Claim deduction for loan taken to buy property

I intend to buy a flat but have only 25% of the funds. My paternal grandmother is willing to lend me the balance 75% amount by cheque as I do not wish to opt for a home loan. My query is whether it is advisable to borrow the balance amount from her and buy the flat in my single name. Further, do I need to disclose in my ITR 1 or ITR 2 and whether any registered or notarised documentation is required to be executed between us for the above borrowing transaction (gift or loan) from my grandmother
—Charmi Devani

It is not clear whether the amount you are receiving from your paternal grandmother is a gift or a loan. Though it appears she is not going to charge you any interest for this amount. It is important that you are clear about the true nature of this amount that will be paid to you by your grandmother. The simplest is if it is a gift then it is not taxed in your hands. If it is a loan on the other hand and you want to claim a deduction for any interest payable on such loan you will need to claim it while calculating your income from house property. If the intention is for your grandmother to own 75% of the flat in lieu of the money she advances to you then you should make sure that she is named as a co-owner of the property. Whether it requires disclosure or not will depend on the income tax forms that will be notified for the year sometime in March end or April 2018.

I am planning to invest in schemes for future goals. The schemes I have listed are:
1. ICICI value discovery fund of Rs 2,000 per month
2. Reliance small-cap fund of Rs 2,000 per month
3. Kotak emerging fund of Rs 2,000 per month
4. SBI magnum multi-cap Rs 2,000
5. Term insurance of Rs 50 lakh premium for Rs 14,000 per year
6. PPF of Rs 1 lakh per year current balance at Rs 7.44 lakh
7. NPS for Rs 1.20 lakh per year current balance at Rs 8.78 lakh
8.LIC jiwan labh of Rs 30,000 per year.
Please advise on the portfolio.
My target is
1. Housing needs after 10 years Rs 30 lakh
2. Son education need after 10 years Rs 20 lakh
3. Retirement needs after 23 years Rs 2 crore

It is excellent that you have specific goals in mind and are investing in systematic investment plan (SIP) mode in equity funds with these long-term goals in mind. But you do not seem to have worked out the goals properly. For example:

a) The goal of Rs 30 lakh for a home purchase in 10 years. Assuming a 6% increase in flat prices, a flat worth Rs. 30 lakh in 10 years time is worth Rs 17 lakh in today's valuation. Is that sufficient for your needs? Also assuming the equity mutual fund (MF) gives a return of around 12% per annum, you will need to invest Rs 13,000 per month in equity MF every month to reach the target of Rs 30 lakh in 10 years time

b) The goal of Rs 20 lakh for son’s education in 10 years. Assuming 8% increase in education costs a course that costs Rs 20 lakh in 10 years time is worth Rs 9 lakh in today's valuation. Is that sufficient for your son’s education needs? Also, assuming the equity MF gives a return of around 12% p.a. you will need to invest Rs 9,000 per month in equity MF to reach the target of Rs 20 lakh in 10 years time.

c) The goal of Rs 2 crore for retirement corpus after 23 years. Assuming 6% inflation and assuming you will use the retirement corpus over 25 years after your retirement the corpus of Rs 2 crore will provide an inflation-adjusted pension of around Rs 17,500 per month in terms of today’s money. Is that sufficient for your needs? Assuming that the PPF (7.8% return) and NPS (9% return) is used for generating the retirement corpus – it will generate a corpus of around 2.50 crore after 23 years.

So even assuming that you have calculated your goals correctly you should worry about the fact that you need to invest Rs 22,000 (13K+9K) for your housing need and son’s education whereas you are currently investing only Rs 8,000 which will not be sufficient for your needs as calculated by you. You may need to increase the amount of investment made by you every month or decrease the value of the goals.

This is a far more important question than whether the schemes that you are currently investing in are good or not. Please take the assistance of a registered investment adviser to work out your goals and prioritize your investments and insurance according to advise received.

All the schemes mentioned by you are well-performing schemes in their categories but as I said the more important question is regarding the correct estimation of goal values and the resources for funding those goal values.