SBI Balanced Advantage Fund - Direct Plan

Suitability:

"When you invest for five years or more, you can expect gains that beat the inflation rate as well as returns from fixed income options. But be prepared for ups and downs in your investment value along the way.

Dynamic Asset Allocation or Balanced Advantage funds invest your money in equity shares and bonds though their proportions are not fixed. The fund management team may increase of decrease the allocation to equity shares depending upon their market outlook.

These funds tend to fall less than pure equity funds when the stock markets decline because of their debt allocation. This makes them suitable for conservative equity investors.

Like for all equity-linked investments, you must invest only through the SIP route. Click here to read a primer on SIP investing.

Warning: Do not invest in this, or any other balanced hybrid fund, if you need to redeem your investment in less than five years."

Taxability of earnings:

The tax treatment of this fund may vary depending upon its asset allocation. It will be taxed in the following manner based on its average asset allocation in the last 12 months.

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 fund 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 are added to the income of the investors and taxed according to their respective tax slabs. Further, if an investor's dividend income exceeds Rs. 5,000 in a financial year, the fund house also deducts a TDS of 10% before distributing the dividend.