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Form 15CA and 15CB: which one applies
Rule 37BB has four parts and an exemption, and only one of the five routes needs a chartered accountant's certificate. Answer four questions and this works out which applies, and what has to happen in what order. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
The branch gets taken wrongly in both directions. Banks ask for a Form 15CB on remittances that need none, and remitters file a Part D on sums that were plainly chargeable and treat the matter as closed — which it is not, because section 201 follows the remitter rather than the recipient. The practice note is here: Your bank wants a Form 15CB. Rule 37BB often does not.
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1. What is being remitted, and why
Rule 37BB starts by asking whether the remittance is inside it at all.
The common case, and the one banks will not process without the forms.
2. Is the sum chargeable to tax in India?
Everything else follows from this. It depends on the character of the payment, on the treaty, and on whether the recipient has a permanent establishment here.
A remittance of this kind is usually chargeable — a starting position, not an answer.
Including this one. The ₹5,00,000 test is on the year’s total, not on the single payment — four remittances of ₹2 lakh are over it.
3. What has to be filed
Not yet determined
Chargeability has to be settled first
Everything after this turns on whether the sum is chargeable to tax in India, which depends on the nature of the payment, the treaty, and whether the recipient has a permanent establishment here.
In this order
- Establish the character of the payment under the Act and under the treaty.
- Obtain the recipient’s Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F where treaty relief is claimed.
- Take a no-permanent-establishment declaration where the treaty article requires one.
- Then return to this question: the rest of the tree follows from it in one step.
This is the question worth paying for. Whether a sum is chargeable decides the form, the deduction and the exposure if it is wrong. A Part D filed on a sum that was in fact chargeable leaves the remitter liable for the tax under Sec. 201, with interest, and the remittance has already gone.
Before you rely on this
The specified list runs to thirty-three entries and the menu above carries the common ones. A purpose that is not listed here is not thereby outside the list, so check the purpose code against the Rule before concluding that nothing is required.
Banks frequently ask for a Form 15CB where the Rule does not require one. That is the bank’s own practice rather than the law, and it is worth saying so before commissioning a certificate that nothing calls for.
Where treaty relief is claimed, a Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F are needed, and the treaty article will usually want a no-permanent-establishment declaration alongside them.
A working aid, not advice. Chargeability turns on facts and on the treaty, and this page decides neither.
The certificate is a position, not a formality
A Form 15CB states a rate and the basis for it, including the treaty article where one is relied on. Signing it means having read the contract, the residency evidence and the permanent-establishment position — which is also what the answer to the question above depends on. Where the remittance follows a property sale, the two exercises are best sequenced together rather than discovered in order.
NRI Tax & Repatriation Call — 45 minutes, ₹7,500 + gst. A written note after the call setting out the position taken, the forms required, and the order to file them in.