My relative has gifted me some amount in my NRO (non-resident ordinary) account from her NRO account. I want to transfer this amount to my foreign bank account. Do I have to obtain CA certificate for this transfer too?
-Name withheld on request.
Form 15CB is required to remit funds from an NRO account to a foreign bank account. It is a certification issued by a chartered accountant under the Income Tax Act, 1961, confirming that tax compliance has been met for the remittance.
The requirement applies when any payment made to a non-resident is chargeable to tax. Therefore, in principle, it should not be necessary when an NRI transfers funds from their own NRO account to their foreign bank account. However, in practice, banks often insist on this certificate, even for self-transfers or when the remittance is not subject to tax. This is because funds credited to the NRO account may not always have suffered TDS (tax deducted at source).
Further, it is important to note that under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act) regulations, remittance of funds received from another individual’s NRO account is not permitted. Even if all tax compliance requirements are fulfilled, the authorized dealer (AD) bank would not allow such a transfer.
I work and reside in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I earned dividend income from Indian-listed shares during 2023-24. I applied and received TRC (tax residency certificate) from the UAE Federal Tax Authority to avail India-UAE DTAA benefits on this dividend income. My consultant also chose the DTAA option while filing the tax return. But now he tells me that the IT department has flagged this as an incorrect claim and another form needs to be filed to take DTAA benefits. I request information on this other form.
-Name withheld on request
Non-residents, including NRIs, are eligible to claim the benefit of a lower or nil tax rate under a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), subject to the condition that they should possess a valid TRC from the country of their residence. Additionally, under Indian income tax laws, there is a requirement for non-residents to submit Form 10F electronically on the Income tax portal in order to avail DTAA benefits, if details required under Form 10F are not already captured in the TRC. Usually, NRIs file Form 10F prior to filing their income tax returns to avail the DTAA benefit in their tax return if they have not filed already at the time of receipt of dividend income.
In your case, while you have obtained the TRC, it appears that Form 10F would not have been submitted online before filing your income tax return. As a result, the income tax department would have issued an intimation proposing an adjustment on the grounds of an incorrect claim of DTAA benefit. Though there is no specific time limit prescribed under the income tax law for furnishing Form 10F, in my view, it should be permitted to be filed before the completion of assessment proceedings.
In your case, you should now submit Form 10F online along with a copy of your TRC on the income tax portal. After submitting the form, you should respond to the intimation by selecting the option to ‘disagree with the proposed adjustment’ and attach a copy of the filed Form 10F and the TRC as supporting documents. This will help you to formally claim the DTAA benefit and ensure that the adjustment proposed under the intimation is not carried out.
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