A working framework for Indian investors putting money into US and global markets — what to open, how the money actually leaves the country, what it costs, and what the taxman wants back.
The process itself has become genuinely simple. But simple to execute isn't the same as understood, and most of what follows is the part people find out about later, usually at tax time. This breaks it down before that happens.
Four apps do this today — INDmoney, Vested, Paasa, Appreciate. All on the App Store and Play Store, all doing the identical thing underneath: opening a US brokerage account for you through a partner broker.
Sign-up asks for very little:
Most accounts clear in a few hours to a day.
Somewhere in that sign-up flow you'll sign a W-8BEN. It's the form that takes your US dividend withholding from the 30% default charged to foreigners down to 25%, under the India–US tax treaty. Skip it and you simply pay the higher rate with no one telling you.
Your money leaves India under the RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).
What actually happens, in order: you transfer rupees to the platform's partner bank; you fill out Form A2 declaring the purpose; the bank checks how much of your LRS limit you've already used this year, across every remittance you've made for any purpose; it converts your rupees to dollars; it wires the dollars out over SWIFT.
None of this is done by hand anymore — the A2 and the FEMA declarations are built into the app itself. You tap transfer, and the paperwork happens behind it.
Budget two to three working days for the dollars to land. The bank occasionally comes back asking for source-of-funds proof — that's routine, not a red flag.
Two costs sit on top of every remittance. The first one is invisible unless you go looking for it.
The conversion spread. Your bank doesn't convert at the interbank rate — it converts at its own card rate, which sits above it. The gap typically runs 0.5%–2%, depending on the bank and the size of the transfer. Check the rate you're quoted against the live USD/INR rate; almost nobody does.
One thing you control here that you don't control with a stock: you pick the day you convert. A stronger rupee buys more dollars for the same money. Nobody calls currency reliably — but if you're remitting a large sum and aren't in a hurry, the rate is worth a glance before you tap transfer.
On investment remittances above ₹10,00,000 in a financial year, the bank collects 20% TCS.
A worked example, since the threshold trips people up more than the rate does — remitting ₹15 lakh:
Three things people get wrong about it:
One of the best features of the US market for a small investor: you can buy fractional shares of a stock — a ₹5,000 position in a ₹50,000 share is a normal order, not a workaround.
Permitted
Closed to new buys
Crypto ETFs were pulled for Indian residents after the IFSCA's revised Global Access circular (August 2025) excluded crypto-assets, and any product with crypto as the underlying, from what Global Access providers may offer. Existing holders can keep or sell their positions — new purchases are simply closed.
As an Indian resident, you're taxed on your global income — India and worldwide, combined. There's no exemption for gains just because the money stays parked in a foreign brokerage account.
Capital gains. Foreign shares are taxed similarly to unlisted securities, not like listed Indian ones:
| Holding period | Treatment | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| More than 24 months | Long-term | 12.5%, no indexation |
| 24 months or less | Short-term | Added to income, taxed at slab |
The ₹1.25 lakh LTCG exemption doesn't apply. That relief is reserved for listed Indian shares with STT paid — foreign shares don't qualify, from the first rupee of gain.
Timing. Tax is due only on sale. An unrealised gain isn't income — your portfolio can triple and you owe nothing until you sell. But currency rides along with the gain: you convert both the purchase and the sale into rupees, so a weaker rupee at exit raises your taxable gain even if the stock itself went nowhere.
Dividends. The US withholds 25% before paying you (that's the W-8BEN rate from step one). You then report the full gross dividend in India as income from other sources, at your slab rate, and claim the 25% already withheld as Foreign Tax Credit. You aren't taxed twice — but the credit isn't automatic, you have to file for it.
If you're starting now, the Foreign Tax Credit form most guides still point you to is the wrong one. Form 67 applies to FY 2025-26 and earlier — if you're filing this year for last year, that's still your form.
But income earned from 1 April 2026 onward falls under the Income-tax Act, 2025. For that income, Form 67 has been replaced by Form 44, under Rule 76 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 — and DTAA relief now runs through Section 159 of the new Act, not the old Section 90.
So if you open an account today, you're investing in FY 2026-27, and you'll be filing Form 44 in 2027 — not Form 67. Form 44 also makes your Foreign Tax Identification Number a mandatory field, and requires a CA certificate once the credit claimed crosses ₹1 lakh.
Capital gains are taxed only in India — the US doesn't tax non-resident aliens on capital gains, so there's no foreign tax to credit on that side.
Which form: ITR-2 or ITR-3. Not ITR-1 — it has no Schedule FA, and filing it anyway while holding foreign assets is itself the compliance failure. Convert every figure at the SBI TT buying rate.
This one has nothing to do with gains or dividends — it applies to what you're holding, not what you've made. US-listed stocks and ETFs are US-situs property, even when you're a foreign holder who's never set foot in the country. As a non-resident alien, your exemption on that property is $60,000 — against roughly $13M+ for a US citizen or resident. Hold more than that in US-situs assets at the time of death, and the estate owes US tax on the excess at rates running 18%–40%. There's no India-US estate tax treaty, so unlike dividend withholding, there's no credit to claim it back against — it's a straight cost.
Most investors are nowhere near $60,000 in US holdings, so this stays theoretical for a while. It stops being theoretical exactly when the portfolio does well.
Two ways out: