Is there a limit on how much I can repatriate?
Yes. Remittances out of the account that holds your Indian income are rationed by an annual ceiling set under the exchange control rules, applied by your bank, and measured across the Indian financial year rather than the calendar year. The ceiling covers everything you send out of that account in aggregate, so several transfers all draw on one allowance. Funds you originally brought into India from abroad sit in a different position and are not rationed in the same way, which is why the source of every credit in the account matters so much. Your bank will confirm the ceiling in force before you instruct the transfer.
Why does my bank want a certificate to move my own money?
Because the bank is the enforcement point. It has to satisfy itself that nothing chargeable to Indian tax is leaving untaxed, and it does that by asking for a declaration from you and an accountant's certificate on the taxability of the amount. The account holds income that arose in India, so the assumption running through the whole system is that something in it may be taxable. Where the balance is made up of receipts that have already borne deduction at source, or of capital that was never income at all, that is exactly what the certificate is for. It simply has to be shown rather than asserted.
Can I repatriate money I inherited in India?
Inherited funds can generally be remitted, but the bank will want the chain of title before it moves anything: the death certificate, the will or the succession document, and evidence that the asset passed to you. Inheritance itself is not income in your hands in India, so the analysis is usually about proving what the money is rather than about tax on the receipt. Where the inherited asset was sold rather than transferred to you as it stood, the gain on that sale is a separate question and is dealt with on its own facts before the remittance is certified.
Does bringing money from India create tax in Canada?
Moving your own capital between your own accounts is not income anywhere. What can create tax at home is the income the money represents, and that is taxed when it arises rather than when it travels. So rent, interest and gains arising in India are reportable at home for the year in which they arose, whether or not a single rupee ever crossed the border. The consequence for a transfer is that the remittance itself is not the taxable event, but it will be questioned if the income behind it was never reported when it arose. The bank file and the earlier home returns have to tell the same story.
Why was tax deducted again when I transferred my own funds?
Deduction at source is applied to a payment because of what the payment is, not because of who owns the account. If the balance being remitted includes income that has not yet borne deduction, or if the certifying accountant cannot trace the source of a credit, the safe course is to certify a deduction and let the return sort it out afterwards. That is why the reconstruction work is worth doing before the remittance rather than after it. Once the deduction has been made, recovering it means filing an Indian return and then waiting for the refund to be processed.
What documents does the bank need for an outward transfer?
At minimum, your declaration, the accountant's certificate where one is required, and proof of the source of the funds credited to the account. The last of those is what most requests founder on. Rent needs the tenancy agreement and the deduction statements. Sale proceeds need the deed and the buyer's deduction record. Inherited money needs the succession documents. A balance that has accumulated over years from several sources needs all of it, which is why keeping the paperwork as each credit arrives is far easier than assembling it under pressure at the branch counter.
What is Form 5471 and who has to file it?
The information return a US person files about a foreign corporation they own or control, in one of several filer categories that determine which schedules apply. It is not a tax computation, which is exactly why it gets missed — and why the penalty regime is severe. The consequence people underestimate is that a missing 5471 can keep the limitation period open on the whole return, not merely on the foreign company's figures. See Form 5471.
Can I set up a trust that works in two countries?
You can, but the two systems classify and tax trusts differently enough that a structure which is efficient in one is often a reporting problem in the other — a Canadian family trust with a US beneficiary, or a US revocable trust holding Canadian property, are the classic pairs. Canada's twenty-one-year deemed disposition, the US grantor rules and each country's reporting have to be read together, before drafting rather than after. See cross-border wills and trusts.
