Non residents are not required to fill schedule FA in Income tax return

As per the Income tax Act Non resident and Resident but not ordinary resident also need to file their return of income if the income earned from India exceeds Rs. 2.5 lakh during a year.

Hence there is confusion many a times in the mind of many NRI of what information they need to provide in the income tax return. Whether they need to mention their foreign income under exempt income and whether they need to disclose the assets held by them in foreign countries.

In this post we’ll discuss these questions.

As Per Income tax Act, Non resident only need to pay tax in India only for income received or deemed to receive or accrue and deemed to accrue in India.

Resident but not ordinary resident needs to pay tax on the income covered above plus income of business or profession earned outside India but controlled from India.

You can read more HERE.

Now, with regard to filling details in schedule FA let’s first discuss what’s schedule FA.

Schedule FA contains the following details in a tabular manner:

In tables A1 to G, one needs to furnish the details of foreign assets or accounts of the following nature, held at any time during the relevant accounting period:-
 Table A1 – Foreign depository accounts
 Table A2 – Foreign custodian accounts
 Table A3 – Foreign equity and debt interest
 Table A4 – Foreign cash value insurance contract or annuity contract
 Table B – Financial interest in any entity outside India
 Table C – Any immovable property outside India
 Table D – Any other capital assets outside India.
 Table E – Any other account located outside India in which you are a signing authority (which is not reported in tables A1 to D)
 Table F – Trust created outside India in which you are a trustee, a beneficiary or settlor
 Table G – Any other income derived from any foreign source (which is not reported in tables A1 to F)

As per instructions issued by CBDT for filing ITR -2 it has been mentioned that only resident needs to fill details under Schedule FA.

Thus it is clear that if you are an NRI for any year in India you are not required to provide details of foreign assets held by you in your income tax return.

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