Indian resident with foreign assets (Schedule FA) — is this a do-it-yourself job?
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: disclosure sits in a dedicated schedule and is tested against information India receives automatically from foreign institutions.
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 report a foreign bank account with a tiny balance?
Yes. The disclosure has no minimum. Schedule FA asks for the assets held, not for assets above a value, so a dormant account holding a token amount is reported in the same way as a substantial one. The practical consequence is that the work lies in assembling a complete list rather than in deciding what is big enough to mention. An account opened during studies abroad, a salary account left behind after a posting, and a small brokerage account are commonly left off, and they are exactly the accounts a foreign institution reports automatically.
I only have signing authority on my father's account, do I disclose it?
Signing authority is reportable in its own right. The schedule distinguishes between assets you own, assets in which you hold a beneficial interest, and accounts you merely have authority to operate, and the last of those catches people who have never thought of the money as theirs. A mandate on a parent's account abroad, a power of attorney over a relative's investments, and a joint account opened for convenience all sit here. Disclosing it does not make the income yours. Leaving it out is treated as non-disclosure of a foreign asset.
Do I still report foreign assets if that country already taxed me?
Yes. Disclosure and taxation are separate questions. Tax paid abroad may reduce what you owe in India through the treaty and the credit rules, but the credit is claimed on the return and the asset is disclosed on the return; one does not stand in for the other. This trips up people who think of a foreign salary account or a foreign pension as already settled. Report the asset in the schedule, report the income under the appropriate head, and claim the credit with the evidence of foreign tax kept on file behind it.
What should I do if I missed Schedule FA in an earlier year?
Deal with it deliberately and early. Non-disclosure of foreign assets is handled under a separate statute from ordinary tax law, with its own assessment powers and its own penalties, so the ordinary way of thinking about a small omission does not apply. Establish first what was actually held and when, in writing. Then take a view on each year, correct what can still be corrected by the route available for that year, and keep the evidence of what was held and what was declared elsewhere. A partial correction that raises a question it does not answer is the outcome to avoid.
I am moving back to India, when do foreign assets start being reported?
The obligation follows residence, so the answer turns on the year in which you become resident under India's day-count tests and, for someone returning after a long absence, on the transitional status that can apply to a person who has been non-resident for a run of years. Getting the first year right matters more than any other, because it sets the baseline against which information received from abroad is matched. Before the move, list the accounts, holdings and policies you hold abroad and note what each is worth and where it is held.
Will the tax department already know about my overseas accounts?
Assume so. Financial institutions in most countries report accounts held by residents of other countries to their own authorities, which pass the information on automatically. That is why the schedule works as a reconciliation rather than a confession: what you declare is matched against what has been received, and the queries that follow are usually about a mismatch rather than a discovery. A complete schedule carrying the same identifiers, balances and account names the foreign institution holds is what keeps a routine match from turning into an enquiry.
Is my Indian provident fund or PPF still tax-free now that I live abroad?
The exemption is an Indian one, and it does not travel. Your new country of residence taxes worldwide income under its own rules, and several — the United States in particular — may treat the annual growth in a foreign retirement or savings plan as currently taxable and separately reportable, whether or not you withdrew anything. So an account that is genuinely tax-free in India can be a taxable, reportable asset where you now live. See Indian pensions received abroad.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
