Majuro taxes your pay. India taxes your savings.
The Marshall Islands taxes wages and local business income, leaving your Indian investments untaxed. With only a 2016 information exchange agreement and no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with India, 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) applies to Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest. 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 6 (MEA, January 2026: 4 NRIs and 2 PIOs)
Indians in Majuro
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Marshall Islands 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 Marshall Islands NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from Marshall 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 Marshall Islands have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
Your employer withholds Marshall Islands wage tax at 8% on the first US$10,400 a year and 12% above, with the first US$8,320 exempt since April 2026. Local business income is taxed separately. Neither tax reaches personal Indian interest, dividends, rent or gains. India's 2016 tax information exchange agreement caps no rates, and no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) exists. Indian banks deduct default 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. India alone taxes this income, and an Indian income tax return (ITR) refunds TDS above 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.
Marshall Islands 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 Marshall Islands makes the difference.
Talk to a Marshall Islands-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Hypothetical example: Suresh, 47, is an Indian citizen from Kochi managing a hardware and auto-parts business in Majuro. In India, he holds ₹15L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits from before he left, ₹3L in NRO savings, and an ₹8L Indian equity mutual fund from which he redeems ₹1.5L a year. With no treaty, his bank deducts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on his interest. The Marshall Islands taxes only his salary, so filing an Indian income tax return (ITR) recovers the TDS above his slab tax.
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any Marshall 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 Marshall Islands. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Marshall Islands NRI with Professionals and business managers: ₹15-50L across NRO and NRE fixed deposits and mutual funds, often a flat or family home in Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Gujarat. Seafarers on Marshall-flagged ships: NRE accounts fed by salary, but their tax position depends on days in India, not on the flag. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in the Marshall Islands. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from Marshall Islands, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Ministry of Finance, Banking and Postal Services
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in Majuro
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 Marshall Islands have no tax treaty, so your Indian bank will not ask for them. The Net Profit Tax Act 2025 treats you as a Marshall Islands resident if your home is there or you spend 183 days or more there in any 12 months, but that test matters only for business income. To recover excess Indian TDS, file an Indian ITR.
Don't want to deal with Ministry of Finance, Banking and Postal Services yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Marshall Islands NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles Marshall 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 Marshall Islands NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in Majuro face
We work with the Indian community in the Marshall 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 Marshall Islands tax information exchange agreement, no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), making tax residency certificates (TRC) and Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) inapplicable.
File an Indian income tax return (ITR) each year you have tax deducted at source (TDS). Marshall Islands wage tax is withheld from pay and leaves Indian income untaxed, so no Marshall Islands return credits Indian tax. An ITR alone recovers TDS above your Indian slab tax.
Plan big property or share sales with a chartered accountant (CA) before Indian income (excluding foreign-source income) exceeds ₹15 lakh. Because the Marshall Islands taxes only local wages, leaving investments untaxed, section 6(7) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (formerly section 6(1A)) deems Indian citizens not ordinarily resident (section 6(13)).
Count your days in India using the sign-on and sign-off dates in your Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC) to determine Indian residence. The Marshall Islands runs one of the three biggest ship registries, so sailing on Marshall-flagged ships without living in Majuro never makes Indian seafarers Marshall Islands residents.
Keep personal Indian deposits and mutual funds outside Majuro or Ebeye business tax. From 1 October 2026, the Net Profit Tax Act 2025 taxes Marshall Islands business profit at 16%, or US$80 on the first US$10,000 plus 3% gross revenue tax for local firms under US$300,000 without consumption tax.
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 this certificate, the buyer must deduct tax deducted at source (TDS) on the full sale price rather than your actual capital gain.
Prepare remittance forms before sending money to Majuro. 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.
Allow time for passports and attestations via Tokyo, where India's Ambassador to Japan covers the Marshall Islands. Indian banks and registrars accept Hague Apostille Convention documents (Marshall Islands 14 August 1992, India 14 July 2005). No social security agreement links local contributions and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) periods.
Questions from Marshall Islands NRIs
Everything Indians in Majuro 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.
Primary residence test: days in India
Right now: 182 days
Where it works differently
- The person is an Indian citizen leaving India for employment abroad, or as a crew member of an Indian ship
- Only the 182-day test applies. The 60-day secondary test is disabled.
- Explanation 1(a) to s.6(1)
- Counting days
- The day of arrival AND the day of departure both count as days in India.
- Settled administrative practice; partial days count as whole days.
- The financial year straddles a move
- Residence is decided for the WHOLE financial year, not from the date of the move. India has no split-year concept, unlike the UK.
- s.6 is a full-year test.
Commonly got wrong
- You become an NRI the day you leave India. True for FEMA, false for income tax. Under FEMA residence changes on departure with intent; under the Income-tax Act it is a full-year day count.Name which law you mean. Say 'non-resident under FEMA from the day you leave' or 'non-resident for income tax if you are in India under 182 days in that financial year'.
- India has split-year treatment. It does not. Only the treaty tie-breaker resolves a dual-residence year.Point to Article 4 of the relevant DTAA.
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 Marshall Islands.
More for Indians in Majuro
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