What is Form 15CA and why does my bank want it?
Form 15CA is the remitter's own declaration about a payment leaving India: what the payment is for, and how it has been treated for tax. The bank is not making a tax judgement of its own; it is collecting the declaration before it releases the transfer, so the file is complete at the moment the money moves. That is why the request arrives from the bank rather than from the tax authority, and why it lands at the end of a transaction rather than the beginning. Treat it as part of the payment instruction, not as a return you file afterwards. Without it, the transfer waits.
Do I need Form 15CA to send money from India to Canada?
The destination country does not decide it. What decides it is the nature of the payment and whether it is chargeable to tax in India, so the same amount can need a declaration when it is rent or a fee and not when it falls in one of the excluded categories. Canada's treatment of the receipt is a separate question, answered on your Canadian return. Work out the Indian characterisation first, because that is the one the bank will ask you to evidence. Then check whether the payment sits in a class relieved from the requirement. Deciding it by destination is the common mistake.
Can I file Form 15CA myself or must an accountant do it?
The declaration is the remitter's, so it is made in your name and under your login on the e-filing portal. Where an accountant's certificate is also required, that certificate is a separate document signed by the accountant, and the declaration then refers to it. The two can therefore be prepared by different people, and usually are: the remitter declares, and the accountant certifies the tax position the declaration relies on. What you cannot do is hand the statement itself to somebody else. If the characterisation turns out to be wrong, it is the remitter's declaration that was wrong.
What happens if money left India without Form 15CA?
Two consequences run in parallel, and they are usually confused with each other. The tax side asks whether the correct amount was withheld on the payment. The compliance side asks whether the declaration was filed at all. A remittance can be perfectly taxed and still leave a gap, because the declaration is a separate obligation from the withholding. The practical repair is to reconstruct the payment, the contract, the invoice and the reason for the rate applied, and then file on the correct footing rather than a convenient one. Banks keep their own record of what they released, so the trail exists whether or not you produce it.
Which part of Form 15CA do I have to complete?
The form forks according to two things: whether the payment is chargeable to tax in India at all, and whether an accountant's certificate supports the position being taken. Routine payments, taxable payments and payments the rules exclude do not travel the same route through it. This is why copying a colleague's completed form goes wrong so often, because what gets copied is the route rather than the reasoning behind it. Establish the characterisation of the payment first, in writing, and the correct route follows from it. If the characterisation is arguable, record that in the file instead of quietly taking the easier branch.
Does Form 15CA apply to money I am sending to myself?
It can, and this catches people moving their own savings after emigrating. The requirement attaches to the remittance, not to whether the two account holders are different people. What changes with a self-transfer is the characterisation: you are usually moving funds that have already borne Indian tax, rather than making a payment that carries income to somebody else. That is a position to be evidenced from the source of the funds, not assumed from the fact that both accounts are yours. Keep the documents showing where the money came from, because the bank will ask what the transfer is and the answer has to be supportable.
How do I actually stop being taxed twice?
In this order. Fix your residence under each country's own rules, and if both claim you, apply the treaty tie-breaker. Identify where each type of income is sourced. Read the article that covers that income type, because it decides who taxes and at what maximum rate. Then claim the relief on the residence-country return, with proof of the foreign tax. Most of the tax people lose to double taxation is lost at the last step, not the first. See how double taxation is relieved.
What happens if the two countries disagree about which of them can tax me?
The treaty has a procedure for exactly that. You apply to the competent authority in your residence country, which takes the case up with its counterpart, and the two negotiate a position that removes the double taxation. Some treaties add binding arbitration if they cannot agree. It is slow and it runs on documents, so the practical work is preserving the record and filing protective claims while the clock runs. See our treaty work.
