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United Arab Emirates

Inheriting or receiving a gift from India as a UAE resident

No UAE tax on the inheritance at all. The only thing to understand is a UAE succession rule, which never reaches your Indian assets.

You live in the UAE and you have inherited or been gifted money or property in India, and you want to know the tax. On the tax side it is simple: neither India nor the UAE taxes the inheritance. The one thing that worries people is the UAE's Sharia succession rule, but that concerns assets located in the UAE, not your Indian inheritance. Here is how it works and why your Indian assets are governed by Indian law.
Last reviewed: 27 July 20265 min readReviewed by Preetesh Maloo, CA

The short answer

There is no tax to pay on either side. India has no inheritance or gift tax, and an inheritance, a bequest under a will, or a gift from a relative is exempt in the income-tax law, so the Indian receipt is tax-free. The UAE has no personal income tax, no inheritance or estate tax and no capital gains tax on individuals, so receiving an Indian inheritance is not taxed in the UAE either. The 9 per cent corporate tax introduced in 2023 is on business profits, not on personal wealth or an inheritance. The point people ask about is succession law, not tax: the UAE can apply Sharia rules to how assets located in the UAE pass on death, which is why non-Muslim expats often register a will to apply their home-country rules to their UAE assets. But this reaches only UAE-situated assets. Your inheritance from India is governed by Indian succession law, not UAE Sharia law, so the Sharia point does not touch it. Our job is the Indian side.

References on this page

  • India has no inheritance or gift tax; an inheritance, will or relative's gift is exempt under Section 56(2)(x), so the Indian receipt is tax-free
  • The UAE has no personal income tax, no inheritance or estate tax and no capital gains tax on individuals; the 9% corporate tax is on business profits only
  • The UAE's Sharia succession rule concerns assets situated in the UAE, and non-Muslims can register a will to opt out of it
  • An inheritance from India is governed by Indian succession law, not UAE Sharia law, so the Sharia point does not reach it

No UAE tax on the inheritance

On tax, this is one of the easy cases. India has no inheritance tax and no gift tax, and the income-tax law exempts anything you receive under a will, by inheritance, or as a gift from a relative, under the proviso to Section 56(2)(x), so the Indian receipt is tax-free. The UAE matches that: it has no personal income tax, no inheritance or estate tax, and no capital gains tax on individuals, so receiving an Indian inheritance, holding it, and later selling it all fall outside UAE tax. The 9 per cent federal corporate tax that came in during 2023 sometimes causes confusion, but it applies to business profits above a threshold, not to personal wealth or to an inheritance you receive, so it does not touch this.

So on the pure tax question there is nothing to pay in the UAE and nothing to pay in India. What people actually worry about with the UAE is something different, and it is not a tax at all. It is succession law.

The Sharia rule touches UAE assets, not your Indian ones

The concern you may have heard is that the UAE applies Sharia inheritance rules, which divide an estate in fixed shares that can differ from what a person intended. That is a real feature of UAE law, but it is important to see its limits: it concerns how assets located in the UAE pass on death. It is why non-Muslim expats in the UAE are commonly advised to register a will, through the DIFC Wills service or the Abu Dhabi non-Muslim wills registry, so that their home-country rules, rather than Sharia default rules, apply to their UAE property. That is sensible planning for your own UAE assets.

But it does not reach an inheritance coming from India. Succession to property follows the law of the place where the property is situated, and Indian law provides that succession to Indian immovable property is governed by Indian law regardless of where the deceased lived. So your parents' flat, land, bank accounts and investments in India pass under Indian succession law, through an Indian will or the Indian rules of intestate succession, not under UAE Sharia rules. The UAE Sharia point and your Indian inheritance are simply two separate things, and the first does not affect the second. So there is no UAE tax and no UAE succession complication on the Indian inheritance itself. Our role is the Indian end: the legal heir or succession documents, a valuation, a certificate confirming no Indian tax is due, and repatriation of the funds to you.

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What's involved

What the CA actually does

  1. 1

    We confirm it is tax-free

    We confirm the inheritance is exempt in India and that the UAE has no tax on it.

  2. 2

    We keep Indian law in charge

    We handle the Indian succession so your Indian assets pass under Indian law, not UAE Sharia rules.

  3. 3

    We handle the heir paperwork

    We sort the legal heir or succession documents and the transfer of the Indian asset into your name.

  4. 4

    We repatriate the money

    We move the inherited funds out of India to you, through the permitted route, with the tax paperwork.

What to have ready

Documents you'll typically need

  • Details of what you inherited or were gifted in India
  • The Indian will or succession documents, if any
  • Your relationship to the person who left it
  • Your UAE bank details for the transfer

Frequently asked questions

Common questions

Inherited from India while living in the UAE?

Tell us what you inherited. A practising CA will handle the Indian succession and repatriation, with no tax to pay, no obligation.

No card, no obligation. All certification and filing work is handled by ICAI-registered practising Chartered Accountants.