Kingstown pays your salary. Plan your Indian income wisely.
India and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA); their 2022 tax information agreement leaves 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest. A permanent home there taxes Indian interest and rent with credit; dividends and capital gains go untaxed. Indian returns refund TDS above slab tax; Form 128 (formerly Form 13) cuts property TDS; Form 145/146 (formerly 15CA/15CB) clears NRO funds.
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 6,570 (MEA, January 2026: 70 NRIs and 6,500 PIOs)
Indians in St Vincent
Senior CAs handle your whole India tax side, filing, recovery, notices, property, repatriation. No India trip needed.
Not just DTAA
Chartered Accountants for Vincentian 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 Vincentian NRIs, filing, property, tax notices, repatriation and more, all from St Vincent 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 St Vincent have no treaty. Your Indian tax life still needs a CA.
India and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have no Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA); their 2022 agreement covers only tax information exchange and tax collection, so India's default tax deducted at source (TDS) applies: 30% on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends. A permanent home there brings tax on Indian interest and rent, with credit for Indian tax finally paid. Residents on work postings without a permanent home are taxed on Indian income only when brought into the country. Dividends and capital gains go untaxed there; an Indian income tax return (ITR) refunds TDS above actual 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.
Vincentian 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 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines makes the difference.
Talk to a St Vincent-specialist CAWhat we still do
No treaty, no treaty rate. But plenty of real work.
Hypothetical example: Dr. Priya, 38, from Hyderabad, works as a physician on a fixed-term hospital contract in Kingstown. She holds ₹12L in Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) fixed deposits (FDs), ₹2L in NRO savings, and is redeeming ₹1L from a ₹6L Indian equity mutual fund. Her Indian bank deducts 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on the interest, and no treaty lowers that rate. Because her permanent home remains in India, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines taxes her Indian interest only if she brings it into the country. She saves by filing an Indian income tax return (ITR) to reclaim TDS above her actual Indian tax.
Clean ITR filing
Full schedules (FA, AL, NRI disclosures). Section 91 foreign tax credit claim for any St Vincenttax 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 St Vincent. CA-signed 15CB, Part C filings, bank coordination. Nothing stuck, nothing rejected.
This is what a typical Vincentian NRI with Indian-national doctors and professionals: ₹10-30L in NRO and NRE fixed deposits, ₹5-15L in mutual funds, often a flat in an Indian city. Indo-Vincentian families: usually no Indian assets; the practical questions are an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card, a PAN, and occasionally an inheritance. actually needs, treaty or no treaty.
Your side of the process
How to get your Tax Residency Certificate
You're an Indian in St Vincent. India needs proof. Here's the workflow from St Vincent, documents, portal, timeline, the lot.
Who issues it
Comptroller of Inland Revenue, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
What it costs
Not applicable, no treaty to claim
Timeline
Not applicable
Form 10F / Form 41
Not required
Step-by-step for Indians in St Vincent
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 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have no tax treaty, so your Indian bank will not ask for them and they would change nothing. To recover excess Indian TDS, file an Indian ITR. Keep your Indian tax computation and TDS certificates instead: you need them to claim the foreign tax credit on your local return.
Don't want to deal with Comptroller of Inland Revenue, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines yourself? Our CAs handle TRC guidance for Vincentian NRIs every day.
Want a CA who handles St Vincent-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 Vincentian NRIs should know
Pitfalls we've seen Indians in St Vincent face
We work with the Indian community in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines every day. These are the traps that cost real money.
Expect 30% tax deducted at source (TDS) on Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) interest and 20% on dividends without an India-Saint Vincent and the Grenadines DTAA. The Income Tax Department's 19 May 2022 Kingstown agreement (Indian President's state visit, in force 14 February 2023) covers only all-tax information exchange and tax collection.
Know your residency tier. Spending 183 days a year makes you resident, and a permanent place of abode makes you 'ordinarily resident' (Income Tax Act Cap. 435, section 2), taxed on Indian interest and rent anywhere. Fixed-term residents like doctors pay tax only on Indian income brought in (section 8(2)).
Declare Non-Resident External (NRE) and Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) interest on your local return if your permanent home is in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Though NRE interest is tax-free in India, Kingstown exempts only interest on deposits with local banks (section 25(1)(g)).
File your Indian income tax return (ITR) before claiming your local foreign tax credit. Under section 79, the credit is the lower of local tax on that income and the Indian tax finally paid. Refundable tax deducted at source (TDS) does not count, so claim the final post-ITR figure.
File an Indian income tax return (ITR) to recover dividend tax deducted at source (TDS) above your slab liability. Locally, dividends are excluded from assessable income (section 36(1)) and capital gains are untaxed, making India's dividend TDS and 12.5% long-term gains tax the only tax.
Keep your retirement records separate. Without an India-Saint Vincent and the Grenadines social security agreement, National Insurance and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) periods never combine. National Insurance covers only local earnings, excluding Indian income, at 6.5% for employees and 7.5% for employers from 1 January 2026.
Apply for Form 128 (formerly Form 13) under Section 395 (formerly Section 197) before Indian flat registration to cut buyer tax deducted at source (TDS). Remitting Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) proceeds needs Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA), plus a chartered accountant's Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) above ₹5 lakh taxable.
Use an apostille on Kingstown documents for Indian banks and registrars. Because Saint Vincent and the Grenadines joined the Hague Apostille Convention at independence in 1979 and India in 2005, apostilled Vincentian papers work in India. India's High Commission in Paramaribo, Suriname, covers the country.
Questions from Vincentian NRIs
Everything Indians in St Vincent 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.
FCNR(B) deposit tenure
Right now: 1 to 5 years; term deposits only, no savings variant
Where it works differently
- The holder returns to India permanently
- The deposit may run to maturity, then converts to RFC. Interest stays exempt while the holder is RNOR.
- Master Direction on Deposits and Accounts.
- Premature withdrawal before 12 months
- No interest is payable.
- Standard RBI condition on FCNR(B).
Commonly got wrong
- FCNR accounts work like a savings account. FCNR(B) is a term deposit only, 1 to 5 years.FCNR(B) is a fixed deposit in foreign currency, one to five years. There is no FCNR savings account.
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 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
More for Indians in St Vincent
Friends & neighbours
NRIs in nearby countries with similar DTAA benefits. Know someone? Share this.