Tax free in George Town. Still taxed in India.
The Cayman Islands charge no income tax and have no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with India, only a 2011 information exchange agreement. Because the India-UK treaty excludes the Islands, Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest attracts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS). 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 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 2,500 (MEA, January 2026: 2,400 NRIs and 100 PIOs)
Indians in Cayman
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Cayman 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 Cayman NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from Cayman Islands 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 Cayman Islands have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
The Cayman Islands levy no income tax, leaving your Cayman salary and Indian interest, dividends, rent, and gains untaxed there. India and the Cayman Islands have no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), only a 2011 tax information exchange agreement that caps no rates. The India-UK treaty covers only Great Britain and Northern Ireland and does not apply. Your Indian bank deducts default tax deducted at source (TDS) at 30% on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. Only India taxes this income, and an Indian income tax return (ITR) refunds TDS above your slab tax.
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.
Cayman 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 Cayman Islands makes the difference.
Talk to a Cayman Islands-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Hypothetical example: Deepa, 38, is a cardiac nurse from Kottayam who has worked on a work permit at a hospital in East End, Grand Cayman, for eight years. In India, she holds ₹10L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits opened before she left, ₹2L in NRO savings, and a ₹6L Indian equity mutual fund from which she redeems ₹1L a year. Because there is no treaty, her bank deducts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on her interest. The Cayman Islands tax none of this income, and she recovers the TDS above her slab tax by filing an Indian income tax return (ITR).
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any Cayman Islandstax 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 Cayman Islands. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Cayman NRI with Nurses and technicians: an NRE account fed by monthly transfers, ₹5-15L in NRE or NRO fixed deposits, mutual fund SIPs, often a family home in Kerala or Karnataka. Doctors and other professionals: ₹20-60L across deposits and mutual funds, sometimes a flat in Bengaluru or Mumbai. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in the Cayman Islands. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from Cayman Islands, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Tax Information Authority (individual certificates no longer offered)
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in Cayman
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 the Cayman Islands have no tax treaty, so your Indian bank will not ask for them. The Cayman Islands have no direct tax laws and so no domestic definition of tax residence. The Tax Information Authority once issued residence certificates to individuals ordinarily resident in the Islands, but these no longer seem to be offered. To recover excess Indian TDS, file an Indian ITR.
Don't want to deal with Tax Information Authority (individual certificates no longer offered) yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Cayman NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles Cayman Islands-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 Cayman NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in Cayman face
We work with the Indian community in the Cayman Islands every day. These are the traps that cost real money.
Expect 30% default tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on Indian dividends. The Income Tax Department lists only a Cayman tax information exchange agreement and no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), making tax residency certificates (TRC) and Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) inapplicable.
Do not claim India-UK treaty rates on the basis that the Cayman Islands are a British Overseas Territory. Under Article 3(1)(a) of the India-UK treaty, the United Kingdom means only Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so Cayman residents are excluded.
File an Indian income tax return (ITR) every year you have tax deducted at source (TDS). Because there is no Cayman income tax or Cayman return to credit Indian tax against, filing an ITR is the only way to recover TDS above your Indian slab tax.
Watch the ₹15 lakh limit before large Indian sales. Since no country taxes your 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)), if annual Indian income (excluding foreign-source income) exceeds ₹15 lakh. Cayman salary stays outside Indian tax.
Plan your Cayman pension. After nine months, the National Pensions Act takes 10% of non-Caymanian pay (generally 5% employee, 5% employer). Lump-sum refunds apply only below CI$5,000; otherwise transfer after two years without contributions or Cayman residence. Without a social security agreement, Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) periods stay separate.
Apply for a lower deduction certificate in Form 128 (formerly Form 13) under Section 395 (formerly Section 197) before registering an Indian flat sale. Without this certificate, your buyer must withhold tax deducted at source (TDS) on the full sale price rather than your actual capital gain.
Complete remittance forms before sending funds to the Cayman Islands. Up to USD 1 million a financial year can leave Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) balances, property sale proceeds, or inheritances. Taxable transfers require Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA), plus a chartered accountant's Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) above ₹5 lakh.
Have Cayman documents apostilled before sending them to Indian banks and registrars. The Passport and Corporate Services Office in George Town issues apostilles under the 1961 Hague Convention, and those issued since 10 February 2023 can be verified online by certificate number and date.
Questions from Cayman NRIs
Everything Indians in Cayman 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.
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 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 Cayman Islands.
More for Indians in Cayman
Friends & neighbours
NRIs in nearby countries with similar DTAA benefits. Know someone? Share this.