We issued shares to our US parent and missed FC-GPR, what now?
The clock on this reporting runs from the transaction itself, not from a year end, so the day the shares were issued is the date everything is measured against. Missing it does not undo the issue; it leaves a contravention on the record that has to be settled by compounding. In practice the work is document reconstruction before anything else: what was subscribed, when the funds arrived, and what valuation supported the price. The same valuation has to hold up for FC-TRS if any of those shares later move across a residency line, so it is worth getting a defensible version on file once rather than twice.
Is the FC-GPR penalty worked out from the tax we owe?
No. This is exchange-control reporting rather than a tax return, so nothing in the exposure is driven by profit or tax payable. It is charged by reference to the contravention and how long the report was outstanding, which is why a company with no Indian tax to pay, or a loss-making start-up subsidiary, can still be facing a real cost. It is also why the usual reassurance, that nothing is owed so nothing is at stake, is the wrong test here. The question to ask instead is how many reportable events went unreported and how long each has been sitting.
Can we still file FC-TRS after the share transfer has completed?
The transfer being complete as a matter of company law does not extinguish the reporting; the obligation survives the event it reports. What changes is that you are now filing late, so the report goes in alongside the process for settling the delay. Two practical points. The price has to be supported by a valuation that matches the one used elsewhere in the same transaction, and the party who carries the report needs identifying properly rather than assumed, because on a transfer across a residency line it is not automatically the company. Getting that wrong means doing the work twice.
Does the CRA late-filing penalty apply to our Indian share reporting?
No, they are separate systems, and it is worth keeping the figures apart. A Canadian resident subscribing for shares in an Indian company often has both sets of filings, which is where the two get confused. CRA's late-filing penalty applies to a Canadian return: for the 2025 tax year it is five per cent of the balance owing, plus one per cent of that balance for each full month the return is late, to a maximum of twelve months. Where CRA had issued a demand to file and charged that penalty in any of the three preceding tax years, it is ten per cent plus two per cent per full month, to a maximum of twenty months. The penalty itself does not compound; interest compounds daily on the unpaid balance. The Indian reporting is measured on its own basis entirely.
Who carries a late FC-GPR, the Indian company or the foreign investor?
For a share issue the reporting sits with the Indian company that issued them, so the company is the one with the contravention on its record even though the funds originated with the investor. Transfers are different: the report belongs to the parties to the transfer across the residency line, which in practice means establishing who that is before filing rather than after. Foreign investors are often surprised to find that a filing they never saw is part of the record of the company they have just put money into, and that the fix needs their cooperation, because the subscription paperwork and the valuation are usually on their side of the file.
Will outstanding FC-GPR filings hold up our next funding round?
They tend to surface at exactly that point. The next transaction needs the same class of certificates and a current valuation, and preparing those puts someone back through the register, which is where an unreported allotment from an earlier round shows up. The practical consequence is timing rather than prohibition: the clean-up then has to be done under the pressure of a closing date, with the delay already at its longest. If a round is in prospect, reconciling the register against what was actually reported is cheap work done early and awkward work done late.
I have not filed for several years while living abroad — what are my options?
Both countries have routes back, and using one before they contact you is what preserves the relief. On the US side there are procedures aimed at taxpayers whose failure was not wilful, including one designed for people living outside the country, and separate procedures for late account reports and information returns alone. Canada has its voluntary disclosures programme and taxpayer relief for penalties and interest. Filing quietly and hoping is the one approach with no protection attached to it. See catch-up filing.
Which country do I pay tax to first?
Generally the source country — where the income arises — taxes first, often by withholding before you receive it. Your country of residence then taxes the same income and credits what the source country took. That order is why timing matters: a residence-country return filed before the source-country tax is settled has nothing to credit yet. Getting the sequence right is most of the work. See international tax planning.
