15CA and 15CB Are Gone: How an NRI Repatriates a Property Sale in 2026

Form 15CA and Form 15CB no longer exist. For remittances made on or after 1 April 2026, Form 15CA has been replaced by Form No. 145 and Form 15CB by Form No. 146, under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and Rule 220 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. An NRI selling property in India must clear five separate gates before foreign funds land: tax withheld at source by the buyer, the capital gains computation, the Form 145 declaration with a Form 146 accountant’s certificate where required, the authorised dealer’s FEMA undertaking, and the USD 1 million annual remittance ceiling. The tax gate and the FEMA gate are governed by different laws and different regulators. Clearing one does not clear the other, and this is where most sales stall.

TL;DR

•       Form No. 145 replaced Form 15CA and Form No. 146 replaced Form 15CB for remittances on or after 1 April 2026, per the Income Tax Department’s Form No. 145 guidance.

•       Failure to file Form 145, or filing inaccurate information in it, carries a penalty of up to ₹1 lakh under Section 462 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

•       An NRI or PIO may remit up to USD one million per financial year out of NRO balances or sale proceeds of assets, per the RBI Master Direction on Remittance of Assets. Anything above needs prior RBI approval.

•       Transfers from an NRO account into an NRE or SNRR account count inside that same USD one million window. Parking funds in an NRE account first does not create extra headroom.

•       Where the property was bought with foreign exchange, repatriation of sale proceeds is restricted to not more than two residential properties, per the RBI FAQ on Purchase of Immovable Property.

•       Form 10F has also been replaced, by Form No. 41, under Section 159(8) and Rule 75. Without it, and without a Tax Residency Certificate, a treaty rate claim fails.

Form 15CA Is Now Form 145, and Form 15CB Is Now Form 146

The Income Tax Department’s guidance states the purpose plainly. Form No. 145 provides details of foreign remittances chargeable to tax in India and enables the Department to track potentially taxable payments overseas. Rule 220 requires every person responsible for paying a non-resident or a foreign company to furnish this information before remitting.

This is not a renumbering exercise. The form was redrafted. Four changes matter to a property seller.

Aadhaar details have been removed for both the remitter and the recipient. A Tax Identification Number field has been added, and under Rule 217 it is mandatory where the recipient has no PAN. If you are an NRI without an Indian PAN claiming a treaty rate, you must supply your TIN from your country of residence along with your address, contact details and Tax Residency Certificate.

Assessing Officer certificate details have been removed from Part C. The logic is clean. If you hold a lower deduction certificate from an Assessing Officer, you file Part B, not Part C. The two were previously conflated on the form itself.

Rule 220 now permits electronic delivery of Form 145 to the authorised dealer. The printed copy handed across a bank counter is no longer required. In practice, banks are still catching up, and I would not assume your branch has updated its checklist.

Which Part of Form 145 You File, and Why Part C Is the Expensive One

Form No. 145 has four parts. Which one you file is decided by two questions: is the remittance chargeable to tax, and does it exceed ₹5 lakh in the tax year.

For any Bangalore property sale of consequence you are in Part B or Part C. A ₹12 crore sale is not fitting inside a ₹5 lakh threshold.

The choice between them is a real decision with a cost attached. Part C requires a chartered accountant to certify Form No. 146, which means professional fees and lead time. Part B requires a lower deduction certificate obtained from the Assessing Officer in advance, which means an application, a waiting period and an officer’s discretion.

Sellers who plan ahead go the Part B route, because the same certificate that lets them file Part B also cuts the tax withheld by the buyer at closing. On a ₹25 crore transaction that withholding can run to several crores held back at registration, as we set out in our stage-by-stage account of a Lavelle Road deal. Sellers who do not plan ahead end up in Part C, having already lost the use of a large sum for a year. Apply for the certificate well before you sign an agreement to sell, not after.

The withholding mechanics themselves are covered in our piece on TDS when an NRI sells property in India, and the rate that actually applies in our note on capital gains at 12.5 percent without indexation, which also explains why the 20 percent with indexation option is not available to a non-resident.

The penalty for getting this wrong is specific. Section 462 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 exposes a person who fails to submit Form No. 145, or who provides inaccurate information in it, to a penalty of up to ₹1 lakh.

Form 10F Has Been Replaced by Form No. 41

If you intend to claim a benefit under a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, the self-declaration is no longer Form 10F. Form No. 41 replaced it under Section 159(8) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, prescribed by Rule 75 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, filed electronically on the Income Tax e-filing portal alongside a Tax Residency Certificate issued by your home country’s tax authority.

This is the most common gap I see in sell-side files. Sellers assemble the sale deed, the capital gains working and the bank paperwork, then discover at the remittance stage that the treaty rate they budgeted for requires a certificate their home tax authority takes six to eight weeks to issue. The TRC comes from a foreign government, not from anyone in India, and nobody in the transaction can accelerate it. Start it before you list.

Why Moving Money From NRO to NRE Does Not Create Extra Headroom

This is the most expensive misunderstanding in NRI repatriation, and it costs sellers an entire financial year.

The common advice runs like this. Proceeds land in your NRO account, the NRO route is capped at USD one million a year, so move the money into your NRE account, because NRE funds are freely repatriable.

The RBI Master Direction closes that door explicitly. Authorised dealers may allow NRIs and PIOs, on submission of documentary evidence, to remit, including transfer to NRE and SNRR accounts, up to USD one million per financial year out of balances in their NRO accounts or sale proceeds of assets.

The transfer itself consumes the window. Moving ₹9 crore from NRO to NRE does not convert restricted money into free money. It spends roughly USD one million of your annual allowance to relocate funds between two accounts you already own. Sellers discover this when they attempt the second leg and the bank declines.

The distinction that actually matters is made at purchase, not at sale, and we set it out in full in our piece on which account funds your Bangalore property purchase and which one blocks your repatriation. Money originally paid in foreign exchange through banking channels, or from FCNR or NRE balances, can come back out on the foreign exchange route, capped at the amount originally paid and available for a maximum of two residential properties. Everything else queues in the USD one million line. Buyers still structuring a purchase should read the full FEMA, power of attorney and tax guide for NRIs buying in Bangalore before funding anything.

The Bank Undertaking That Consolidating Your NRO Accounts Breaks

Before releasing funds from an NRO account, the authorised dealer must obtain an undertaking from the account holder. The RBI prescribes its substance: that the remittance is sought to be made out of the remitter’s balances arising from legitimate receivables in India, and not by borrowing from any other person or a transfer from any other NRO account, and that if such is found to be the case the account holder renders himself liable for penal action under FEMA.

Read that second clause carefully, because it catches people who thought they were being organised.

An NRI holding three NRO accounts across three banks, who sweeps all three into one to make the remittance simpler, has just made a statement to the bank that is not true. The funds in the receiving account now include a transfer from another NRO account. The undertaking is signed under FEMA penal exposure.

The correct sequence is to remit from each NRO account separately, each within the aggregate annual ceiling, or to consolidate well before the sale and be able to document the origin of every rupee. The fortnight before remittance is the wrong time to tidy up your banking.

A Worked Example: A ₹12 Crore Sale With a Rupee-Funded Purchase

Assume an NRI sells a Bangalore apartment for ₹12 crore. The original purchase was funded from an NRO account with rupee income, so the foreign exchange route is unavailable and the entire proceeds queue in the USD one million window. Take an exchange rate of ₹88 to the US dollar.

•       Sale consideration: ₹12,00,00,000

•       Annual ceiling: USD 1,000,000, which at ₹88 equals ₹8,80,00,000

•       Remittable in financial year one: ₹8,80,00,000

•       Balance carried to financial year two: ₹12,00,00,000 minus ₹8,80,00,000 equals ₹3,20,00,000

The seller waits until the next 1 April to move the remaining ₹3.2 crore, and in the meantime that balance sits in India exposed to rupee movement.

There is a timing lever worth understanding. The ceiling runs by financial year, April to March. A sale completing and remitting in the second half of March draws on that year’s window and then draws on a fresh window within days. A sale completing in April waits eleven months for the next window. On a two-window transaction the difference between registering in late March and registering in early April is close to a year of currency exposure on several crores. Registration timing is usually negotiated around convenience. On a large NRI sale it should be negotiated around this.

The ceiling is aggregate across all your Indian assets, not per property. If you have already remitted rental income or mutual fund proceeds in the same financial year, that consumption reduces what remains for the sale.

Selling a Bangalore Property From Abroad?

The sequence above works when it starts early. It fails when a seller discovers at the remittance stage that a certificate takes eight weeks, or that a March registration date was worth a year of currency exposure. Sadhwani Real Estate Holdings has advised HNI and NRI sellers on Bangalore residential and commercial transactions since 1991, and we coordinate the timing between your chartered accountant, your authorised dealer and the buyer’s side so the paperwork moves in parallel with the sale rather than after it.

Speak to us about your sale
Enquire at sadhwani.co.in/contact and select Residential Sale or Investment Advisory on the enquiry form, or call +91 9845070013. Office: No. 66, Bella Vista, Lavelle Road, Bengaluru 560001.

You can also review our advisory services for NRIs and family offices.

^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}