Indian capital gains for an NRI are deducted at source by the platform or the fund before the money reaches the account, which means the tax is collected before any exemption or loss has been considered. Value-priced tax advice on capital gains on Indian shares and mutual funds for NRIs with a fixed fee agreed in writing before any work starts. Call the 24-hour helpline on +1 (416) 619-0068, or request a written quote today.
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24-hour helpline: +1 (416) 619-0068Indian capital gains for an NRI are deducted at source by the platform or the fund before the money reaches the account, which means the tax is collected before any exemption or loss has been considered. Holding period determines whether a gain is long or short term, deduction at source applies on redemption for non-residents, and the return is where indexation, losses and treaty relief are applied.
Any two of those together and capital gains on Indian shares and mutual funds for NRIs is almost certainly your situation. If nothing on the list applies, the helpline call still costs nothing and we will redirect you.
The fee on capital gains for an NRI tracks the number of folios and demat accounts to be worked through and whether the broker and fund statements carry cost and holding period, or those have to be reconstructed from old contract notes. A handful of redemptions in one year is not the same job as years of accumulated units.
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
in US dollars, fixed and quoted before work starts
All published fees on one page — the whole fee schedule in one place, with no from-to bands to decode.
Indian capital gains for an NRI are deducted at source by the platform or the fund before the money reaches the account, which means the tax is collected before any exemption or loss has been considered.
Holding period determines whether a gain is long or short term, deduction at source applies on redemption for non-residents, and the return is where indexation, losses and treaty relief are applied. The Canadian or US return then reports the same disposal on its own cost base.
That mechanism has a practical edge to it: it rewards preparation and punishes discovery. A filer who maps the obligation before the year ends is choosing between options; a filer who finds it afterwards is usually choosing between remedies.
Where the position depends on a threshold, a rate or a day count, we confirm it against the issuing authority for your own tax year before it goes on a return. Where a figure cannot be verified for your year, we set out the mechanism and quote no number — a wrong threshold on a filed return is worse than an explained one. See also form a2 — LRS remittance (India) and startup tax exemptions and angel tax.
Put numbers against it and the shape of the answer is obvious.
An NRI sells Indian property for ₹20,200,000 with an indexed cost of ₹9,292,000. Assume the buyer must deduct at 23% of the consideration, and assume tax on the gain at 13%.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale consideration | ₹20,200,000 |
| Cost taken into account | ₹9,292,000 |
| Gain actually arising | ₹10,908,000 |
| Deduction on the consideration (assumed 23%) | ₹4,646,000 |
| Tax on the gain (assumed 13%) | ₹1,418,040 |
| Cash held back beyond the real tax | ₹3,227,960 |
₹3,227,960 more is deducted than the transaction actually owes. A lower-deduction certificate obtained before closing is what releases it at the table; without one it sits with the department until a return recovers it. Your version of this table is the useful one, and it takes a short call and a document pack to produce.
Treat these numbers as a worked example rather than advice — they exist to make the mechanics visible, and the rates and thresholds are assumed for the illustration. For a real filing, we verify each figure with the authority that publishes it, for your year.
The fee is fixed and agreed in writing before work begins, based on the scope established on the first call. Nothing is billed by the hour, and the number does not move once it is agreed. Comparable engagements and their fixed fees are set out on the pricing pages.
Ask before the move rather than after it, because most of the useful options expire on the date. If you want to arrive prepared: the prior-year returns, the dates that matter, and any letter or slip that prompted the question. If you would rather just talk it through first, that works too.
Reviewed for the 2025 and 2026 filing seasons by Udit Gupta, International Tax, Cross-Border Tax & Transfer Pricing Expert, Legal Quotient Consultants. This is general information rather than advice about your file — a short call is the way to get the second.
If you came here for do NRI have to declare foreign assets, this is where it is dealt with. The subject is capital gains on Indian shares and mutual funds for NRIs, and the page covers who it reaches, what then has to be filed, and what we charge to do the work.
Indian capital gains for an NRI are deducted at source by the platform or the fund before the money reaches the account, which means the tax is collected before any exemption or loss has been considered.
Dates, residence, where the income arose. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to know what applies.
You get the scope and the fixed fee together, so there is no question later about what was included.
The same people see both sides of the file, and the reviewer signs their name to it.
Submission is not the end of the engagement — the queries that arrive afterwards are part of it.
| Factor | Legal Quotient | Hourly billing model |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | A fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts | Hourly, billed as incurred |
| Experience | 15+ years of cross-border work, 18,000+ clients | Varies by file |
| Both sides of the border | Prepared together by one team, so relief is claimed exactly once | One country at a time, reconciled later |
| Who reviews it | A named practitioner, published on the page | Whoever the queue reaches |
| Where the work happens | Our offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE | Whichever single office you can travel to |
Holding period determines whether a gain is long or short term, deduction at source applies on redemption for non-residents, and the return is where indexation, losses and treaty relief are applied.
Whatever the file turns out to involve, the terms do not move: the scope and the fee are agreed in writing before any work starts, a named practitioner reviews the result, and nothing is filed until you have approved it.
Where the same disposal also has to be reported in Canada or the United States, the fee reflects a second cost base and a different tax year, and the reconciliation of tax already deducted at source against the credit claimed. Indian shares and mutual fund units held through more than one platform add to that work.
Covers: The Canadian foreign property statement built on cost amount, in Canadian dollars, across everything the test reaches — including holdings people assume are excluded.
What makes it bigger: Missing acquisition records. The statement is tested on cost, so a holding bought fifteen years ago in another currency has to be reconstructed before it can be reported.
See this fee pageCovers: The foreign affiliate return with a full set of schedules per affiliate, restated onto the basis the return requires rather than the basis the local accounts use.
What makes it bigger: The number of affiliates and the tiers between them. Work scales with entity count, not with revenue, and lower-tier affiliates each need their own reporting.
See this fee pageCovers: The related-party transaction return, reconciled to the corporate return and to the non-resident slips so the three tell one consistent story.
What makes it bigger: Inconsistency between the three filings. Where the return, the slips and the schedules disagree, resolving the difference is the engagement rather than the filing.
See this fee pageIf a file needs something this practice does not do, you hear that at the start rather than after a bill.
Every page on this site and every file we deliver says which practitioner reviewed it — a person, not a team inbox.
The heaviest exposure on a cross-border file is usually a disclosure form, not the tax. We identify which ones apply before a deadline turns into a penalty.
Where you are resident for treaty purposes is a question with a method. We work through it and write down the answer, with the facts it rests on.
Quoted up front, in writing.
Contact Us 24-hour helpline +1 (416) 619-006818,000+ clients across 4 global offices, fees fixed in writing before the work starts. The case write-ups are published in full, so the outcomes are checkable rather than claimed.
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Each of these carries its own guide, pricing pointers and FAQ.
Named practitioners, each with the countries and the part of a cross-border file they carry, across India, the USA, Canada and the UAE. Every page on this site says who reviewed it, and the reviewer is one of these people rather than an unnamed team.
CA (India), CA (Malaysia)
Reviews and signs off the practice's cross-border positions, and carries final responsibility for the treaty analysis on every file that leaves any of our offices.
CA (India)
Indian cross-border files: residents with income abroad, non-residents with income in India, and the treaty relief that ties the Indian return to the one filed in the other country.
FCA (India)
Files that run between the UAE and India: residence, the treaty position, and the benchmarking and documentation behind intercompany pricing.
A non-resident had redeemed units across several funds in a year that produced gains on some holdings and losses on others, with tax deducted on each redemption as though the losses did not exist. We rebuilt the year from the statements of account, computed each disposal on its correct holding period and cost, and set the losses against the gains the rules allow. The engagement produced a filed Indian return, a refund claim for the excess deducted, and the remaining loss recorded so that it could be carried forward.
A client held equity and debt funds through an Indian platform and had been reporting the redemptions in Canada from the platform's annual summary alone. We reconciled each disposal to its contract note, computed the Indian position on Indian cost and the Canadian position on its own cost base and conversion, and identified where the results legitimately differed. The engagement produced an Indian return, a schedule supporting the Canadian reporting, and a record of the deduction suffered in India in the form the credit claim required.
Shares transferred from a deceased parent's holding were redeemed without anyone knowing what cost the family was entitled to, and the deduction at source proceeded on the platform's assumption. We traced the original acquisitions through old contract notes, registrar records and the parent's own filings, established the cost and acquisition dates that carried across, and computed the disposal on that basis. The engagement produced a documented cost position, an Indian return filed on it, and a refund claim for the part of the deduction the correct cost removed.
A client had been non-resident for years while the broking and demat accounts still carried the old status, so deductions were applied on a resident footing and the reporting never matched the client's actual position. We had the status corrected with the intermediaries, established how each disposal in the open years should have been treated, and quantified the difference. The engagement produced corrected account records, filed returns for the years concerned, and a written account of the change that the client's bank accepted for its own records.
A client assumed that a year with no income beyond a loss-making redemption did not require an Indian return. Left unfiled, the loss would not have been available against later gains. We computed the year, filed the return, and recorded the loss so that it stood against disposals in the years that followed, which were expected to be substantial. The engagement produced the filed return, a loss schedule the client keeps with the portfolio records, and a note of what must happen each year for the position to hold.
A client sold a long-held Indian holding in a year when both countries wanted to tax the gain, and the amounts did not agree because the cost bases were not the same. We set out each computation separately, explained in writing why the difference arose rather than forcing the figures together, and documented the deduction suffered in India along with the conversion used. The engagement produced the Indian return, the supporting reconciliation, and a credit claim resting on the final Indian liability rather than on the amount withheld.
Withholding on a sale by a non-resident is applied to the sale value rather than to the gain, so it routinely exceeds the tax due. A lower-deduction certificate obtained before completion avoids locking the difference up until a return is assessed.
Read how this one runsWhere the treaty rate is lower than what was deducted, the difference comes back through a return rather than at source. The file establishes entitlement and files for the years still open.
Read how this one runsAll case studies — every published engagement in one place.
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Strategy and compliance for income, assets and families spread across borders.
Foreign property income and sales are taxed in both countries by default; Section 216, FIRPTA and treaty credits are the standing toolkit.
Property is taxed where it sits, which is the one rule no treaty overrides. What the treaty does decide is the credit, the rate on the rent and what happens on the sale — and the clearance certificate on a disposition is applied for before closing, not after the buyer has already held the money back.
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: holding period determines whether a gain is long or short term, deduction at source applies on redemption for non-residents, and the return is where indexation, losses and treaty relief are applied.
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.
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.
Because for a non-resident the deduction happens at the fund or the platform, on redemption, before the money reaches your account. It is computed on the transaction in front of it, which means it takes no account of losses elsewhere in your portfolio, of indexation, or of any treaty position you may hold. That is a collection mechanism working as intended rather than an assessment of what you owe. Losses, indexation and treaty relief are applied on your Indian return, and until that return is filed the deduction stands as the only figure in the system.
That is what the return is for. Deduction at source is applied redemption by redemption, so a year with gains on some holdings and losses on others is taxed at source as though only the gains existed. Filing brings the whole year together, sets the losses against the gains the rules allow them to be set against, and produces a refund where the deductions exceed the liability. It also establishes any loss left over for carry-forward, which is normally only preserved where a return is filed, so the year that looks not worth filing is often the one that matters later.
Deduction is not a substitute for filing. It is an advance collection against a liability that is only computed when you file, and in most non-resident portfolios it collects more than the final figure because it cannot see the rest of the year. Filing is also what puts your own characterisation on the record, covering holding period, cost and treaty position, rather than the platform's. And the Indian return is the document your Canadian or US return will be read against if a credit is claimed, so the order in which the two are prepared matters.
The same disposal is reported twice, on different cost bases, and that is not an error. The Indian computation starts from cost under Indian rules. The Canadian return reports the disposal on its own cost base, converted into Canadian dollars, and for someone who held the shares before becoming resident here that base may have been reset on arrival. The gains can therefore differ in size and occasionally in direction. Reconciling them, and documenting the deduction suffered in India, is what supports a credit claim. The brokerage statement alone rarely does.
No. How long an asset has been held runs from when you acquired it, and whether the gain is long or short term follows from that. What changes when you become non-resident is the collection: deduction applies at source on redemption, so a holding that used to reach your account in full now arrives net. Keep the original contract notes and statements of account. Acquisition date and cost are the two facts the whole computation depends on, and they are the hardest to recover once an old resident account has been closed.
A credit is generally given for foreign tax properly payable rather than for whatever was withheld, which is why the Indian return matters to a claim made in Canada or the United States. Where the deduction exceeded the Indian liability, the excess is a refund to be claimed from India, not a credit to be claimed at home, and a claim made on the deduction alone can be reopened years later. We prepare the Indian return first, establish the final liability, then support the foreign return with that return, the deduction records and the conversion used.
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.
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.
Where our partners studied — CPA Canada (In-Depth Tax Program), AICPA, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants.
