Can an NRI submit Form 15G or 15H on an Indian deposit?
No. These declarations are open to resident individuals within the eligibility conditions, and not to non-residents at all. An NRI who signs one to stop deduction on an Indian deposit has made a declaration they were not entitled to make, which is a worse place to be than the deduction it was meant to avoid. A deduction is a timing problem with a refund at the end of it. A declaration you had no right to give is not. Where a non-resident genuinely expects little tax, the route is the lower-deduction certificate.
I gave the bank a declaration before I moved abroad — is it still valid?
A declaration reflects the position you were in when you signed it, and it does not follow you across a change of residence. Once you are non-resident for a year, a declaration sitting on file at the branch for that year is not something to rely on, whatever the bank's system still shows. The step to take is to tell the bank your position has changed, have your account records updated to reflect your residence, and deal with deduction through the route actually open to you. A stale declaration is the thing to avoid.
Why does my bank keep asking for a declaration I cannot give?
Because branch processes are built around resident depositors, and the declaration is the ordinary way a resident with no tax to pay stops deduction. Staff reach for it by habit when a depositor says they expect no liability. It is not available to you as a non-resident, and signing it to make the request go away creates a problem the deduction never would. What to tell the branch is that your residence takes you outside the declarations altogether, and that any reduction has to come from a certificate the department issues.
What happens if I already filed one while I was non-resident?
Deal with it deliberately rather than hoping it passes unnoticed. Tell the payer the declaration should not have been given and ask for deduction to be applied normally from here, so that the problem stops growing. Then bring the income into a return for the years concerned and settle the tax on it, which removes the revenue consequence even though it does not unmake the document. Coming forward is materially better than answering a query about the gap between a declaration of no liability and the income actually received.
I am resident again after years abroad — can I use the declaration now?
Residence is determined year by year, so returning can bring you back inside the declarations for a year in which you qualify. Two cautions. Eligibility depends on the conditions being met in the year you sign, not on your being resident in a general sense, so this is a yearly judgement rather than a standing arrangement. And the year of return is often the awkward one, because income can arise on both sides of the move. That is the year to look at properly before signing anything at a branch.
My spouse in India signed one for our joint deposit — does that cover me?
No. A declaration is personal to the person whose income is being declared, and on a joint deposit the interest is not automatically all one person's income. If part of it belongs to you and you are non-resident, your part sits outside the declarations however your spouse's part is treated. Joint holdings between a resident and a non-resident family member are one of the commonest places this goes wrong, so it is worth establishing whose income the interest actually is before deciding how deduction should be handled.
How does a remittance actually work, and is it taxed?
A remittance is a transfer of money, not a category of income, and moving your own funds between your own accounts is not what creates tax. What can create tax is the income behind the money and the rules of the country it leaves. India, for instance, collects tax at source when a resident individual remits abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and requires certification before certain payments leave. The transfer is the trigger for paperwork rather than for tax. See the LRS and tax collected at source.
Is moving money between my own accounts in two countries taxable?
Moving your own capital between your own accounts is not itself income, so the transfer is not what creates tax. What can create tax or reporting is the income the money earned before it moved, a foreign-exchange gain on certain holdings, and the reporting obligations the balances themselves trigger — foreign account and asset reports keyed to balances rather than income. Remittances out of some countries also need certification before the bank will send them. See foreign account reporting.
