Invesco India Gold Fund - Direct Plan

Suitability:

Gold funds provide returns closely in-line with the return provided by the price of gold.

We do not think of gold as a good long-term investment avenue and therefore we believe that investors can avoid these funds altogether.

But for those retail investors who'd still prefer to invest in gold, we believe that the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme offered by the Government of India is a better alternative. This scheme offers a guaranteed return of 2.5% per year over and above the return provided by the price of gold, though the investment cannot be redeemed before a tenure of five years.

Taxability of earnings:

Capital gains

• If the mutual fund units are sold after 3 years from the date of investment, gains are taxed at the rate of 20% after providing the benefit of inflation indexation.
• If the mutual units are sold within 3 years from the date of investment, entire amount of gain is added to the investors' income and taxed according to the applicable slab rate.
• No tax is to be paid as long as you continue to hold the units.

Dividends

• Dividends paid by the mutual fund scheme are taxed at the rate of 25% (effectively 29.12%, including surcharge and cess). This is known as Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT). Though the investor does not pay this tax directly, it is deducted from the dividend income before passing on to the investor.