Mutual fund investors need greater tax awareness

Even though the newly proposed tax on property sales is being reduced, long-term capital gains tax on stocks and mutual funds is now a settled fact. It's been seven years since this tax was introduced, and the only change that has happened so far is that this year, the rate has increased from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent. This is now a uniform rate for not just stocks and equity mutual funds but for many other types of investments. However, that's where the similarity ends. For investors who want to earn long-term returns and build real wealth from equity-based assets, the tax structure means that significant attention must be paid to what they invest in and when they buy and sell those investments. The single biggest thing to be aware of is that it's far more beneficial (from the tax point of view) to invest in mutual funds than stocks. While this has been true since February 2018, the hike in long-term capital gains tax in this budget has made it that much more important.