Repatriating sale proceeds: pick the lane before you sell

Which lane is yours?

Trace the purchase money. If the property was acquired per FEMA with funds remitted from abroad or debited to NRE/FCNR(B) accounts, the direct lane opens: an authorised-dealer bank may remit sale proceeds up to the amount of foreign exchange paid in — the principal, in effect — with the excess (appreciation, that is) joining the NRO lane. Two conditions ride along: the acquisition itself must have been lawful, and for residential property this direct repatriation is available for no more than two such properties.

Everything without a foreign-funding trail — property bought in rupees while resident, gifted property, and the inherited Palwal holdings that fill NRI files here — sells into your NRO account and exits under the USD 1 million scheme.

How does the USD 1 million scheme actually work?

Per NRI or OCI, per financial year (April to March), an AD bank may remit up to USD 1 million out of NRO balances or sale/inheritance proceeds, for any bona fide purpose, on documentary evidence of how the asset arose and certification that Indian tax is settled. The ceiling is per person, not per property — a couple holding jointly effectively doubles it — and it refreshes each April, so large exits are often staged across two financial years by design. Beyond the ceiling, prior RBI approval is the only lane, and it is genuinely exceptional.

What paperwork moves the money?

The bank's file does: sale deed and proof of how you acquired the property (purchase trail, will, succession), the TDS story from the selling guide reconciled against your PAN, and the tax-reporting forms in their new numbering — Form 145 (the old 15CA) with, for taxable remittances above ₹5 lakh, the chartered accountant's certificate on Form 146 (the old 15CB). Banks differ in appetite, not in law; a complete file makes any AD bank brave.

How long does the bank leg actually take?

With a complete file, the authorised dealer's leg is measured in days to a few weeks: certificates lodged, checks run, remittance out. Every missing link in the funding trail converts days into months — the 2009 purchase paid partly from a since-closed account, the TDS certificate the buyer never downloaded, the deed file a decade of moves scattered. So run the exit like the professionals run it: start assembling the file when the deed is being drafted, not when the sale proceeds land; get the chartered accountant's computation moving alongside the buyer's TDS compliance; and keep one binder — deed, payment evidence, TDS trail, bank statements, the CA forms — as a single PDF the bank can walk through once. The remittance is never the hard part; the biography of the money is.

What paperwork actually moves the money?

The transfer happens at your bank — the authorised dealer — and the bank moves on certificates, not assurances. The working set: the chartered accountant's certification of the remittance's tax position on the prescribed forms (Form 146 with its companion Form 145 under the new Income-tax Act — the successors to the old 15CB and 15CA), the sale deed and the TDS trail showing tax already withheld at source, and the funding history that says which rule your remittance travels under. That last item is the one only you can supply: the NRO route runs under the USD one-million-per-financial-year window of the RBI's remittance directions, while sale proceeds of a property bought with NRE/foreign funds travel under the repatriation-of-assets provisions with their own conditions — including the well-known cap for residential houses. The cleaner your decade-old paper trail, the shorter this paragraph is at your bank.

• CA certification on the prescribed forms (146/145 — the old 15CB/15CA pair).
• Sale deed, TDS certificates, and the tax computation behind them.
• Funding trail: which account class bought the asset, with bank evidence.
• Route declaration: NRO USD 1M/FY window, or NRE-funded repatriation on its conditions.

The repatriation checklist

1. Identify the lane from the purchase-money trail — before pricing the sale.
2. Count prior direct-lane residential repatriations against the two-property cap.
3. Settle TDS correctly (Form 128 certificate where due) and reconcile credits.
4. Prepare Forms 145/146 with your CA; keep acquisition evidence ready.
5. Stage across financial years where proceeds exceed USD 1 million.