What is LTCG?

Guides that use LTCG

36 guides put this term to work.

• Mutual funds vs fixed deposits: which risk are you willing to see?An FD hides its risk in purchasing power; a fund puts its risk on a screen daily. Where each genuinely wins, and why most households need both.
• Growth vs IDCW: which option should you pick?An IDCW comes out of your own NAV and is taxed at your slab rate. The arithmetic, the reinvestment trap, and the rare case where it still makes sense.
• Hybrid and balanced advantage funds: the ultimate stress-free ride?Hybrids live where asset allocation meets the 65% tax line. How a BAF really works, what internal rebalancing is worth, and why net equity is what matters.
• ELSS: save tax while building wealth — if you are on the right regimeSection 80C exists only under the old regime, which turns “is ELSS worth it?” into a question about your tax regime rather than about the fund.
• ELSS vs PPF: same ₹1.5 lakh, two completely different productsThree years of lock-in against fifteen, equity risk against a notified rate, and a deduction that exists only on the old regime. Which one suits your money.
• International funds: diversifying beyond the economy you already earn inYour job, salary and property are already a bet on India. The case for global exposure, the RBI limits that close schemes, and the tax treatment that surprises.
• Gold funds and gold ETFs: paper gold versus the jewellery boxWhat gold is for in a portfolio, which instrument suits you — and the asymmetry where the ETF turns long-term at 12 months and the fund-of-fund only at 24.
• Fund of funds: what happens when a mutual fund buys mutual funds?Two expense layers and, usually, non-equity taxation with a 24-month clock. Where the wrapper earns its place, and where you pay twice for convenience.
• REITs and InvITs: property and infrastructure without the mutual fund wrapperListed trusts obliged to pay out most of their cash flow, taxed component by component — and rate-sensitive because of what they borrow.
• SGB vs gold ETF, now that new sovereign gold bond issuance has stoppedThe SGB won on a coupon no other gold wrapper pays and an exemption on maturity. What existing holders should do, and what is left to buy today.
• The art of asset allocation: it decides more than fund selection ever willHow much sits in equity matters more than which equity fund. Setting the split, rebalancing on bands rather than hunches, and not handing the gain back in tax.
• SWP: creating your own monthly pensionWhy a withdrawal plan beats an IDCW payout on tax and on control, how each instalment is taxed, and the sequence risk that decides whether the money lasts.
• Portfolio rebalancing: when and why you must sell winning assetsDrift is a risk decision you never made. Bands over hunches, the execution ladder that starts with new money, not a sale, and why discomfort is the mechanism.
• Handling underperformance: when to stay and when to exitSeparating what changed about the fund from what changed about the market: mandate drift, manager exits, and the review habit that survives a bad quarter.
• Fund manager changes: should you panic when the captain leaves?Were you buying a person or a process? What to check immediately, what to watch for six to twelve months, and the one situation where moving quickly is free.
• How to clean up a portfolio with too many schemesFour moves in strict order: see everything, label every holding, stop the inflows, then unwind slowly across financial years using the annual exemption.
• Tax-loss harvesting: India has no wash-sale rule, and the mirror move nobody makesSell the loser and rebuy it the same day — India has no wash-sale rule. Then run it in reverse, because the ₹1,25,000 exemption does not carry forward.
• Mutual fund taxation decoded: short-term vs long-term capital gainsEquity, debt, hybrid and ELSS are taxed under different rules, and the rules changed twice in three years. What applies now, and to which of your units.
• Estate planning for mutual fund investors: transmission and legalitiesNomination, a will and joint holding — what each does, what transmission involves without them, and why inheriting does not reset the capital-gains clock.
• Arbitrage funds: equity taxation on a trade with no market direction in itBoth legs hedged, so the risk is short-term-debt-like — but the equity-oriented label taxes gains at 20% and 12.5% where a liquid fund pays slab.
• Building a core-satellite portfolio with international exposureMost Indian portfolios are a single-country bet across salary, property and investments at once. How to size the sleeve, and the two frictions to plan for.
• The 4% rule vs an SWP: funding early retirement in IndiaThe rule answers a US question — 30 years, US inflation, no tax. Re-deriving it for a 45-year Indian retirement lands closer to 3–3.5%, or roughly 29× spending.
• Building multi-generational wealth with mutual fundsWealth survives through structure, documentation and conversation rather than returns — and funds are divisible, professionally managed and easy to pass on.
• How to invest a windfall: inheritance, bonus, property saleThe first ninety days decide the outcome. Park it, take tax advice before moving anything, clear expensive debt, and stagger only the equity portion.
• Tactical asset allocation: shifting weights on valuationValuation predicts a decade and almost nothing about next year. You have to be right twice, and every move in a taxable account gives back part of the edge.
• Tracing and claiming a deceased relative's mutual fundsFind, then claim, then decide. The three routes by what was recorded, why you transmit rather than redeem, and the cost basis that carries over intact.
• Automated rebalancing: robo-advisor or do it yourself?In India the deciding variable is tax: rebalancing inside a fund costs nothing, rebalancing across your own funds realises gains every time.
• How inflation quietly eats a savings accountThe only asset that reports a gain every month while losing 2–3% of purchasing power a year — and why your personal inflation runs well above the index.
• Your annual portfolio audit: a step-by-step health checkNinety minutes, once a year, in six parts — where the default action at every step is to do nothing, because the audit exists to catch drift, not to trade.
• AIFs, PMS and mutual funds: what the ₹1 crore actually buysNot a premium version of mutual funds — a different perimeter where you trade liquidity, transparency and tax treatment for access to assets funds cannot hold.
• Specialized Investment Funds: a mutual fund that can go shortSEBI's SIF in plain terms: the ₹10 lakh minimum, 25% short exposure, seven strategies, slower redemptions, how it is taxed and who it may suit.
• Old vs new tax regime: the choice that decides everything elseThe new regime is the default and usually the winner — but not always. Where the break-even sits, and why the regime decides if ELSS, HRA and 80D matter.
• ESOPs, RSUs and ESPPs: taxed twice, at two different pricesSlab tax on the discount when shares become yours, capital gains from that day's FMV when you sell. Why tax can fall due on paper value, and the basis error.
• Property capital gains: what actually changed when indexation wentBought before 23 July 2024, a resident pays the lower of 12.5% flat and 20% indexed — but that relief caps the tax payable, not the gain itself.
• The NPS tax breaks: three deductions, and the one that survives the new regime80CCD(1) competes for a crowded ceiling, 80CCD(1B) adds an exclusive ₹50,000, and only the employer's 80CCD(2) survives the new regime.
• Which pot to draw first: the withdrawal order nobody teachesGuaranteed income first, then a cash buffer so you never sell equity into a fall, using the annual exemption every year — and the tax-free pots last.

More on tax

Indian capital-gains treatment as it applies to mutual fund redemptions. Rates are FY 2026-27 and exclude surcharge, cess and STT.

STCG

Gains on units sold before the holding period for long-term treatment is met.

Equity-oriented fund

A fund holding at least 65% Indian equity — the test that decides its tax treatment.

FIFO

The order units are treated as sold in when computing capital gains.