Brunei taxes none of your income. India still does.
Brunei has no personal income tax and no comprehensive tax treaty (DTAA) with India, only a 2019 tax information and collection agreement. Nothing lowers 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest. Brunei never taxes Indian income, leaving only India's tax. Indian returns refund TDS above slab tax, Form 128 (formerly Form 13) cuts property-sale TDS, and Form 145/146 (formerly 15CA/15CB) clears 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 14,750 (MEA, January 2026: 14,500 NRIs and 251 PIOs)
Indians in Brunei
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Brunei 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 Brunei NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from Brunei 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 Brunei have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
Brunei has no personal income tax. Its Income Tax Act (Chapter 35) taxes only companies and nobody else, so your Brunei salary and Indian interest, dividends, and rent go untaxed there. India and Brunei have no comprehensive tax treaty (DTAA). Their 2019 agreement covers only tax information sharing and collection help. India's default tax deducted at source (TDS) applies in full: 30% on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. With no double tax to relieve, you manage only India's tax and recover TDS above your actual Indian tax through an Indian income tax return (ITR).
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.
Brunei 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 Brunei Darussalam makes the difference.
Talk to a Brunei-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Senthil, 45, is a hypothetical process engineer with an oil and gas contractor in Kuala Belait, originally from Coimbatore, who has lived in Brunei for nine years. Brunei taxes none of his income. He holds ₹12L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits (FDs) from before he left, ₹2L in NRO savings, and is redeeming ₹1L from a ₹5L 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 get back TDS above his slab tax.
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any Bruneitax 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 Brunei. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Brunei NRI with Typically an NRE account fed by monthly transfers, ₹5-25L in NRE or NRO fixed deposits, mutual fund SIPs, and often a family home or plot in Tamil Nadu or Kerala. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in Brunei. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from Brunei, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Revenue Division, Ministry of Finance, Brunei
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in Brunei
Not needed for Indian TDS. With no India-Brunei 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. Brunei's Revenue Division publishes a certificate of residence application only for companies ('Application for Certificate of Residence for Companies, for tax residents only'), used to claim benefits under Brunei's own treaties. It publishes no route for individuals, which fits a country that does not tax them.
Don't want to deal with Revenue Division, Ministry of Finance, Brunei yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Brunei NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles Brunei-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 Brunei NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in Brunei face
We work with the Indian community in Brunei every day. These are the traps that cost real money.
No 'Brunei treaty rate' exists for Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest, as no India-Brunei tax treaty (DTAA) caps tax deducted at source (TDS). India's Income Tax Department lists only a 2019 agreement, in force since 30 January 2020, for automatic information exchange (Article 5A) and tax collection assistance (Article 8A).
File an Indian income tax return each year to recover tax deducted at source (TDS) above your Indian slab tax. Because Brunei charges zero tax, your Indian income is taxed only once, in India, with no Brunei return to offset Indian TDS against.
Plan big property or share sales with a chartered accountant before Indian income (excluding foreign-source income) exceeds ₹15 lakh in a tax year. With Brunei individuals untaxed by residence, section 6(7) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (formerly section 6(1A)) deems Indian citizens resident, as not ordinarily resident (section 6(13)).
Before selling an Indian flat while working in Brunei, apply for a lower deduction certificate on Form 128 (formerly Form 13) under Section 395 (formerly Section 197) before registration. The buyer then deducts tax deducted at source (TDS) on your actual gain instead of the full price.
Transferring money from your Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account to Brunei requires Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA) and, for taxable amounts above ₹5 lakh, a chartered accountant (CA) certificate on Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB). Money sent to India from Brunei requires neither form.
Ignore any advisor asking you to get a Brunei residence certificate 'for the DTAA' (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement). Brunei will not issue one to individuals: the Revenue Division's certificate of residence form is for companies only, and no treaty rate applies to Indian tax deducted at source (TDS).
Apostille Brunei papers for India under the Apostille Convention (Brunei since 1987, India since 2005). India has no social security agreement with Brunei. Under a 1967 currency interchangeability agreement, your Brunei dollar salary trades at par with the Singapore dollar, so its rates guide transfers home.
Questions from Brunei NRIs
Everything Indians in Brunei 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.
TDS on NRO account interest
Right now: 30% plus surcharge and cess
Where it works differently
- A valid TRC and Form 10F (Form 41 from 1 Apr 2026) are furnished
- The treaty rate applies, commonly 10-15% under Article 11.
- s.90(2) gives the more beneficial of treaty or Act.
- No PAN is furnished
- s.206AA imposes at least 20%, but Rule 37BC allows escape by furnishing name, address, TIN and TRC. Courts have also held s.206AA cannot override a treaty rate.
- Rule 37BC + settled case law.
- Claiming the treaty rate at source
- The s.115A(5) filing exemption is lost, so an Indian return becomes necessary.
- That exemption requires TDS at not less than the s.115A rate.
- The account is NRE instead
- NRE interest is exempt only while the individual meets the FEMA residence-outside-India condition or is permitted by RBI to maintain the account, and the account is maintained in accordance with the applicable FEMA rules. Income-tax non-resident or RNOR status alone does not establish this exemption.
- Income-tax Act 2025 Schedule IV, entry 1 (retaining the earlier s.10(4)(ii) conditions): https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/schedule-iv-4
- The deposit is FCNR instead
- The exemption covers interest from a qualifying foreign-currency deposit with a scheduled bank whose acceptance of the deposit is approved by RBI, paid to a non-resident or a resident but not ordinarily resident (RNOR) under income-tax law. Check the deposit and residence conditions; FEMA non-residence alone does not establish the FCNR exemption.
- Income-tax Act 2025 Schedule IV, entry 14 preserves s.10(15)(iv)(fa) subject to its conditions: https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/schedule-iv-4 ; underlying conditions: https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-10-62
Commonly got wrong
- NRO interest TDS is 30%. Incomplete. Surcharge and 4% cess sit on top, so the effective rate is higher.30% plus surcharge and cess, around 31.2% at the base level.
- You can file Form 15G/15H to stop NRO TDS. Those are resident-only declarations. An NRI filing one makes a false declaration.Use Form 13 (Form 128 from 1 April 2026), or claim the treaty rate with a TRC.
Form 15CB requirement threshold
Right now: Rs 5,00,000 in the financial year, where the remittance is chargeable to tax
Where it works differently
- The remittance is not chargeable to tax
- Part D of Form 15CA only. No 15CB.
- Rule 37BB structure.
- The remittance falls in the specified exempt list
- No Form 15CA at all.
- Rule 37BB(3) specified list.
Commonly got wrong
- Every outward remittance needs Form 15CB. Only where chargeable to tax and above Rs 5 lakh in the year.Form 15CB is needed only where the remittance is chargeable to tax AND exceeds Rs 5 lakh in the financial year. Otherwise Part D of Form 15CA is enough.
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 Brunei Darussalam.
More for Indians in Brunei
Friends & neighbours
NRIs in nearby countries with similar DTAA benefits. Know someone? Share this.