No purchase deed? Here's how an NRI proves the property's cost.

Your Indian tax is on the gain, not on the sale price. The gain is what you sold for, minus what the property cost you. So the whole game is proving your cost. Get it wrong and you look like you gained the entire sale price, which inflates both your tax and the TDS.

Even with no purchase deed, you have real options:

Do this before you sell and the buyer withholds far less. Leave it, and lakhs sit locked with the tax department for the better part of a year.

For anything bought before 1 April 2001, the law lets you swap the old purchase price for the property's fair market value as on 1 April 2001. On an old flat that number is usually far higher than what you actually paid, so your taxable gain drops.

There is one guardrail. For land or a building, the 2001 value you claim cannot be higher than the stamp-duty (circle-rate) value of that property on 1 April 2001, where one exists. So it has to be a real number, not a hopeful one.

How you prove it: a valuation report from a government-registered valuer, cross-checked against the 2001 circle rate. Keep both. The valuer's report is not the last word, since the tax officer can order his own valuation, so it needs to be defensible.

This is where most people overpay. You paid nothing for an inherited flat, so it feels like the whole sale price is taxable. It isn't.

Your cost is whatever the previous owner paid for it, and your holding period includes the years they owned it, so the sale is almost always long-term. And if they bought before 1 April 2001, you get that same 2001-value option they would have had.

So the task is to reconstruct their cost, or their 2001 value. Never accept a cost of zero.

If the purchase deed is gone, you rebuild the cost from what still exists:

The stronger this trail, the smoother the next step, because a weak cost record is the single most common reason a lower-TDS application gets queried.

Here's the money in it. When an NRI sells, the buyer doesn't withhold tax on your gain. By default they withhold on the entire sale price, at 12.5% plus surcharge and cess, which is close to 15% all-in. On a ₹2 crore flat that's about ₹30 lakh gone before you see a rupee, even when your real gain, and real tax, is a fraction of it.

And an NRI can't soften it with indexation. Since 23 July 2024 the rate is a flat 12.5% with no indexation, and the option residents get, to pay 20% with indexation instead, does not apply to non-residents. So a clean, well-proven cost is the only lever you have to bring the gain down.

The way to stop the over-withholding at source is a lower-TDS certificate (Form 13, becoming Form 128 from April 2026), applied for before the sale. That application stands or falls on your cost proof. This is exactly the kind of thing worth handing to a CA, because the valuation, the certificate and the return all turn on getting the cost documented right the first time.

Q: I inherited the property. Is my cost zero?

A: No. Your cost is what the previous owner paid, and your holding period includes the years they held it. If they bought before 1 April 2001, you can use the fair market value as on 1 April 2001 instead. Cost is never treated as zero just because you inherited it.

Q: The flat was bought before 2001. What cost do I use?

A: You can use its fair market value as on 1 April 2001, at your option. For land or a building, that 2001 value cannot exceed the stamp-duty (circle-rate) value on 1 April 2001, where one exists. Back it with a registered valuer's report.

Q: The purchase deed is lost. Can I still prove my cost?

A: Yes. The sub-registrar's office keeps a copy of the registered sale deed and can issue a certified one. Bank and home-loan statements, the circle rate for that year, and a registered valuer's report all help rebuild the number.

Q: Is a registered valuer's report enough on its own?

A: It is the standard route and carries real weight, but it is not binding on the tax officer, who can refer it to a departmental valuer. So keep it defensible and cross-check it against the circle rate.

Q: I already sold and they deducted TDS on the full price. Any options?

A: Yes. You claim the excess back by filing your Indian return, usually ITR-2. It refunds to your Indian bank account with interest under Section 244A, but it takes several months, which is why filing Form 13 before the sale is better.

Q: Does the lower-TDS certificate need the cost proof?

A: Yes. Form 13 (becoming Form 128) is decided on your cost and your actual gain. A weak or missing cost record is the top reason the application gets queried or the rate comes back too high.