I sold my flat in India — how do I get the money out?
In two exercises that run alongside each other, not one. The sale is a tax event; moving the money is an exchange-control event. Before the transfer your bank will want a declaration from you as remitter and, where the sum is chargeable, a certificate from an accountant dealing with how the tax has been handled. The account the proceeds are sitting in then decides the annual limit that applies and the documents the bank asks for. Sellers are usually surprised by the second half: the conveyancing can be finished and the money still immovable.
Why is my bank refusing to transfer my own sale proceeds?
Because the bank is the last party in the chain that can be held answerable for a transfer made without the tax certification behind it, so it will not move funds until both the tax side and the exchange-control side are satisfied. That is not obstruction. The usual blockages are a missing remitter declaration, a certificate that does not match the transaction it describes, proceeds sitting in an account whose route does not permit the transfer, or an inherited property being treated as an ordinary sale. Each has a different fix, and identifying which one you have is the first task.
Is there a limit on how much I can send abroad each year?
There is an annual limit, and which one applies depends on the account the funds are held in rather than on the nature of the sale. That is why the account matters as much as the paperwork: money in the wrong place can be fully documented and still not movable in the amount you want this year. Where the proceeds exceed what the route allows, the transfer is usually staged across years or the funds are repositioned before it starts. Decide the route before the sale completes, because moving money between accounts afterwards carries documentation of its own.
Do I need an accountant's certificate to remit sale proceeds?
Where the sum being remitted is chargeable to tax, yes: a certificate from an accountant precedes the transfer, alongside your own declaration as remitter. It is not a formality banks waive for modest transfers or for family money. Its function is to confirm that the tax consequences of the amount leaving India have been considered and dealt with, and the bank relies on it. Which means it has to describe the transaction accurately. A certificate that does not agree with the deed, the deduction record and the account will come back.
Can I repatriate money from a property I inherited?
Yes, but by a different route, and that is the trap. Proceeds from a property that came to you on a death do not follow the path that proceeds from a property you bought follow. The documentation goes to how you acquired it as well as how you sold it, and the limits and permissions differ. Families who treat the two alike generally discover it at the bank counter. Establish the acquisition history first — the will or succession document, the chain of title, and what the earlier owner paid — because the route out is decided by it.
Can I remit before the tax on the sale is settled?
The order is the point. A chargeable sum is certified before it leaves, not after, so a transfer cannot run ahead of the tax position and settle up later. Where tax has been deducted at source on the sale, the deduction record has to reconcile with the certificate the bank is given. Where the deduction exceeded the real liability, remitting the certified proceeds and recovering the excess are separate exercises on separate timetables. Trying to collapse them into one is what strands money in India for a year.
What is FAPI, and how does it differ from GILTI?
Canada's foreign accrual property income taxes a Canadian shareholder currently on the passive income of a controlled foreign affiliate — interest, rent, royalties, certain gains — with a deduction that recognises foreign tax already paid on it. GILTI comes at the problem from the opposite side: it targets active income above a return on tangible assets. A group with both a Canadian and a US shareholder can therefore be inside both regimes on different slices of the same profit. See GILTI against FAPI.
What are Form 15CA and Form 15CB?
They are the certification pair required before certain remittances leave India. Form 15CA is the remitter's declaration filed online; Form 15CB is the accountant's certificate supporting the tax treatment and the rate applied, including any treaty relief. Which combination you need depends on the nature and size of the payment, and banks will generally not process the remittance without them. See Form 15CA.
