Quick answer
TL;DR — Amazon's back-loaded vest means Year-3 and Year-4 chunks are the largest. If those land in your Indian-resident years, Form 67 FTC is the only thing standing between you and double tax.
Amazon's RSU vest schedule has historically been back-loaded. That changes when in your career India can take a bite.
No recovery, no success fee. ₹4,999 starter only if we file.
Reviewed by an ICAI-certified Chartered Accountant.
Quick context
HQ
Seattle, Washington
India offices
Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune
Equity broker (usual)
Amazon RSUs are commonly held with Morgan Stanley at Work. Amazon's equity program does not include a Section 423 ESPP for most US employees — confirm in your offer letter and your Amazon A to Z portal.
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What's different about Amazon
Amazon's back-loaded vest is the one to watch. If you transfer to India mid-grant, the biggest vest events tend to land in your Indian residency years — which is exactly when the salary perquisite math gets expensive.
Amazon RSUs vest on a back-loaded schedule — small early vests, larger later vests. Your offer letter and the Morgan Stanley at Work grant tab spell out your exact percentages.
Amazon doesn't run a broad ESPP for most US employees, so the equity tax story for Amazon is RSU-only. Legacy stock-option holders are rare and follow different rules.
Same two events for every Amazon employee. The rule is fixed by law. Your residency on the day of the event is what changes the answer.
Day 1 — Vest
On vest, the closing share price times the units that vested gets added to your Indian salary income — same as a bonus — for the slice of days you actually worked from India during the grant-to-vest cycle. The US side withholds via your W2. The India side is on your filing.
Day N — Sale
Sale price minus the vest-day value is your capital gain. Hold for more than 24 months and it's long-term, flat 12.5% under Section 112. The trick: if you sell while still NRI or RNOR, India doesn't tax it at all. The calendar decides, not the company.
Anonymised case from our filings. Rupee figures are the actual numbers, rounded.
Transfers Seattle → Bengaluru · flips to ROR for the year
Back-loaded Year-3 + Year-4 vests = ₹38L · full Section 17(2)(vi) salary in India
FTC for US withholding · capped under Rule 128 at Indian tax on doubly-taxed slice
Take a $25,000 single-quarter vest. Mechanics are identical at $5K or $250K.
Vest value (one quarter)
$25,000
≈ ₹21.25 lakh at ₹85/$. Salary perquisite under Section 17(2)(vi).
Days worked in India during vest cycle
30 / 90
33% Indian service. India taxes 33% × ₹21.25L = ₹7.08L of the vest.
India tax at top slab (30% + cess)
~₹2.21L
US withheld at your W2 rate. Form 67 claims Foreign Tax Credit so you don't pay twice.
Sell after holding 24+ months at $35K
NRI / RNOR: ₹0
Residency in the year of sale drives the answer. As ROR, Section 112 at 12.5% on the ₹8.5L gain = ~₹1.06L.
Illustrative. Your actual number depends on grant schedule, sale price, holding period and residency for that year. We run the exact split on the CA call.
The big-number labels are the headline cost. The line under is the trap.
Sell as RNOR in March, India tax on the gain is zero. Sell the same shares as ROR in April, you owe Section 112 at 12.5% on the full gain. On a $200K gain (≈ ₹1.7 Cr) that's roughly ₹21 lakh you paid for a one-quarter calendar misread.
Schedule FA is a Resident & Ordinarily Resident disclosure. NRIs and RNORs don't file it. Filing it early opens questions about foreign assets you weren't required to disclose yet.
Form 67 is how you claim Foreign Tax Credit for US tax already paid on your vest. File it by the end of the assessment year under Rule 128(9) (CBDT Notification 100/2022). Miss it and FTC gets denied — you pay India tax on income the US already taxed.
Your broker uses your W-8BEN to apply the DTAA dividend rate on US dividends — typically 25% for individuals under Article 10. Let it expire and your withholding jumps to the 30% statutory rate. Across years on a Microsoft or Apple dividend stream, that's real money.
ESPP discount is a US-only event under IRC Section 423 with its own holding-period rules. The RSU vest is the Section 17(2)(vi) perquisite. Different cost bases, different India outcomes. Compute them separately or the Form 67 numbers bleed.
You don't need everything from day one. But the more of this list you can pull from your Amazonbroker portal before the call, the faster we'll have a recovery estimate.
Morgan Stanley at Work year-end statement
Each vest confirmation (Amazon's back-loaded schedule means these arrive in uneven chunks)
Form 1099-B for any RSU shares you sold
Amazon W-2 with Box 14 RSU breakup
Grant agreement so we can map the back-loaded schedule to India workdays
Don't have all of it yet? Book anyway. We'll tell you exactly which document unlocks which line on your return.
What it costs
Starter covers your ITR with Form 67, plus Schedule FA only if you're ROR, and Schedule FSI and Schedule TR for the foreign-tax-credit math. Success fee applies only on tax actually saved through RNOR-window planning or excess-withholding recovery. No recovery, no success fee.
Sell now or wait? Free 15-min CA call settles it.
Bring your Amazongrant document and your last 26AS. We'll tell you exactly how much of the RNOR window you can still use — and what to file when.
Amazon RSUs vested? Don't file your India return blind.
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Often happens together
One NRI tax problem usually opens a door to the next. Here's the most likely next step from where you are right now.
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