Form 15CA and Form 15CB: When Sending Money Abroad Needs a CA Certificate (AY 2026-27)

Most people meet Form 15CA for the first time at a bank counter. You want to transfer money to your daughter's university abroad, or repatriate sale proceeds to an NRI seller, and the relationship manager asks for "15CA-CB" before releasing the transfer. At that point it is rarely clear whether the form is genuinely required by law, or whether the bank is simply being cautious.

The distinction matters, because one of these forms needs a chartered accountant and the other one often does not need to be filed at all. Here is how the rule actually works for individuals in FY 2025-26.

What These Two Forms Are

Both forms come from Section 195(6) of the Income-tax Act, read with Rule 37BB. The idea is simple: when money leaves India for a non-resident, the government wants to know whether Indian tax was due on that payment, and whether it was deducted.

Form 15CA is a declaration by the remitter (you). It is filed online on the income tax e-filing portal, before the remittance.

Form 15CB is a certificate by a chartered accountant. The CA examines the nature of the payment, the applicable section, any DTAA relief, and certifies the rate and amount of tax deducted.

Form 15CB is not always needed. Form 15CA is not always needed either. Which one applies depends entirely on two things: who is remitting, and whether the payment is chargeable to tax in India.

The Exemption Most Individuals Miss

Rule 37BB(3) carves out two situations where no Form 15CA at all is required:

1. The remittance is made by an individual and does not require prior approval of the RBI under Section 5 of FEMA read with Schedule III of the Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.
2. The remittance falls in the specified list of 33 purposes in Rule 37BB.

The first limb is the one that covers most households. Transfers made by a resident individual within the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) limit of USD 250,000 per financial year do not need prior RBI approval. So an individual sending tuition fees, family maintenance to a relative abroad, travel money, medical expenses, a gift, or funds to their own overseas investment account is outside Form 15CA entirely.

The second limb covers remittances such as advance payment or payment against imports, personal gifts and donations, remittance towards business or pilgrimage travel, and remittance of tax payments. These are exempt for any remitter, not just individuals.

What is not exempt, and this is where individuals genuinely get caught:

• Buying immovable property in India from an NRI seller and remitting the consideration
• Paying rent to an NRI landlord and repatriating it from the NRO account
• Paying an NRI for professional services, commission, royalty or interest on a loan
• Repatriating balances from an NRO account (banks operate the USD 1 million per FY route on the strength of 15CA and 15CB)
• Any remittance that crosses the LRS ceiling and therefore needs RBI approval

If your transaction is on that second list, the bank is right to ask. If it is an ordinary LRS transfer, you can point to Rule 37BB(3)(i), though in practice many banks have an internal policy of collecting the forms regardless.

The Four Parts of Form 15CA

When Form 15CA is required, you do not fill the whole form. You fill exactly one part, decided by the amount and the taxability of the payment.

The Rs 5 lakh threshold is an aggregate for the financial year, not a per-transaction test. Three remittances of Rs 2 lakh each to the same non-resident for taxable income put the third one into Part C territory.

Worked Example

Rohit buys a flat in Pune for Rs 95 lakh from an NRI seller. Because the seller is a non-resident, TDS falls under Section 195, not Section 194-IA, and the long-term rate of 12.5% plus applicable surcharge and cess applies to the capital gain, or to the full consideration if no lower-deduction certificate is produced.

Rohit's compliance chain looks like this:

1. Obtain a TAN (Section 195 deductions cannot be reported on PAN)
2. Deduct TDS and deposit it by the 7th of the following month
3. Get Form 15CB from a CA certifying the section, rate and DTAA position
4. File Form 15CA Part C, quoting the 15CB acknowledgement number
5. File quarterly Form 27Q and issue Form 16A to the seller

Skipping step 3 and 4 does not reduce his TDS liability, but it does expose him to a separate penalty. Our guide on buying property from an NRI seller walks through the TDS computation in detail.

How to File It on the Portal

Form 15CB has to be filed before Form 15CA Part C, because Part C asks for the 15CB acknowledgement number.

Step 1: Add your CA. Log in to the e-filing portal, go to Authorised Partners > My Chartered Accountant, add the CA's membership number, and assign Form 15CB to them.

Step 2: The CA files Form 15CB. The CA logs in with their own credentials, fills the remittance details, and submits using a digital signature certificate. A DSC is mandatory for 15CB.

Step 3: You accept and file Form 15CA. Go to e-File > Income Tax Forms > File Income Tax Forms, select Form 15CA, pick the part that applies, and submit with DSC or EVC.

Step 4: Give the bank the printouts. The authorised dealer bank needs the filed 15CA, the 15CB certificate, and Form A2 before processing the SWIFT transfer.

A filed Form 15CA can be withdrawn within 7 days of submission if the remittance does not go through or the details were wrong. Use that window rather than filing a fresh form with corrected details.

The Penalty for Getting It Wrong

Section 271-I imposes a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 for failing to furnish the information, or for furnishing inaccurate information, in Form 15CA. It is a flat amount, not a percentage, so a small remittance can attract a penalty larger than the payment itself.

Section 273B gives relief where there is a reasonable cause, but relying on that is a poor plan. Note also that this penalty is independent of the consequences of short deduction: interest under Section 201(1A) at 1% or 1.5% per month, and disallowance of the expense, apply separately.

DTAA Relief: What the Non-Resident Must Give You

Where a treaty reduces the rate, the CA issuing Form 15CB will ask for documentation before certifying the lower rate. The non-resident needs to provide:

• A Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) from their country of residence
• Form 10F, which is now mandatorily filed electronically on the Indian e-filing portal (the non-resident needs a PAN, or must use the limited non-PAN registration route)
• A no permanent establishment declaration, for business income claims

Without these, the CA will certify the higher domestic rate, and Section 206AA can push the rate to 20% where the payee has no PAN.

Do Not Confuse 15CA With TCS

These are two unrelated obligations that both apply to outward remittances, and they frequently get conflated.

So an individual remitting Rs 25 lakh to their own overseas brokerage account typically files no Form 15CA, but will still see 20% TCS on the amount above Rs 10 lakh. The TCS rules and how to claim the credit are worth reading before you plan a large transfer, because the cash flow impact is immediate even though the tax is fully recoverable.

If TCS has been collected on your remittances during the year, it shows up in Part B of Form 26AS and in your AIS. 49Tax reads those statements directly and maps the entries into Schedule TCS of your return, so the credit is not left unclaimed, which is the single most common way this money gets lost.

Key Takeaway

Before your next outward transfer, answer one question: is the money income of a non-resident that could be taxable in India? If it is your own money moving abroad under LRS, you are almost certainly exempt from Form 15CA under Rule 37BB(3)(i), and your only tax concern is claiming the TCS credit when you file. If it is a payment to an NRI for property, rent, services or interest, treat 15CB and 15CA Part C as part of the deal timeline, not an afterthought at the bank counter, and get the TAN and TRC organised before the money is due.