FEMA compliance for NRIs — where does doing it myself start to cost money?
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: residency under exchange-control law is defined differently from tax residency, and it governs which accounts may be held, which assets may be acquired and how funds may be repatriated.
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 I have to change my Indian bank account after moving abroad?
Redesignating a resident account once your status changes is an exchange-control obligation, not a courtesy to the bank. It is also the step most people skip, because nothing stops working at the time. The consequences appear later, when funds need to leave India and the account type does not support what is being asked, or when a credit is questioned because it came into an account that should no longer have been resident. The obligation sits with you rather than with the branch that never asked. We review each account you hold, establish what it should now be, and prepare the instructions to the bank.
Is FEMA residency the same as my Indian tax residency?
No, and treating them as one is the single most common error in these files. Tax law asks what is chargeable; exchange-control law asks what is permitted. Each has its own definition of residence, and they can give different answers about the same person in the same year. That matters because the exchange-control answer governs which accounts you may hold, which assets you may acquire and how funds may be sent out of India, none of which your tax return addresses. We determine both positions separately and then look at where they point in different directions.
Can I still buy property in India as an NRI?
Exchange-control law, not tax law, decides which assets a person in your position may acquire, and it draws distinctions by asset type rather than by amount. So the question is not whether you can afford the purchase or how the gain will eventually be taxed, but whether the acquisition itself is permitted for someone of your status and, if it is, through which account the funds must move. Getting that wrong is difficult to unwind once title has passed. We check permissibility and the funding route before an agreement is signed, and record the conclusion in writing.
How do I send money from India to my account abroad?
Repatriation is governed by exchange-control rules, which is why your bank asks for certificates rather than simply executing the transfer. What may be sent, from which account and on what evidence depends on your status, on the source of the funds and on whether tax has been dealt with on that source. Banks are cautious here because the obligation runs through them. Most stalled remittances we see are not refusals on the merits; they are files missing a document or holding an account of the wrong type. We assemble the evidence and the certification before the instruction goes in.
My Indian returns are filed, am I FEMA compliant as well?
Not necessarily, and the two are genuinely separate systems running on the same transaction. A perfectly filed return says what was chargeable and what was paid; it says nothing about whether the account holding the money was of the right type, whether the asset was one you were permitted to acquire, or whether funds moved by a permitted route. It is entirely possible to have a clean tax file and an untidy exchange-control file, and the second usually surfaces at the bank. We review the exchange-control side on its own terms rather than inferring it from the returns.
What happens to my accounts if I move back to India?
The status question runs in both directions. Returning changes what you are under exchange-control law, and with it which accounts you may hold and how balances built up while you were abroad are to be treated. Accounts opened for a non-resident are not simply left as they are, and assets acquired while abroad need to be looked at again under the rules that now apply to you. The obligation to act on the change is yours. We take an inventory of accounts and assets on the way back in, the same way one is taken on the way out.
Who is an NRI for tax purposes?
Residence in India is decided by days present in the tax year, with a second limb that also counts days over the preceding four years, and separate rules for Indian citizens leaving for employment. Fall outside the tests and you are non-resident, taxed in India only on Indian-source income. Between full residence and non-residence sits RNOR — resident but not ordinarily resident — which shelters foreign income for a limited window after returning. See RNOR status.
What is Schedule FA and who has to complete it?
It is the foreign asset disclosure in an Indian return, and the trigger is residential status rather than income: a resident discloses foreign bank accounts, custodial and equity holdings, foreign life insurance with a cash value, immovable property and other assets held at any time in the year, plus any beneficial interest. A non-resident does not. The obligation is disclosure-based, so it applies to an account that earned nothing, and the penalties under the black-money legislation are what make it worth getting right. See Schedule FA reporting.
