Repatriating property sale proceeds from India: the USD 1 million rule, the NRO route, and Forms 15CA/15CB

Many NRI sellers do everything right on the tax side — the buyer deducts TDS under Section 195, the return is filed, the capital-gains liability is settled — and then discover the money will not leave the country. Sale proceeds sitting in an Indian bank account cannot be wired abroad on demand. Repatriation runs through a specific route: the funds sit in a Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account, a chartered accountant certifies that tax has been paid, a declaration is filed with the Income Tax Department, and only then does the authorised dealer bank release the remittance. None of these steps can be improvised at the counter after the sale closes. Plan the route before the sale, not after.

Two repatriation routes, and which one applies to you

The FEMA framework provides two distinct channels for moving property sale proceeds out of India. Which one applies depends on how the property was originally acquired.

• The original-remittance route. Where the property was bought using foreign exchange received through banking channels, or from an NRE or FCNR(B) account, the sale proceeds can be repatriated up to the amount originally paid in foreign exchange for the property. For residential property, the RBI Master Direction limits this repatriation to not more than two such properties. A precondition applies: the property must have been acquired in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time of acquisition.
• The USD 1 million NRO route. Everything else — property bought with rupee or NRO funds, property received by inheritance, or proceeds exceeding the original foreign-exchange remittance — is repatriated through the general remittance-of-assets limit of USD 1 million per financial year from the NRO account.

The USD 1 million per financial year rule

Under the Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, 2016, an NRI or OCI cardholder may remit up to USD 1 million per financial year — April to March — out of balances held in an NRO account. Those balances include property sale proceeds credited to the account. The limit is aggregate: it covers rent, dividends, pension, and any other NRO income repatriated in the same year, not the property proceeds alone.

Repatriation above USD 1 million in a single financial year requires specific approval from the Reserve Bank of India, applied for through the authorised dealer bank. A seller with proceeds well over that figure who needs the full amount abroad quickly should factor this approval — and its timing — into the plan before completing the sale, or spread the remittance across financial years.

The route also assumes the underlying holding is lawful. The requirement that the property was acquired in accordance with the foreign exchange law in force at the time of acquisition is where an irregular original purchase surfaces — often years later, when the bank asks for the acquisition trail.

Form 15CB and Form 15CA — now Forms 146 and 145

No authorised dealer bank will process an outward remittance from an NRO account without the income-tax forms that confirm tax has been accounted for. Two forms work together:

• Form 15CB — a chartered accountant's certificate stating the nature of the remittance, whether it is taxable, and that the applicable tax has been deducted or paid. It is required where the remittance is taxable and the amount exceeds ₹5 lakh in the financial year.
• Form 15CA — the remitter's own declaration, filed online on the Income Tax e-filing portal, quoting the CA certificate details. It must be filed before the remittance is made.

The repatriation process, step by step

1. Confirm the sale proceeds are credited to your NRO account. Proceeds that land in a lapsed resident savings account create an avoidable compliance problem.
2. Settle the tax. Ensure the buyer's TDS deducted under Section 195 is deposited and reflected against your PAN, and pay any balance capital-gains tax due.
3. Engage a chartered accountant to examine the transaction and issue Form 15CB (Form 146 from 1 April 2026).
4. File Form 15CA (Form 145 from 1 April 2026) online on the Income Tax portal, quoting the CA certificate.
5. Submit the remittance application to your authorised dealer bank — Form A2, the bank's outward-remittance request, the CA certificate and the online declaration, and the source-of-funds documents.
6. The bank verifies eligibility against the USD 1 million limit and the acquisition condition, then executes the outward remittance to your overseas account.

Documents the bank will ask for

• Registered sale deed for the property sold.
• Proof the property was acquired in accordance with FEMA — the original purchase deed and the payment trail; or, for inherited property, the will or succession certificate together with the death certificate.
• Form 15CB (or Form 146) — the chartered accountant's certificate.
• Acknowledgement of Form 15CA (or Form 145).
• Form A2 and the bank's outward-remittance application.
• NRO account statement showing the credited sale proceeds.
• PAN, passport, and OCI card as applicable.
• Evidence of TDS deduction (Form 16A / Form 26AS) and of any capital-gains tax paid.

The repatriation step sits at the end of a chain: a FEMA-compliant purchase, a correctly deducted TDS on the sale, and only then a clean remittance. Getting any earlier link wrong is what strands the money. PropWatch covers the purchase side and the seller-side TDS under Section 195 in the guides linked below.

SourceRBI Master Direction No. 12 — Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property under FEMA, 1999 (re-issued June 2022): repatriation of original remittance, two-residential-property limit, and the FEMA-compliant acquisition condition

SourceRBI Master Direction No. 13 — Remittance of Assets (Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, 2016): USD 1 million per financial year from NRO balances

SourceIncome Tax Department — Form 145 (replacing Form 15CA from 1 April 2026 under the Income Tax Rules, 2026); Form 146 replaces Form 15CB

SourcePropWatch — Can an NRI buy property in India? FEMA rules, documents and payment routes (the purchase side of this rule)

SourcePropWatch — TDS on sale of property by an NRI: rates, Form 27Q and the Section 197 lower-deduction certificate

SourcePropWatch — NRI or OCI inheriting agricultural land in India: what you can hold and who you can sell to