BANGALORE: Before long, it will be 2015, and you will have to think about filing your tax return. Don't freak out, you have some time. But it's important to make the right decisions to avoid paying more tax than you have to, and to plan correctly for the following tax year.

 Here are 10 bad tax moves that every tax payer should avoid:

1. Buying insurance to save tax

This is the most common tax folly that Indians make. Life insurance is absolutely necessary and should be taken by everybody. However, the objective should be protecting your family's financial future, not save a few thousand rupees in tax. See tax saving only as a discount on the premium, not as the purpose of buying insurance.

When you buy life insurance, you enter a long-term recurring commitment. Getting out of it is a costly affair because you end up paying surrender charges. If you choose a traditional insurance plan, the high premium could prevent you from investing for other financial goals.

2. Investing lump sum in equity

This happens if you compress the entire year's tax planning into the last few days of the financial year. If you invest a large sum in an ELSS fund at one go, you are taking a big risk.

Similarly, investing a lump sum in the equity option of an ULIP may be a bad idea. Equity investments should be staggered across the year so that you are not caught on the wrong foot.