India has always been the most rewarding and sought after destination for investments for NRIs due to higher interest rates and growth potential. However, their experience may not be excellent mainly due to theirs or their advisors’ ignorance of rules and regulations specific to NRIs for investments or taxation or both. […]
With FCNR rates regulated by RBI and volatile foreign currency market, a lot of banks have introduced and are marketing products for NRIs to generate more return on FCNR deposits. While there are catchy names used for the plans by various banks, like RupeeMax (HDFC Bank), Rupee Advantage Plan (Kotak), FCNB […]
On February 28, Indian Budget 2013 was presented in the Parliament. I have selected 15 major proposals that could affect NRIs and have analyzed them as follows: 1. Tax credit of Rs. 2,000 for Individuals with income upto 5 lakhs: The budget proposes to give tax credit of Rs. 2,000 to […]
FATCA Basics: The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), enacted in 2010, is an important development in U.S. efforts to combat tax evasion by U.S. persons holding investments in offshore (out of USA) accounts. Under FATCA, 1. U.S. taxpayers holding financial assets outside the United States must report those assets to […]
Individual Mutual Fund Investors, who completed KYC prior to Jan. 1, 2012, are required to submit ‘missing/not available’ KYC (Know Your Customer) information and complete the IPV (In Person Verification) for investing in a new mutual fund after Nov. 30, 2012. SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) vide circular MIRSD/SE/Cir-21/2011 […]
A lot of NRIs have shown interest in transferring funds from NRO to NRE since the notification came out on May 7, 2012. However, very few have actually transferred funds. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness or experience in newly issued notification in case of NRIs, Banks as […]
On July 31, 2012, RBI has revised its guidelines related to EEFC (Export Earners’ Foreign Currency) Account vide notification RBI/2012-13/151 A. P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 12. As per revised guidelines, credit of 100% foreign exchange earnings to the EEFC account is allowed subject to the condition that the sum total of the accruals in […]
In less than 7 weeks since we started tracking visitors on our 2 month old blog, without any promotion, our blog has witnessed Over 1,500 reads Visitors from 53 countries Visitors from every part of the world and ALL continents Average daily 30 quality visitors (any visit less than 120 seconds does not count) […]
On July 18, 2012, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) vide notifications RBI/2012-13/136 and 137, DBOD.Dir.BC. 29 and 30/13.03.00/2012-13 withdrew the discretion given to banks to allow the benefit of additional interest rate of one per cent per annum on NRE, NRO and FCNR (B) deposit accounts. Banks in India offer benefit of additional […]
CBEC (Central Board of Excise and Customs) Circular No. 163/14/2012 –ST dated July 10, 2012 clarified that there is no service tax per se on the amount of foreign currency remitted to India from overseas. This is a good news for NRIs as they will not be charged any service tax on money […]