Your tax-saving investments must match your financial planning targets

Ensure that such investments are in sync with your asset allocation and are not done hastily

Investing for tax-saving should ideally begin at the start of the financial year. But if you have not done so, begin immediately to avoid pressure on your cash flows in the final month of the year.

Starting now means you can make well-considered investment decisions. When taxpayers act in haste, they invest in poorly chosen tax-saving products.

Employers ask employees to declare the tax-saving investments they intend to make in April-May. In December-January, they ask for proof of those investments. If you don’t submit them, the employer will deduct tax at a higher rate. “This results in a double whammy. Not only