Can I sell my Indian property without travelling to India?
Usually. Almost every Indian step a non-resident owner needs — the sale itself, a certificate application, an instruction to a bank — can be executed by an attorney in India. What decides whether it works is the document. The instrument has to be executed and attested in a form Indian registrars, banks and the tax authorities will accept, and the specific powers have to be enumerated in it rather than implied from a general authority. A power drafted loosely, or drafted for one purpose and used for another, is refused at the counter, and by then the transaction is usually already in motion.
Does my power of attorney need to be registered in India?
The test to apply is not whether some general rule requires registration but whether the office that has to act on the document will accept it in the form you propose to produce. A registrar dealing with immovable property, a bank acting on an instruction and the tax department accepting a representative each have their own requirements as to execution and attestation. So the sequence is to identify who must accept the instrument, establish what that office requires of it, and only then have it drawn and executed. Doing it in the other order is what produces a document nobody will act on.
Can my brother file my Indian tax return on my behalf?
He can act for you if he is properly authorised, but note that tax representation before the department is authorised separately from a power to deal with property. The two are commonly confused because both are called a power of attorney and both may name the same relative. A document drawn to let a brother sign a sale deed does not, on its own, put him on the record as your representative for a filing, a query or an appeal. If both things need doing, both authorisations have to be in place, each enumerating the powers it is meant to carry.
My bank in India refused my power of attorney — why would that happen?
Almost always for one of two reasons. Either the instrument was not executed and attested in the form the bank requires, or the specific power being exercised is not enumerated in it. Banks read these documents narrowly and are not persuaded by the general words at the end, so an authority to operate an account may not extend to closing it, repatriating from it or giving instructions about a deposit. The remedy is to establish what the bank needs to see, in writing where possible, and to have the document drawn to that specification rather than argued about afterwards.
Does one power of attorney cover both the property sale and the tax filing?
Not reliably, and it is safer to assume it does not. Tax representation before the department is authorised separately from a property power, so a single document intended to do both often does neither properly. The practical approach is to list the actual steps ahead: who signs the deed, who deals with the registrar, who instructs the bank, who answers the department and who signs the return. Then check each step against the powers enumerated in the instrument. Where a step is not covered, it is better to find out at the drafting stage than at the counter.
How do I make a power of attorney signed abroad acceptable in India?
By working backwards from the office that has to accept it. The instrument must be executed and attested in a form Indian registrars, banks and tax authorities will accept, and that form depends on where you are signing and which office will act on it. The powers themselves then need enumerating with the transaction in view, in language the counter staff will recognise as covering the step being taken. Both halves matter equally. A correctly attested document with the wrong powers is as useless as the right powers in an improperly attested document.
Do NRIs pay tax on money sent to India?
Sending your own funds to India is a transfer of capital, not income, so the remittance itself is not taxed. What is taxable is income the money then earns in India — interest, rent, capital gains — under the rules for the account type it sits in. Sending money out of India is the direction that needs certification before the bank will act. See NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts.
What are Forms 15CA and 15CB for?
They clear a payment out of India. Form 15CA is the remitter's declaration of the payment and the tax withheld on it; Form 15CB is an accountant's certificate on the taxability of the amount, the treaty article relied on and the correct withholding rate. The bank generally will not execute the transfer without them, in the categories where they are required. The work is deciding the rate correctly, because the certificate is the record of that decision. See 15CA and 15CB certification.
