Belmopan taxes local pay only. India taxes your savings.
India and Belize have no tax treaty, only a 2013 information exchange agreement. Indian banks deduct 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest. Belize income tax covers only Belize employment income. An Indian return refunds TDS above slab tax, Form 128 (formerly Form 13) lowers property sale TDS, and Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA) and Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) clear NRO transfers.
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 803 (MEA, January 2026: 275 NRIs and 528 PIOs)
Indians in Belize
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Belize 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 Belize NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from Belize 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 Belize have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
India and Belize have no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA). Their 2013 tax information exchange agreement caps no rates, so Indian banks deduct default tax deducted at source (TDS) of 30% on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. Since Belize income tax covers only Belize employment income, employees and retirees normally owe no Belize tax on Indian interest, dividends, rent, or gains. File an Indian income tax return (ITR) to recover TDS above your slab tax. Non-Resident External (NRE) interest remains exempt in India.
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.
Belize 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 Belize makes the difference.
Talk to a Belize-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Hypothetical example: Kavita, 38, is an Indian citizen from Ahmedabad who has worked for six years as an accounts manager at a trading firm in the Corozal Free Trade Zone. She holds ₹15L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits from before she left, ₹3L in NRO savings, and redeems ₹2L each year from a ₹10L Indian equity mutual fund. Because there is no treaty, her bank deducts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on the interest. Belize taxes only her Belize salary, so she files an Indian income tax return (ITR) to recover TDS above her slab tax.
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any Belizetax 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 Belize. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Belize NRI with Sindhi trading families: NRO accounts, an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card and sometimes a family flat in Mumbai or Gujarat. Indian-citizen employees: an NRE account fed by dollar savings, ₹5-20L in NRO or NRE fixed deposits and mutual fund SIPs. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in Belize. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from Belize, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Belize Tax Service
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in Belize
Not needed for Indian TDS. A tax residency certificate (TRC) and Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) exist only to claim treaty rates, and India and Belize have no tax treaty, so your Indian bank will not ask for them. If another country ever asks for proof of Belize residence, apply to the Belize Tax Service. For income tax, Belize treats you as resident in a year if you spend more than 182 days there or are domiciled there (section 16(6)).
Don't want to deal with Belize Tax Service yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Belize NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles Belize-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 Belize NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in Belize face
We work with the Indian community in Belize every day. These are the traps that cost real money.
Plan for Indian banks deducting 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. With no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), only the 18 September 2013 Belmopan tax information exchange agreement, a tax residency certificate (TRC) or Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) changes nothing.
File an Indian income tax return (ITR) whenever you have tax deducted at source (TDS). Because Belize income tax covers only Belize employment income, you cannot credit Indian TDS against Belize tax. Filing an ITR is the only way to recover TDS above your Indian slab tax.
Check Belize business tax for shop owners and professionals. Gross receipts returns, due monthly by the 15th, include dividends (15%) and rents (3%); savings interest is exempt unless lending is your trade. Without treaty credit, ask the Belize Tax Service if Indian dividends or rent count.
Track two different tax years. Belize uses a calendar basis year, with income tax returns due by 31 March; employees earning only salary generally need not file. India's year runs April to March, with returns due 31 July. Match Indian tax deducted at source (TDS) certificates to each year.
Keep Indian and Belize records consistent. Under the 2013 agreement (Article 5), each tax authority can request bank information from the other, and both apply the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) multilateral convention on tax assistance (India from 1 June 2012, Belize from 1 September 2013).
Apply for a lower deduction certificate on Form 128 (formerly Form 13) under Section 395 (formerly Section 197) before registering an Indian flat sale. Without it, the buyer deducts tax deducted at source (TDS) on the full sale price rather than your actual gain.
Prepare compliance forms before sending funds to Belize. Up to USD 1 million a financial year can leave Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) balances, property sale proceeds, or inheritances. Each taxable transfer requires Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA), plus a chartered accountant's Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) above ₹5 lakh.
Use an apostille for Belize documents needed in India. Belize has applied the Hague Apostille Convention since 11 April 1993, and India since 14 July 2005. Because India's 20 social security agreements exclude Belize, Belize Social Security and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) periods remain separate.
Questions from Belize NRIs
Everything Indians in Belize 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.
NRO account: what it costs and what it caps
Right now: Interest taxed at 30% plus surcharge and cess; repatriation capped at USD 1 million a financial year
Where it works differently
- A TRC and Form 10F (Form 41 from 1 Apr 2026) are furnished
- The treaty rate applies to the interest, commonly 10-15% under Article 11 instead of 30% plus surcharge.
- s.90(2). This is the single largest recurring recovery item for most NRIs.
- Remitting out
- Form 15CA is needed, plus Form 15CB from a CA where the remittance is chargeable and above Rs 5 lakh in the year.
- Rule 37BB.
- Joint holders
- The USD 1 million ceiling is per person per financial year, so joint holders each have their own.
- FEMA 13(R).
Commonly got wrong
- NRO interest is taxed at 30%. Incomplete. Surcharge and 4% cess sit on top, and a treaty can cut it to 10-15%.30% plus surcharge and cess by default, but 10-15% under most treaties if you hold a TRC and file Form 10F.
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.
TDS rate when buying property from an NRI
Right now: 12.5% plus surcharge and cess on LTCG
Where it works differently
- The gain is short-term
- TDS is at the applicable slab rate, effectively 30% plus surcharge and cess for most NRI sellers.
- s.195 requires deduction at 'rates in force' for the actual character of the income.
- No lower-deduction certificate is obtained
- TDS applies to the ENTIRE SALE CONSIDERATION, not to the gain.
- s.195 operates on the sum paid unless the AO determines otherwise. This is the whole commercial case for Form 13 / Form 128.
- There are joint NRI sellers
- TDS is deducted separately against each seller's PAN in their ownership proportion.
- Rule 37BA. Deducting entirely against one PAN strands the other's credit.
- The buyer deducts 1% under s.194-IA
- Wrong section. The buyer becomes an assessee-in-default under s.201 for the shortfall plus 1% per month interest and penalty under s.271C.
- s.194-IA applies only where the seller is a RESIDENT.
Commonly got wrong
- TDS on property purchase is 1% over Rs 50 lakh. That is s.194-IA, for RESIDENT sellers only. For a non-resident seller it is s.195 at the full capital-gains rate, with no threshold.1% applies only if the seller is a resident. NRI seller means s.195 at 12.5% plus surcharge and cess on the whole consideration unless a certificate is obtained.
- The buyer files Form 26QB. 26QB (Form 141 from 1 April 2026) was for s.194-IA resident sellers. Until 30 September 2026 an NRI-seller purchase needed a TAN and Form 27Q (Form 144 from 1 April 2026). From 1 October 2026 a resident individual or HUF buyer uses Form 141's new Schedule E against their PAN, but still deducts at the s.195 / s.393(2) rate, not 1%.Buying from an NRI, you deduct at the full capital-gains rate, not 1%. If you pay on or after 1 October 2026 and you are a resident individual or HUF, you report it on Form 141 Schedule E against your PAN and give the seller Form 132; no TAN is needed. Payments before that date needed a TAN and Form 27Q or Form 144.
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 Belize.
More for Indians in Belize
Friends & neighbours
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