Bank FD vs Bond Mutual Fund: Taxation

Bank FD & Bond Fund both are fixed income securities. The most ignored part while investing in fixed income securities is the effect of taxation. The blog highlights the differences

Tax Effect on Bank FD

Taxes are paid on accrued interest and payable as per the individual tax brackets.

Ex Mr X invest Rs 10 Lac in a bank FD yielding an interest rate of 6%; Mr X is in a 30% tax bracket; then Mr X has to pay an average tax of Rs 18,000/Annum. The effect of tax over 5 year is as shown below

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Total
Interest Income	60,000	60,000	60,000	60,000	60,000	3,00,000
Tax Effect	Income	Income	Income	Income	Income
Tax Payable rate	30%	30%	30%	30%	30%
Tax Payable	(18,000)	(18,000)	(18,000)	(18,000)	(18,000)	(90,000)
After Tax Interest Income	42,000	42,000	42,000	42,000	42,000	2,10,000

Tax Effect on Bond Mutual Fund:

Taxes are paid only on redemption/withdrawal and the rates depend on the nature of gain. For Bond fund any redemption within three years is considered as short term capital gain (taxed at applicable individual tax bracket) and redemption after 3 years is considered as long term capital gain (taxed at 20% adjusted for indexation benefit- works out close to 10%)

Ex Mr X invest Rs 10 Lac in a bond mutual fund and decides to withdraw 6% income on yearly basis (to match Bank FD Cash flow) ; Mr X falls in a 30% tax bracket; then Mr X has to pay an average tax of Rs 1,730/Annum. (91% lower than bank FD)

	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	Total
Withdrawal	60,000	60,000	60,000	60,000	60,000	3,00,000
Capital Gain (at 6% return)	3,396	6,600	9,623	12,474	15,165
Tax Effect	STCG	STCG	STCG	LTCG	LTCG
Tax Payable rate	30%	30%	30%	10%	10%
Tax Payable	(1,020)	(1,980)	(2,887)	(1,247)	(1,516)	(8,650)
After Tax Interest Income	58,980	58,020	57,113	58,753	58,484	2,91,350

 *STCG-Short term capital gain; LTCG- Long term capital gain

Conclusion: Bond Mutual fund taxes are applicable only on redemption while on bank FD’s taxes are applicable on accrued interest; Bank FD taxes would be 10 times higher than that of bond mutual fund. Bond Mutual fund provides higher return, offers better liquidity and most efficient in terms of taxes compared to Bank FD.