International travel is not covered under this.

What are LTA block years? An employee cannot decide his/her own block of four years depending on when they start the job. The blocks are fixed in the income-tax act. Exemptions can be claimed twice during each block period. The current block consists of the following 4 years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. List of Expenses Exempt under LTA In case of travel by air The economy airfare of national carrier by the shortest route or the actual amount spent on travel whichever is less is exempt from tax. In case of travel by rail The A.C. first class rail fare by shortest route or actual amount spent on travel whichever is less is exempt from tax. If the origin and destination spots of the journey are connected by rail but the journey is performed by other modes of transport and not air or rail

The A.C. first class rail fare by shortest route or actual amount spent on travel, whichever is less is exempt from tax.

If the origin & destination points are not connected by rail or air (partly/fully) but connected by other recognized Public transport system

The first class or deluxe class fare of such transport by shortest route or actual amount spent on travel, whichever is less is exempt from tax.

If the place of origin & destination are not connected by rail or air (partly/fully) and also not connected by other recognized Public transport system

The AC first class rail fare by shortest route (assuming that the journey was performed by rail) or the amount actually spent on travel, whichever is less is exempt from tax.

What is Carryover Concession? If you did not use LTA provided by your employer either once or twice (the permitted limit) in a 4 years block period, then you can still claim LTA exemption by using LTA in the year immediately succeeding the 4 years block period. It is known as carryover concession. For Example, Mr. Shah claimed only one exemption during the 7th block of years which lasted from 2014-17. He still has one exemption remaining. So when can he claim it? He can claim this concession in the next year, i.e. 2018 which is a part of the next block. So, in the next block of 2018 – 2021, he can claim 3 exemptions in total but he needs to claim carryover concession of the previous block (2014-2017) in 2018 only and not later than that. Example 2 – Mr Iyer had a LTA of INR. 30,000 per annum, in his compensation structure.

He did not travel anywhere in 2018 and thus, no LTA was claimed by him. He transferred the same to 2019.
He traveled in 2019 incurred an expense of INR 40,000
He submitted the proofs and will get an LTA of INR 40,000 from his employer. All of this is tax free INR 30,000 from 2018 and INR 10,000 from 2019.
In 2020, he again traveled and thus, claimed LTA of INR 35,000 which was given to him tax free from his employer.
In 2021, balance INR 45,000 was paid to Mr Iyer (INR 120,000 – INR 40,000 – INR 35,000).
However, Mr. Iyer will get only INR 36,000 in hand as INR 9,500 was deducted towards taxes by his employer indicating that the same was not tax-free.
Mr. Iyer has claimed the LTA twice in 4 years i.e. 2019 and 2020 and thus the balance payment received in 2021 was not tax-free.
You will have to check with your employer to check on this carry forward of LTA balance to next year. Some employers prefer clearing the balance in the same year itself.

Thus, if you want to save taxes on your salary, take a vacation with your family in India and maintain all your travel tickets to claim the LTA benefits. LTA is the only allowance which lets you travel and save taxes. In spite of LTA being such an easy allowance, many people do not claim LTA (i.e. they do not submit appropriate forms and proofs to their HR teams within valid timelines) and end up paying taxes on their LTA allowance.

Salary - 08/14/2018

House Rent Allowance (HRA)

House Rent Allowance is a component of the salary provided by the employer to his/her employee. If you receive HRA as part of your salary and you live in a rented accommodation, then you can claim full or partial HRA exemption u/s 10. However, HRA is fully taxable if you don’t live in a rented accommodation. How to calculate HRA? Your HRA depends upon the following 4 factors. They are:

Salary
HRA component
Rent Paid
Location of your rented house

Tax exemption on HRA is least of the following: 1) Actual HRA received 2) Actual rent paid reduced by 10% of salary 3) 50% of basic salary if the taxpayer is living in a metro city 4) 40% of basic salary if the taxpayer is living in a non-metro city Since the least of the above is exempt from tax, you can ask your employer to restructure your salary to get maximum tax benefit.

What if my employer does not provide me with the HRA? If you are making payments towards rent for any furnished or unfurnished residential accommodation occupied by you, but do not receive HRA from your employer, you can still claim the deduction and that would be under Section 80GG. Conditions that must be fulfilled to claim this deduction:

You should be self-employed or salaried
You have not received HRA at any time during the year for which you are claiming 80GG
You or your spouse or your minor child or HUF of which you are a member – do not own any residential accommodation at the place where you currently reside, perform duties of office, or employment or carry on business or profession.

In case you own any residential property at any place other than the place mentioned above, then you should not claim the benefit of that property as self-occupied. That other property would be deemed to be let out in order to claim the deduction under section 80GG. Refer our Articles on Income from house property where we have discussed this in detail. As per section 80GG of the Act, the least of the following will be considered as tax-free:

Rs 5,000 per month;
25% of adjusted total income*;
Actual Rent less 10% of adjusted total Income*

*Adjusted Total Income means Total Income Less long-term capital gain, short-term capital gain under section 111A and Income under section 115A or 115D and deductions 80C to 80U (except deduction under section 80GG). How to Claim HRA When Living With Parents? Where you are staying in your parents’ house and your parents are owner of the same, you can still claim the HRA. You can pay the rent to your parents and claim the allowance provided. You will have to enter into a rent agreement with your parents, provide their PAN card to your employer, also generate rent receipts. In this case, please note that the rent amount that you showing as payment to your parents will be taxed as rental income in their hands. Is my landlord's PAN mandatory to claim HRA? Yes, it is where your annual rent crosses 1 lakh INR. If your landlord does not have a PAN, then you (as the employee) have to obtain the declaration to this effect from the landlord along with the name and address of the landlord. A Format of Deceleration May be as follows :- Date To Name & Address DECLARATION I ____________(Full name and address of the declarant) aged ____ do hereby declare that I have leased the Flat No._______________________________ From 1st April’2018 to 31st March’2019 to ___________( Name of lessor) at a monthly rent of Rs. _______/- ( __________________ only). Further I do hereby declare that my total income during the financial year 2018-2019 did not exceed the statutory limit prescribed under Income tax Act,1962 and have not assessed to tax and does not have a PAN card . Verification I,_________________ do hereby declare that what is stated above is true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Verified today, the _____________ day of _________________

Date : ________________Place : ________________

(Name of the declarant)

HRA is one of the most common component of a salary structure and hence, you must claim the same where you are staying on rent. If you are not staying on rent and living with your parents, it is important you analyse the overall family's taxability before declaring that you are paying rent to your parents.

Salary / Tax - 01/09/2018

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