Remittance of funds for NRIs
More than 35% of investors on the PropShare platform are non-resident Indians. Our NRI investors come from countries as diverse as the Middle East, US, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Africa among others. Common questions that NRI investors have revolve around transfer and repatriation of investment funds.
Transfer of funds for Investment
As an NRI investor you can transfer funds from your Non Resident Rupee (NRE) account or Non Resident Ordinary Rupee (NRO) account. This can be done through normal banking channels like NEFT, RTGS and IMPS.
An important point to remember here is that transfer must always be made in INR. As per RBI guidelines transfer cannot be made in foreign currency directly. This will be treated as FDI and will come under FDI / FEMA regulations. If the investor wants to transfer foreign currency, he/she will have to convert the foreign currency or ask the bank to convert the currency into the Rupee equivalent amount before transferring to our investment accounts.
In case you transfer from your NRE account, the amount can be refunded back to you into the same NRE bank account in case of cancellation of investment. RBI through its Master Circular No. 4/2015-16 dt. 01/07/2015 (Master Circular on Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property in India by NRIs/PIOs/Foreign Nationals of Non-Indian Origin) allows return of property purchase consideration in case of cancellation to an NRE account provided the original payment was made out of the NRE account.
Remittance of rent and sale proceeds
RBI does not allow any income received in India to be deposited into an NRE or foreign currency account. This is because amounts in NRE accounts are freely repatriable in foreign currency. All rents and sale distributions received from PropShare investments can therefore only be made into the NRO account of the NRI investor.
However, the investor can then repatriate such rent and sale proceeds upto $1 million (c. Rs. 7 crores) to his/her NRE account by following a few simple steps:
Step 1: Get a certificate under Form 15CB from any practicing Chartered Accountant in India verifying that the money being remitted has been acquired through legal sources on which taxes have been duly paid
Step 2: File form 15CA online with the tax department
Step 3: Fill and submit RBI Form A2
Note: Form 15CB is not necessary if the remittance is less than Rs. 5,00,000 (five lakhs).
Once submitted, your bank will transfer the funds from your domestic NRO account to your NRE account.
At PropShare our tax team will guide you through every step of this process and help file these forms through our Chartered Accountants so you can rest easy and enjoy the returns from your investments.