Stocks
Mutual funds, stocks, NPS, PPF, gold, and complete tax planning — data-driven guides to build long-term wealth and minimise your tax outgo.
How to Invest in US Stocks from India in 2026 (4 Routes Compared) — S&P 500 has returned 20%+ in rupee terms over the last decade. You can now access it directly. Here are 4 routes, their tax treatment, and which is best for most investors.
REITs India 2026: How to Invest, How Distributions Are Taxed, and What to Watch For — India now has five listed REITs — Embassy, Mindspace, Brookfield, Nexus, and Knowledge Realty Trust (the largest by asset value, which listed in August 2025). You can buy in for the price of a single unit. Here is how distributions are taxed, how capital gains rules changed in Budget 2024, and the risks most first-time investors overlook.- How to Open a Demat Account in India 2026: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners — Opening a demat account is the first step to investing in shares, REITs, or ETFs directly — but the documents, e-KYC steps, and fee structure trip up most first-time applicants. Here is the complete process, a discount-vs-full-service broker comparison, and a lesser-known SEBI rule that can make your account maintenance charge zero.
Bonus Shares vs Stock Split 2026: What Each Means for Your Shareholding and Tax — Your demat account shows more shares than you remember buying, but the total value hasn't moved. A bonus issue and a stock split look similar on screen but the Income Tax Act treats them on completely opposite logic for cost basis and holding period — here is exactly how each works.
InvITs in India 2026: How to Invest, Distributions Explained, and 5 Listed Trusts Compared — Infrastructure Investment Trusts let retail investors own toll roads, power transmission lines, and pipelines — with mandatory quarterly distributions. Here is how InvITs work, what the five listed trusts on NSE/BSE look like, and how they are taxed.
Best Demat Account India 2026: Zerodha vs Groww vs Upstox vs Angel One — Full Comparison — Every investor in stocks, ETFs, and IPOs in India needs a demat account. The four dominant brokers — Zerodha, Groww, Upstox, and Angel One — all offer zero AMC and flat brokerage, but differ significantly on platform quality, customer support, and reliability during market volatility. Here's the full breakdown.
SM REITs India 2026: How Small and Medium REITs Let You Invest in a Single Property — A regular REIT buys you a slice of a diversified basket of properties. An SM REIT does the opposite — it lets you own a share of one specific building, like a single Grade-A office tower, starting at roughly ₹10 lakh. SEBI's 2024 framework has already produced three listed schemes from Property Share alone. Here is how the structure, returns, and tax rules actually work — and where the real risk sits.
Smallcase Investing India 2026: What It Is, How It Works, and Whether It Beats a Mutual Fund — A smallcase is a basket of stocks or ETFs built around a theme — Nifty 500 momentum, rural consumption, electric vehicles — that you access through your existing broker and own directly in your demat account. It looks like a mutual fund but it's taxed like individual stocks. Here's exactly what that difference costs, and who should actually use one.
RBI Retail Direct 2026: How to Buy Government Bonds (G-Secs) Without a Broker — You don't need a demat account, a broker, or a mutual fund wrapper to lend money to the Government of India and earn interest on it directly — RBI's own Retail Direct portal lets any resident individual buy Treasury Bills and government bonds straight from the source, with zero fees. Here's what's actually on offer, how the auctions work, and how the returns get taxed.
Corporate Bonds and NCDs India 2026: How to Invest via Online Bond Platforms, Yields, and Tax Rules — Corporate bond investing in India used to need a ₹10 lakh cheque and institutional access. SEBI-registered Online Bond Platforms now let you buy the same NCDs for a few thousand rupees — but listed and unlisted bonds are taxed on completely different rules, and getting that distinction wrong is the single costliest mistake retail bond investors make.
P2P Lending India 2026: Returns, Risk, RBI's Rules, and How It's Actually Taxed — Peer-to-peer lending platforms advertise returns of 10-24% a year — well above what any mutual fund or FD promises. RBI's August 2024 rules changed what platforms can promise you, and the gap between advertised and actual returns is exactly where most new P2P lenders get surprised. Here's how it actually works, what's regulated, and how the interest is taxed.- PMS vs Mutual Funds India 2026: Minimum Investment, Fees, and Who Should Actually Choose Portfolio Management — Portfolio Management Services get pitched as the more sophisticated alternative to a mutual fund, built just for you instead of pooled with thousands of other investors. What the pitch skips: a ₹50 lakh SEBI-mandated minimum, a fee structure that often includes a performance cut, and a tax rule that charges you on every trade the manager makes — not just when you exit.
How to Apply for an IPO in India 2026: ASBA, UPI Mandate & Allotment Process Explained — Every IPO application in India runs through ASBA and, for most retail investors, a UPI mandate that has to be approved before a cutoff most people don't know exists. Miss it, and the bid never reaches the exchange — no rejection notice, no do-over. Here's the process from bidding to listing, and the mistakes that get retail applications thrown out.- InvITs India 2026: How Infrastructure Investment Trusts Work, Are Taxed, and Differ From REITs — REITs get the attention, but InvITs — holding toll roads, power transmission lines, and gas pipelines instead of office buildings — have a bigger track record and a genuinely different tax treatment. Here's how the 90% payout rule works, why your distribution is taxed in three separate pieces, and what changed this financial year on capital gains.
US Stocks From India 2026: LRS Limits, TCS, and the Tax Rules Most Investors Get Wrong — Buying Apple or Nvidia shares from India runs through the same $250,000 annual remittance ceiling as your foreign travel budget, and any single-year remittance for investment above ₹10 lakh gets 20% deducted at source before it even leaves the country. Here's how the limit, the TCS, and the capital gains rules actually interact.
Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) in India 2026: Category I, II, III Explained and Who Should Invest — An AIF's ₹1 crore minimum ticket keeps most retail investors out, but for those who qualify, the category you pick — I, II, or III — decides more about your tax bill than your returns. Category III funds get none of the pass-through tax treatment the other two enjoy.- ESPP Taxation India 2026: How the Discount Is Taxed at Purchase, at Sale, and Why It Counts Against Your LRS Limit — ESPP shares from a multinational parent aren't just taxed twice like an ESOP — the payroll deduction that buys them also counts against your personal LRS remittance limit under FEMA, and can attract TCS most participants never see coming.
- Rights Issue Shares in India 2026: How Subscribing, Renouncing, and Letting It Lapse Are Each Taxed — A rights issue gives you three choices — subscribe, sell the entitlement, or let it lapse — and each is taxed completely differently. Subscribing resets your holding period from the allotment date, while renouncing treats the entire sale proceeds as a taxable gain since the entitlement's cost of acquisition is deemed nil. Here's exactly how the numbers work out under each path.
Multiple Demat Accounts India 2026: Is It Legal, and Does It Actually Help With IPO Allotment or Taxes — Opening a second or third demat account is completely legal — SEBI sets no limit, and no broker needs to know about another. But it doesn't help with IPO allotment odds under your own PAN, and each account adds real maintenance costs and reconciliation effort at tax time. Here's when an extra account is genuinely worth it, and when one account is the better call.
SM REITs India 2026: How Fractional Real Estate Ownership Works, and How the Returns Are Taxed — A ₹500 crore minimum asset size kept REITs limited to large, diversified office and mall portfolios — out of reach if you wanted exposure to one specific commercial building instead. SEBI's 2024 framework for Small and Medium REITs changed that, letting a single revenue-generating property raise money from retail investors at a ₹10 lakh entry ticket. Here's how an SM REIT scheme is actually structured, how it differs from a regular REIT, and how the rent, interest, and capital gains it pays out are each taxed.
AT1 Perpetual Bonds in India (2026): The Coupon Isn't Guaranteed, and Neither Is Your Principal — AT1 bonds carry a coupon 1.5-3% above comparable government securities, and that extra yield is precisely why they keep getting sold to individual investors as a better fixed deposit. They aren't one — a bank can skip the coupon at its own discretion, has no obligation to ever repay the principal, and the Yes Bank case showed regulators can wipe the bonds out entirely while equity shareholders keep something.- Sovereign Green Bonds India 2026: How Retail Investors Can Buy Them and What They Actually Yield — A Sovereign Green Bond carries the same government guarantee as any other G-Sec, but pays you slightly less for it — a gap investors call the 'greenium.' Here's what that trade-off actually buys, how to place a bid through RBI Retail Direct, and whether the label is worth the lower yield.