ADVICE: If the Employee Provident Fund limit is not used entirely, the leftover amount is added to income and taxed. For the highest bracket, include debt through the Public Provident Fund and start a systematic investment plan (SIP) in equity-linked saving scheme. Infrastructure bonds can be used for additional benefits.

MISTAKE 2: Investing in unitlinked insurance plans and endowment plans

ADVICE: Don't mix insurance with investment. Insurance components in hisher portfolio should be health insurance and term plan, if heshe has dependants.

MISTAKE 3: No tax planning through the year, scrambled last minute

ADVICE: Start from today, so that there is no last minute scrambling. Also, one may not have a lump sum towards the year-end.

MISTAKE 4: Redeemed investments to buy a house, exhausted liquid holdings

ADVICE: If the annual interest repayment was more than `1.5 lakh, it doesn't help to take a big loan for tax benefits. Calculating the likely equated monthly instalments on the part-payment and invest that money in equity mutual funds via SIP.

MISTAKE 5: Did not utilise additional tax benefits through family members

ADVICE: One can pay salaries to his wife and father, provided they help in the family business. This will be an expense for the business and can be deducted from the overall income, lowering the tax liability.