Quick answer
TL;DR, if you're returning to India, sell your vested GSUs during the RNOR window. India tax: ₹0. Wait past that window and Section 112 LTCG kicks in at 12.5% on the full gain.
Vested Google RSUs in the US, planning a Bengaluru or Hyderabad return? India will ask which slice of the vest belongs to it.
No recovery, no fee. We only charge when money actually comes back.
Reviewed by an ICAI-certified Chartered Accountant.
Quick context
HQ
Mountain View, California
India offices
Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune
Equity broker (usual)
Google GSUs are commonly held with either Morgan Stanley at Work or Charles Schwab, Google lets you pick at hire. Confirm which one in your Google internal benefits portal.
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What's different about Google
Google's GSU label is just internal branding. Mechanically they vest, value and tax exactly like any other RSU. The Indian salary perquisite rule doesn't care what the company calls them.
Google calls its equity GSUs (Google Stock Units) internally. The label is cosmetic. They're RSUs, vest on a multi-year schedule, and India taxes them the same as any US-tech RSU.
Alphabet started paying a quarterly dividend in 2024 (first paid 17 June 2024). Once you hold GOOGL or GOOG shares, US dividend withholding kicks in. The rate depends on the W-8BEN you've filed with your broker.
Same two events for every Google 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.
Returns to Hyderabad on a year-long sabbatical · RNOR window begins
₹62L of GSU vests · 78 of 365 grant-to-vest days in India (~21%) · ₹13L of that value subject to Indian slab
Sold older GSUs · ₹1.4 Cr long-term gain · still RNOR
Same gain, now flipped to ROR
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 Googlebroker portal before the call, the faster we'll have a recovery estimate.
Morgan Stanley at Work year-end account statement
Vest event confirmations (one per vest in the financial year)
Form 1099-B for any GSU shares you sold
Form 1042-S if you received GOOGL or GOOG dividends
Grant agreement PDF so we can read your exact vest schedule
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
The 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. Exact pricing depends on the complexity of your situation. We quote on the call.
Sell now or wait? Free 15-min CA call settles it.
Bring your Googlegrant 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.
US tech engineers across the NRI cohort and the returning-Indian cohort.
Google RSUs vested? Don't file your India return blind.
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