Outbound investment (ODI) from India — do I need an adviser, or can I do it alone?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: the investment route determines approval requirements and permissible structures, and annual performance reporting is required thereafter.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
Do we report our overseas subsidiary every year even if dormant?
Yes. The annual reporting obligation attaches to the investment itself and continues for as long as it is held, including in years where nothing happened: no funding, no dividend, no change in shareholding. A dormant year is still a reporting year. This is a common way a compliant outbound structure becomes a non-compliant one, because the reporting is set up attentively at the outset, the investment then sits quietly, and a year goes by without a filing because there was nothing to file about. The obligation belongs on a recurring calendar rather than in a response to events.
What route should our Indian company use to invest abroad?
The route determines two things that matter from the beginning: what approvals you need before the money moves, and what structures are permissible once it has. Those constraints shape the deal rather than merely record it, so the route question is settled before the term sheet hardens rather than after. It also sets the reporting that follows for the life of the investment. The analysis looks at what the Indian entity is investing in, what the target structure needs to look like commercially, and which route can actually accommodate it without the arrangement having to be unpicked later.
What happens if we missed the annual performance report for a year?
It is a gap in a continuing record rather than a one-off failure, which is how it should be approached. The practical work is to establish what should have been reported for each missed year from the foreign entity's own accounts, bring the record up to date in sequence, and deal with the omission on its own terms rather than quietly filing the current year and hoping the history is not examined. Later transactions, such as further funding, a disposal or a repatriation, tend to be the point at which an incomplete reporting history surfaces, so it is better cleared before then.
How are profits of our overseas subsidiary taxed back in India?
That is a separate analysis from the investment reporting, and it is run alongside rather than left until later. The reporting obligations tell you what must be filed about the investment; they say nothing about how the foreign entity's profits are treated when they are earned, retained or brought home. Groups that treat the two as one project usually find the tax question arriving at the worst moment, when a distribution is already planned. We deal with both at the outset, so the structure that satisfies the investment rules is also one whose tax consequences the group understands.
Can our Indian company lend to its foreign subsidiary instead of investing?
The forms of support an Indian entity may give a foreign entity it has invested in are defined by the route taken, so this is not a free commercial choice. Whether funding goes in as equity, as a loan, or as support given to the subsidiary's lender affects what approval is needed, whether it is permitted at all, and what has to be reported afterwards. The commercial preference is worth stating early, because it may decide the route rather than follow from it. We set out what each form of support would require before the group commits to one.
We are selling our overseas subsidiary, what do we report in India?
A disposal is a reportable event and it is also the moment the whole reporting history becomes relevant, because the record of the investment from acquisition to sale is what the exit is assessed against. Two strands then run in parallel: the reporting on the transaction and the closing of the annual obligations, and separately the tax analysis of the gain and of any proceeds returning to India. Starting both before the sale agreement is signed is considerably easier than reconstructing the first strand while the second is under time pressure.
What is TCS on foreign remittance?
Tax collected at source. When a resident individual remits money abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme — or buys an overseas tour package — the bank or seller collects an amount of tax on top and deposits it against your PAN. It is not a cost and it is not a final tax: it appears in your annual tax statement and is set off against the tax on your return, with the excess refunded. The rates and the purposes they attach to have been amended repeatedly, so we confirm them for the remittance year. See LRS limits and TCS.
What is RNOR status?
Resident but not ordinarily resident — a transitional category in India between non-residence and full residence, reached on the day counts after returning from a period abroad. While it lasts, certain foreign income stays outside the Indian tax base, which makes the timing of a return to India worth planning rather than leaving to chance. It is temporary, and the window is set by the day-count rules. See RNOR status.
