Nassau taxes none of your income. India still does.
The Bahamas has no personal income tax and no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with India, only a 2011 tax information exchange agreement. Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest bears 30% tax deducted at source (TDS). The Bahamas never taxes Indian income, leaving only India's tax. An Indian return refunds TDS above slab tax, Form 128 (formerly Form 13) cuts property sale TDS, and Form 145/146 (formerly 15CA/15CB) clears NRO remittances.
No DTAA. But a lot of other work you still need help with.
ITR filing, Form 13 lower-TDS, tax notices, repatriation, Section 91 relief. That's where we help.
about 350 (MEA, January 2026: 330 NRIs and 20 PIOs)
Indians in The Bahamas
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Bahamas NRIs. Your whole India tax life
DTAA refund recovery is our flagship, but it's one of many things our ICAI-registered CAs handle for Bahamas NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from Bahamas with no India trip.
NRI ITR filing
Our CAs file your ITR-2 / ITR-3 from abroad
DTAA TDS recovery
Cut 30% NRO TDS to your treaty rate, recover past years
Property sale (Form 13)
Cut the 12.5% TDS before you sell
Tax notices
Section 148 / 143 / 245 replies, handled
Repatriation (15CA / 15CB)
Move funds out without bank friction
Inherited property
Cost step-up, sale and repatriation
Form 10F / TRC
Treaty-rate paperwork, end-to-end
No DTAA, here's what we still do
India and Bahamas have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
The Bahamas has no personal income tax. Your Bahamian salary bears only National Insurance, and Indian interest, dividends, rent, and gains are untaxed there. India and The Bahamas have no comprehensive Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). Their 2011 agreement only lets the two governments exchange tax information on request. India's default tax deducted at source (TDS) applies in full at 30% on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. With zero Bahamian tax, there is no double tax to relieve. Only Indian tax applies, and an Indian income tax return (ITR) refunds TDS above your actual liability.
Form 13 lower-TDS
Apply for a lower (or nil) TDS certificate before your bank/buyer deducts. The cleanest way to avoid the 30% hit at source.
Section 91 unilateral relief
If you've already paid Nigerian tax on the same income, claim foreign tax credit in your Indian ITR under Section 91, the only relief route when there's no treaty.
15CA / 15CB repatriation
Move funds out of your NRO account to your overseas account, properly documented and CA-certified. Required by every Indian bank.
ITR filing for NRIs
Annual return, past-year condonation, Form 67 for foreign tax credits, capital gains, property sale TDS reconciliation, the bread-and-butter NRI work.
Tax notice response
Section 148 reassessments, Section 143(1) intimations, AIS mismatches, demand notices. We respond with the right legal grounds before deadlines slip.
No treaty rate to chase. But there's real money in doing the rest right.
Bahamas NRIs we work with usually save more from a clean Form 13 + ITR than a treaty rate would have given them anyway. A CA who knows The Bahamas makes the difference.
Talk to a Bahamas-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Hypothetical example: Rohan, 41, from Mumbai, has worked for six years on a work permit as a compliance manager at a bank in Nassau. The Bahamas taxes none of his income. He holds ₹15L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits (FDs) from before he left, ₹2L in NRO savings, and is redeeming ₹1.5L from an ₹8L Indian equity mutual fund. His bank deducts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on the interest and no treaty can lower it, so he files an Indian income tax return (ITR) to recover TDS above his slab tax.
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any Bahamastax you've paid on the same income. Done right, the first time.
Form 13 / Section 197
Selling property in India? A lower-TDS certificate drops your TDS from 12.5% of the full sale price down to the actual gain. On a ₹1 crore sale, that's often ₹15-20 lakh of cash-flow.
Tax notices, end-to-end
148, 143(1), 143(2), 245, 139(9). We draft the reply, file on the portal, attend the hearing, follow up to closure. Under Section 288 authorized representation.
Repatriation (15CA/15CB)
Moving money from India back to Bahamas. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Bahamas NRI with Typically an NRE account fed by salary transfers, ₹10-30L in NRE or NRO fixed deposits, mutual fund SIPs, and often a flat in an Indian metro. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in The Bahamas. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from Bahamas, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Ministry of Finance, The Bahamas
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in The Bahamas
Not needed for Indian TDS. With no India-Bahamas DTAA there is no treaty rate to claim, so a tax residency certificate (TRC) and Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) change nothing at your Indian bank. The Bahamas has also not launched an individual tax residency certificate: the government has planned one for years, but Bahamian press reported it still pending in January 2026. To recover excess Indian TDS, file an Indian ITR.
Don't want to deal with Ministry of Finance, The Bahamas yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Bahamas NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles Bahamas-India tax every week?
Free 15-minute call. We tell you what you can recover and what it takes.
Senior CA who specialises in NRI tax · we deal with the tax officer, you don't
Things Bahamas NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in The Bahamas face
We work with the Indian community in The Bahamas every day. These are the traps that cost real money.
No Bahamas treaty rate applies to Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest without an India-Bahamas Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). The Income Tax Department lists only a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) signed at Nassau on 11 February 2011, in force 1 March 2011, capping no tax deducted at source (TDS).
File an Indian income tax return (ITR) each year to recover tax deducted at source (TDS) above your Indian slab tax. Zero income tax in The Bahamas means your Indian income is taxed only once, in India, with nothing to declare or credit on a Bahamian return.
Plan property or share sales with a chartered accountant. Without residence-based tax in The Bahamas, Indian citizens with Indian income (excluding foreign-source income) above ₹15 lakh in a tax year are deemed resident (not ordinarily resident, section 6(13)) under section 6(7) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (formerly section 6(1A)).
Hold Indian savings in Non-Resident External (NRE) or Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) deposits where possible. Their interest is tax-free in India and untaxed in The Bahamas, so it is taxed nowhere. Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest bears 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) until you file.
National Insurance is your only Bahamian deduction, applying only to wages, never Indian income. From 1 July 2026, employees pay 4.65% and employers 6.65% up to B$830 weekly. India and The Bahamas have no social security agreement, so National Insurance and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) periods never combine.
Plan transfers home through your bank around exchange control in The Bahamas. The Central Bank uses exchange control to hold the Bahamian dollar's one-to-one peg to the US dollar. Work permit holders are temporary residents who may keep foreign currency accounts for funds from abroad and repatriate assets on leaving.
Before registering an Indian flat sale from Nassau, get Form 128 (formerly Form 13) under Section 395 (formerly Section 197) for buyer tax deducted at source (TDS). Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) repatriation needs Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA), plus chartered accountant certificate Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) above ₹5 lakh taxable.
Use an apostille on documents from The Bahamas for Indian banks and registrars. The Bahamas has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since independence in 1973, and India since 2005, so an apostille validates Bahamian papers in India.
Questions from Bahamas NRIs
Everything Indians in The Bahamas ask us
6+ answers. Hover on dotted terms for plain-English explanations.
The exceptions that change the answer
Where the general rule stops applying to you
Every rule below has a carve-out, a cut-off date or a condition that flips the answer. These are the ones that decide real cases.
FCNR(B) deposit tenure
Right now: 1 to 5 years; term deposits only, no savings variant
Where it works differently
- The holder returns to India permanently
- The deposit may run to maturity, then converts to RFC. Interest stays exempt while the holder is RNOR.
- Master Direction on Deposits and Accounts.
- Premature withdrawal before 12 months
- No interest is payable.
- Standard RBI condition on FCNR(B).
Commonly got wrong
- FCNR accounts work like a savings account. FCNR(B) is a term deposit only, 1 to 5 years.FCNR(B) is a fixed deposit in foreign currency, one to five years. There is no FCNR savings account.
Deemed residence: Indian income threshold
Right now: Rs 15 lakh
Where it works differently
- The person is liable to tax in any other country
- s.6(1A) does not apply at all.
- The provision targets stateless-for-tax individuals only.
- s.6(1A) applies
- The person is RNOR, not ordinarily resident. Foreign income is not taxed in India.
- s.6(6)(d).
Commonly got wrong
- Gulf NRIs earning over Rs 15 lakh in India become fully taxable on worldwide income. They become RNOR, so foreign income remains outside the Indian net.Say 'deemed resident but RNOR, Indian income only'.
EPF withdrawal exemption: continuous service
Right now: 5 years of continuous service
Where it works differently
- Service is under 5 years
- Four components are taxed separately: employer contribution and its interest as salary, employee contribution previously claimed under 80C reversed, and interest on employee contribution as other sources.
- Rule 8 of Part A of the Fourth Schedule.
- Employment ended for reasons beyond the employee's control
- The 5-year condition is relaxed.
- Proviso to Rule 8.
- The account is inoperative
- Interest continues to accrue and is taxable once the member leaves service.
- Settled position; a live issue for NRIs with dormant accounts.
Commonly got wrong
- EPF withdrawal is always tax-free. Only after 5 years of continuous service.An EPF withdrawal is tax-free only after five years of continuous service. Below five years, four separate components become taxable in different heads.
EPF interest that becomes taxable on high contributions
Right now: Interest on employee contributions above Rs 2,50,000 a year is taxable (Rs 5,00,000 where the employer makes no contribution)
Where it works differently
- The member is an NRI with a dormant account
- Interest continues to accrue, and an account becomes inoperative after 36 months without contribution, at which point the interest is taxable in India.
- EPF Scheme rules plus settled tax treatment.
- The member has left India
- Indian tax on that interest still applies as India-sourced income, and the residence country may tax it too.
- s.9 read with the relevant treaty.
Commonly got wrong
- All EPF interest is tax-free. Interest on employee contributions above Rs 2.5 lakh a year has been taxable since FY 2021-22.Interest is tax-free up to Rs 2.5 lakh of employee contribution a year (Rs 5 lakh where the employer does not contribute). Above that it is taxable.
No treaty. No shortcut.
Plenty we can still do.
ITR filing. Form 13 lower-TDS on property sales. Tax notices, repatriation, Section 91 unilateral relief. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA who knows The Bahamas.
More for Indians in The Bahamas
Friends & neighbours
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