Does a foreign employer have to file Form 24Q in India?
It can. The test is whether the salary is taxable in India, not where the employer sits or where the payroll is run. An overseas company with staff working in India on its own payroll can fall within this return, and the absence of an Indian entity paying them does not take the salary out of Indian tax. What we look at is where the duties are performed, the individual's own position in India, and what the salary is paid for. Answer that before deciding who reports, because the reporting follows the taxability of the salary rather than the structure of the group.
How does split payroll get reported when part of the salary is paid abroad?
Both components have to be reflected, and that is the part routinely missed. Where an assignee draws part of their salary from a home-country payroll and part locally, the return has to show the salary taxable in India rather than the amount that happened to pass through the Indian bank account. Reporting only the local element understates the pay, and the employee's Indian return is built from what this return reports, so the understatement travels into their own filing. Getting it right means holding the home payroll's figures for the period in a form that reconciles to the Indian reporting cycle.
Our staff are seconded from the parent company — who reports the salary?
Work out who bears the employment and what the Indian entity is actually paying for. A secondment where the individual works under the Indian entity's direction, and the entity is charged for their time, is a different arrangement from one where a foreign parent supplies a service performed by its own staff. That answer decides whether the salary is reported through the Indian entity's salary return, and it also decides the character of the charge from the parent. Secondments documented loosely, by an email and an intercompany invoice with no agreement behind them, are the ones that get challenged, so the documentation is part of the work.
Does treaty-exempt salary still go in the return?
Treat exemption as something the return has to show rather than something that removes the salary from the reporting. A portion of an assignee's pay relieved under a treaty is still salary the employer has paid, and the position taken on it belongs in the return that the employee's own filing is built from. Leaving it out silently means their return and their employer's reporting describe different pay. Establish the basis for the treaty position, apply it in the reporting, and keep the working alongside the payroll records for the period so that the same answer comes out if anyone asks later.
We have one employee in India and no entity there — is reporting needed?
Possibly, and it is worth resolving early, because a single person is the situation most often left alone. The absence of an Indian company does not settle it. The question is whether the salary is taxable in India, and that turns on the individual's presence and duties rather than on the employer's structure. A lone assignee also tends to be paid entirely from a home payroll, so nothing in any Indian accounts prompts anybody to ask the question. Establish the salary's Indian position first, then work out what reporting follows and the practical mechanics of meeting it.
Who reports for an employee who left India mid-year?
The employer that paid the salary reports what it deducted for the periods it paid, and the departure does not shift that to the employee. What changes is the accuracy of the annual picture: a leaver's Indian salary for the year is usually lower than the full-year figure the payroll had been deducting against, and the part-year position has to be reflected in the reporting rather than settled quietly at the employee's end. Deal with the leaver's figures for the quarter of departure while the payroll records and the dates of presence are still easy to obtain.
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.
What is FIRPTA withholding?
FIRPTA is the US regime that treats a foreign person's disposition of a US real property interest as taxable and makes the buyer withhold on the gross proceeds to secure it. Because the deduction is on the price rather than the profit, it routinely exceeds the real tax — sometimes on a sale made at a loss. A withholding certificate applied for before closing can reduce it to something closer to the actual liability. See the FIRPTA withholding certificate.
