Moving your own money out of India should not be the hardest part of owning assets here. We handle the whole chain — NRO to NRE transfer within the USD 1 million facility, property sale proceeds, inherited assets, rental and dividend income — with Form 145 and Form 146 certified by a Chartered Accountant, Section 395 lower deduction certificates, and DTAA relief applied correctly the first time.
Which route applies depends on the account holding your funds and how the money got there. Choosing wrongly is the most common reason a bank rejects a repatriation request.
Rent, dividends, interest, pension, property sale proceeds and inherited money all land here. Repatriation is permitted but capped and requires CA certification.
USD 1 million per financial yearFunds you brought into India in foreign currency. Both principal and interest are freely repatriable, and the interest is exempt from Indian income tax.
Freely repatriable — no capHeld in foreign currency, so there is no rupee conversion risk. Principal and interest repatriate freely on maturity without eating into your NRO limit.
Freely repatriable — no capRouted through NRO and counted within the USD 1 million facility. The critical work happens before the sale, not after — see the section below.
Within USD 1 million facilityA great deal of online guidance confuses the two. The Liberalised Remittance Scheme, with its USD 250,000 cap and TCS on outward remittance, governs resident individuals sending money abroad. As an NRI you repatriate under the separate USD 1 million per financial year facility for NRO balances. Because your transfer is not an LRS remittance, LRS TCS does not attach to it. What does apply is TDS on the underlying Indian income — the rent, the interest, or the capital gain that created the balance in the first place.
Most NRI repatriations arise from one of four life events. Each carries a different documentation trail and a different tax exposure.
The single highest-value case, and the one where advance planning saves the most money. By default the buyer deducts tax on the entire sale consideration, not on your actual gain.
Inheritance itself is not taxed in India, but the repatriation still needs a clean evidentiary chain and the assets often need to be transferred into your name first.
Rent, dividends, interest and pension accumulate quietly. Many NRIs discover years of untransferred balances and unfiled Indian returns at the same moment.
Residential status changes on return, and with it your account designations and your global tax exposure. The planning window closes when you land.
This is the point at which most NRI property sellers lose money unnecessarily — not to tax, but to cash locked up for a year or more.
When a resident sells property, the buyer deducts a small percentage of the sale value. When a non-resident sells, tax is deducted under Section 393 of the Income-tax Act 2025 — the provision that replaced Section 195 — and the default position is deduction on the gross sale consideration, not on the gain.
The practical effect is easiest to see with a worked illustration. Take a flat bought many years ago and sold today for a substantial sum. Your actual taxable gain, after indexation, may be a fraction of the sale price. But the buyer is obliged to deduct against the whole consideration. The difference between the two figures sits with the Income Tax Department until you file a return and claim a refund — typically the better part of a year, sometimes longer.
Section 395 exists precisely to prevent this. It permits a non-resident to apply to the Assessing Officer for a certificate authorising deduction at a lower rate, or at nil, reflecting the tax genuinely payable on the transaction. With the certificate in hand, the buyer deducts the correct amount and you receive the balance at closing rather than a year later.
A Section 395 application is assessed by an officer and takes time. Sellers who approach us after the agreement to sell is signed have already lost most of the benefit. If you are even considering selling Indian property, the conversation should happen while you are still choosing an estate agent.
The obligation to deduct and deposit sits with the buyer, but the credit reflects in your Form 26AS and AIS. Where a buyer deducts and fails to deposit, or deposits against the wrong PAN, the seller is the one who cannot claim the credit. We verify the deposit and the reporting before the transaction closes, not after.
The procedural requirements on buyers purchasing property from non-residents have been under active amendment through 2026, including the mechanism by which the buyer identifies itself for TDS purposes. Because the position is moving, confirm the requirements applicable on your transaction date rather than relying on guidance written earlier in the year. We track these changes as part of every property engagement.
Which account your money sits in determines almost everything about how easily it leaves India.
| Feature | NRE Account | NRO Account | FCNR (B) Deposit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Held in | Indian rupees | Indian rupees | Foreign currency |
| Funded by | Foreign earnings remitted in | Income arising in India | Foreign earnings remitted in |
| Repatriable | Freely, principal and interest | Up to USD 1 million per financial year | Freely, principal and interest |
| Interest taxable in India | Exempt | Taxable, TDS applies | Exempt |
| CA certificate to repatriate | Generally not required | Form 146 with UDIN required | Generally not required |
| Currency risk | Borne by you on conversion | Borne by you on conversion | None while on deposit |
| Typically used for | Parking overseas savings in India | Rent, dividends, pension, sale proceeds | Fixed deposits without FX exposure |
Transferring from NRO to NRE — rather than sending funds directly overseas — is often the better first step. Once money reaches your NRE account it becomes freely repatriable thereafter, and the interest it earns is exempt from Indian tax. The transfer still consumes your USD 1 million allowance for the year, but it converts restricted money into unrestricted money while you decide what to do with it.
Entirely remote. You never need to be in India, and no document needs to be couriered.
A short call or WhatsApp exchange at a time that works where you are. We establish the source of funds, your residency and the route that applies.
You receive the documentation list, the tax position as we read it, the expected timeline and a fixed fee — before any work begins.
Upload securely or send by WhatsApp. We compute the liability, apply DTAA relief, and where a property sale is involved, file the Section 395 application.
Form 145 filed with the Income Tax Department and Form 146 issued under UDIN, then submitted to your bank with Form A2 and the FEMA declaration.
Your authorised dealer bank processes the remittance. We stay engaged until the credit lands and the reporting is closed out.
Gathering these before the first call typically removes a week from the timeline.
Repatriating from India is only half the picture. What you must report in your country of residence is the other half, and the two need to be handled together.
The most reporting-intensive jurisdiction for NRIs. Indian accounts and assets generally require disclosure, and the India-US treaty governs how credit for Indian tax is claimed.
Whether Indian income and gains are taxable in the UK depends on your residence position and how remittances are treated under the rules in force for the relevant tax year.
The largest NRI population and, with no personal income tax, generally the cleanest position. Indian tax is usually the only tax, which makes DTAA relief and TRC documentation the whole game.
Territorial taxation means foreign-sourced income is often outside the Singapore net, but the treaty position and the TRC still need to be established properly.
Residents are taxed on worldwide income, with foreign asset reporting thresholds that catch many Indian property holdings and NRO balances.
Worldwide income basis with a foreign income tax offset for Indian tax paid. Capital gains on Indian property need careful treatment across both systems.
India has treaties with more than eighty countries. Under the applicable treaty, Indian tax paid is generally creditable against your liability where you live, or the income is taxable in only one of the two countries. Claiming that relief requires a Tax Residency Certificate issued by your country of residence together with Form 10F. Repatriation itself is not a taxable event — it is the movement of money you already own — but the income that created the balance was, and that is what the treaty addresses. Country positions summarised above are general; your own circumstances should be reviewed before you rely on them.
The questions NRIs actually ask us, without the hedging.
Up to USD 1 million per financial year from balances held in your NRO account, either to your NRE account or directly to an overseas bank. It is an aggregate annual limit covering every source credited to NRO — property sale proceeds, rent, dividends, interest and inherited money. Balances in NRE and FCNR accounts sit outside this: they are freely repatriable and do not consume the limit.
No. The Liberalised Remittance Scheme governs resident individuals sending money out of India. As an NRI you use the separate USD 1 million facility for NRO balances. This is worth being clear about, because a good deal of published guidance conflates the two and leaves NRIs expecting a cap and a TCS charge that do not apply to them.
TCS on foreign remittance attaches to LRS remittances by residents. A repatriation from your NRO account is not an LRS transaction, so LRS TCS does not apply. What does apply is TDS on the underlying Indian income — on the rent, the interest, or the capital gain that produced the balance. Where excess TDS has been deducted over the years, that is recoverable, and it is often the first thing we find when reviewing a long-dormant NRO account.
Form 145 (successor to Form 15CA), Form 146 (the Chartered Accountant certificate, successor to Form 15CB, carrying a UDIN), Form A2 with the FEMA declaration, passport and visa or residence permit evidencing non-resident status, PAN, proof of the source of funds, and evidence that tax on the underlying income has been paid or deducted. Where a treaty benefit is claimed, add a Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F.
Deduction on payments to non-residents runs under Section 393 of the Income-tax Act 2025, which replaced Section 195. The critical feature is that tax is deducted against the whole sale consideration by default, not against your gain. Rates vary with the holding period and are increased by surcharge and cess. Because the default is so punishing on cash flow, a Section 395 lower deduction certificate is almost always the right move — see the next answer.
It is a certificate from the Assessing Officer authorising the buyer to deduct at a lower rate, or nil, reflecting the tax genuinely payable rather than a percentage of the gross price. Without it, a large sum sits with the department until you file a return and claim it back, often close to a year later. The application takes time to process, so it needs to be started before the sale agreement is signed — not after.
Yes. Inherited funds are credited to your NRO account and repatriated within the USD 1 million annual facility. Your bank will want evidence of the inheritance — a will, probate, succession certificate or legal heir certificate as applicable — alongside Form 145, Form 146 with UDIN and Form A2. Where the estate exceeds the annual cap, repatriation is phased across financial years, which is a planning exercise worth doing deliberately rather than discovering halfway through.
Where documents are complete and no lower deduction certificate is involved, Forms 145 and 146 are typically issued within 24 to 48 working hours, with the bank completing the transfer over a further two to three working days. A Section 395 application changes the picture substantially and depends on the Assessing Officer, which is why property sales need to be planned well ahead of the transaction date.
India has Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with over eighty countries, including the USA, UK, UAE, Singapore, Canada and Australia. Under the relevant treaty, Indian tax paid is generally creditable against your liability at home, or the income is taxable in only one country. You will need a Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F to claim it. The repatriation itself is not separately taxed — you are moving your own money.
Considerably. Your residential status changes on return, NRE and FCNR accounts must be redesignated as resident accounts or converted to RFC, and your global income comes into the Indian net subject to the RNOR transition. There is a real planning window before you land — repatriation completed while you still hold non-resident status is markedly simpler than the same exercise afterwards. Take advice before you book the flight, not after you arrive.
No. The entire engagement runs remotely. Documents are shared digitally, Form 146 is issued under UDIN electronically, and banks accept the filing without your physical presence. Where a power of attorney is needed — most often for property transactions — we set out exactly what it must contain and how to have it executed and attested in your country of residence.
It is common and it is fixable. Repatriation requires the tax position on the underlying income to be clean, so we usually bring the return filing up to date first. That step frequently works in your favour: excess TDS on rent and interest, deducted at flat rates without regard to your actual liability or treaty entitlement, is often recoverable. Several clients have found the refund exceeded the cost of the whole engagement.
A short note is enough to start. We will come back with the route that applies, the documents needed and a fixed fee — usually within one working day.
Most NRIs do not have a tax problem. They have a documentation problem that looks like a tax problem. The money is legitimately theirs, the tax has usually been paid or deducted somewhere along the way, and the bank is not being obstructive — it is applying a compliance framework that assumes someone has certified the position before the transfer is requested.
That certification is where a Chartered Accountant becomes necessary rather than optional. Form 146, the successor to Form 15CB, is a certificate that only a CA can issue, and it now carries a UDIN that ties the document to the professional who signed it. No amount of paperwork assembled by the account holder substitutes for it.
In our experience the cost of a repatriation is rarely the professional fee. It is almost always one of three things.
Cash locked up unnecessarily. The property seller who did not obtain a Section 395 certificate and watched a substantial deduction against the gross sale price sit with the department for a year. The tax was eventually refunded, but the opportunity cost was real and entirely avoidable.
Treaty relief never claimed. The NRI whose Indian bank deducted tax on NRO interest at a flat rate for six years, without a Tax Residency Certificate or Form 10F on file, when the treaty provided for a materially lower rate. Recoverable, but only for the years still open.
Currency timing left to chance. A large repatriation executed at whatever rate happened to prevail on the day the paperwork cleared. Spreading a transfer, or aligning it with the tax year, is a legitimate consideration that rarely gets discussed because the compliance work absorbs all the attention.
The Income-tax Act 2025 came into effect on 1 April 2026 and renumbered a great deal of what NRIs and their advisers had learned. Section 195 became Section 393. Section 197 became Section 395. Form 15CA became Form 145 and Form 15CB became Form 146, notified under Section 397(3)(d) and Rule 220 of the Income Tax Rules 2026, with UDIN now mandatory on the certificate.
The substance of the framework has not been rewritten, but the references have, and a good deal of guidance still circulating online — including on the websites of firms that ought to know better — has not been updated. If you are reading advice that still speaks of Form 15CB and Section 195 as current, it was written before April 2026 and should be checked before you rely on it.
Wealth4India is led by CA Alok Kumar (FCA, AICA, LLM from National Law University Delhi, AML Specialist), alongside co-founders bringing law and AMFI-registered investment advisory, and strategy and operations. For repatriation work the relevant point is narrow: the Form 146 certificate has to be signed by a practising Chartered Accountant, the DTAA analysis behind it needs someone who reads treaties rather than summaries, and the two need to be the same engagement rather than two separate providers pointing at each other.
We work with NRIs across the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Canada, Australia and more than thirty other countries, entirely remotely, at whatever hour suits the timezone you are in.
Fifteen minutes is usually enough to tell you which route applies, what it will cost and how long it will take. There is no charge for that, and no obligation afterwards.
The mechanics of the forms themselves — Parts A to D, Rule 220 exemptions, UDIN, and remittances by residents as well as NRIs.
ITR filing for NRIs, capital gains planning, notice representation and residency determination across financial years.
The currency side of a repatriation — conversion, outward transfer mechanics and travel forex through our RBI-authorised partner.