Repatriation of your money means sending money from a foreign country (India, in your case, as you’re residing in a country other than India) to your account in your country of residence. In this article, we discuss how you, as an NRI, can repatriate the money out of India to your current home country after conducting the sale of immovable property (residential or commercial) in India.
You can send the proceeds outside India to your residential country – unless you live in Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, or Iran, where it is in general not permitted by the Reserve Bank of India.
You may have acquired the property through multiple means. They could be:
- Purchase of immovable property through legitimate foreign exchange sources
- By way of inheritance of property
- By way of gift
Purchase of property in India is done by paying through an NRE/NRO or FCNR(B) account.
As NRI, you need to have an NRO account with any commercial bank operating in India. This is where you park the proceeds of income-earning like sale of immovable property. Repatriation means transfer of funds from the balances held in NRO account to your NRE account or overseas bank account.
Important Points to Remember
You must keep some government regulations in mind. As an NRI, you are not allowed repatriation of an amount exceeding $1 million USD per financial year (April 1 to March 31) if you’d purchased the property using your NRO account.
If your remittance does not exceed $1 million USD, you cannot carry forward the balance in subsequent years.
However, income earned in a particular year can be repatriated in the same year or subsequent year.
Also, as per RBI guidelines, while remitting from an NRO to an NRE account, you cannot go through multiple authorized dealer banks. You can choose only one authorized dealer bank per financial year.
You will have to pay applicable taxes while repatriating the funds out of India.
You can repatriate the sale proceeds of only two residential properties.
Necessary Documents Required
Your banker will guide you to submit the following documents while repatriating money:
- Repatriation Application Form (an application form authorizing the bank to debit your NRO account and credit your NRE / FCNR(B) account, or debit your NRE account and credit your foreign account)
- FEMA Declaration: This is a simple, self-attested declaration agreeing to the transaction of repatriation not being in contravention to FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) laws
- One original copy of Form 15 CA (submitted with tax authorities online)
- Form 15 CB (your Chartered Accountant will provide this form certifying applicable taxes are paid while remittances)
- PAN Card copies and copy of income tax returns
Finally, for all tax purposes, it’s better to take expert advice. Selling properties can have tax consequences, as each transaction is unique. So, before deciding when to sell, consult an expert about possible tax remedies and getting transaction costs down.
