To get a DTAA treaty rate on Indian interest, dividends or royalties, get a tax residency certificate from your own country's tax authority and file Form 41 on India's e-filing portal, which supplies what the certificate leaves out. Give both to your bank or the company paying you before it deducts, or claim the rate later in your own return. Without them, tax comes off at the full domestic rate.
Is this you? This covers claiming a treaty rate on Indian interest, dividends or royalties. Selling property or earning rent? India taxes both in full regardless of any certificate — see selling property in India as an NRI or rent from Indian property.
This assumes you're a non-resident for the whole tax year. Moving back this year? Check your residency status first, because the answer can change.
This guide is part of our guide to how tax treaties work for NRIs. It covers getting a tax residency certificate from your own country’s tax authority and filing what India asks for alongside it, so a bank or company paying you interest, dividends or royalties can apply the capped treaty rate instead of the full domestic TDS.
Do you need it?
A certificate only helps where a treaty actually caps India’s rate. For most NRIs that’s a short list:
| Income | Does the treaty cap India’s rate? | Certificate worth getting? |
|---|---|---|
| NRO interest | Yes, in every treaty we cover here | Yes — the gap between 30% and the treaty rate is usually large |
| Dividends from Indian shares | Yes, though not always below India’s own rate | Check your country’s rate first; sometimes it adds nothing |
| Royalties | Yes, in most treaties | Yes, if you receive any |
| Rent from Indian property | No — India taxes it first and in full | No |
| Gain on selling Indian property | No — same, in full | No |
| NRE account interest | Not applicable — exempt under Indian law regardless | No |
Use the DTAA rate lookup tool to check whether your country’s rate is actually below India’s own rate before you go to the trouble of applying — for a few treaties and income types, it isn’t.
This assumes you’re a non-resident of India for the whole tax year and a tax resident of one other country, with a real DTAA between it and India. 2025 Act s. 159was s. 90 makes a treaty binding law in India, but only once you show you’re covered by it: a tax residency certificate from your country, plus extra details India’s own rules ask for, which you supply on Form 41 (was Form 10F).
What you need before you start
| Done | What | Who | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| An Indian PAN, or registration on the e-filing portal under the non-resident, no-PAN category | You | Before you file | |
| A tax residency certificate from your own country, covering the period your Indian income falls in | Your tax authority | Apply weeks ahead | |
| Form 41 (was Form 10F), giving your status, nationality, foreign tax number and address | You, on the e-filing portal | Before the payer deducts, and before you file | |
| Your taxpayer identification number in your country of residence | You | For both the certificate and the form | |
| Any short “no permanent establishment, beneficial owner” declaration your bank or company asks for | You | With the certificate and form |
Getting your certificate, country by country
Every country here issues its own certificate under its own name and timetable — none of them files anything with India directly. That step happens only afterwards, on India’s side.
Apply online or by post through Certificate of residence application, naming the India–UK treaty, the income type and the period; if you haven’t yet filed a Self Assessment return for it, HMRC also asks for your UK day count and an explanation of your residence under the Statutory Residence Test.
The Federal Tax Authority, not the Ministry of Finance, issues these now, through the EmaraTax portal. Apply with Tax Residency Certificate application for a 12-month period that has already started (the current one or a past one); individual applicants pay a submission fee plus a review fee, and approval takes around 10 business days. With no Indian-style tax return to point to, the FTA goes by your presence days and residence permit instead.
File Form 8802 with the IRS to get the certificate itself — it isn’t issued automatically just because you’re a citizen or green-card holder. The IRS asks for it at least 45 days before you need it, and charges USD 105 per application for an individual from 1 October 2026.
The CRA has no numbered form for this: ask for a Certificate of residency request through your CRA My Account, or by mail or fax to the Sudbury Tax Centre, quoting your SIN, the treaty and the tax year. Your Canadian returns for that year need to be filed and up to date first.
Lodge a Form NAT 75441 through ATO online services if you have an ABN or WPN, or by post if you don’t. Every Australian return for the period you’re claiming must already be in and must show you as an Australian resident for tax purposes, and you can’t have been a temporary resident in that period; the ATO can take up to 50 days to respond.
Apply for a Certificate of Residence application on myTax Portal (without Singpass, by email using IRAS’s form) for the year of assessment that matches your Indian income. IRAS’s own published turnaround for a complete application is around 2 to 3 weeks.
Steps
- Apply for your certificate firstDo this before anything else: India’s form asks for details the certificate carries, and some tax offices take weeks. See your country’s tab above.
Weeks before you need it - Register on India’s e-filing portal, PAN or notIf you already hold a PAN, log in as usual. If you don’t and aren’t required to, register under the portal’s non-resident, no-PAN category using your identity details and foreign tax number; you verify by an OTP to your email and mobile instead of a PAN-linked login.
- File the treaty information formComplete Form 41 (was Form 10F) online (e-File → Income Tax Forms), attaching a copy of your certificate. A PAN holder signs it with a digital signature certificate or e-verifies it; a no-PAN registrant verifies by OTP instead. 2025 Act s. 159was s. 90
- Download the acknowledgementKeep it with the certificate — together they’re what you hand over next.
- Give both papers to your bank or the company paying you, every yearDo this before the interest, dividend or royalty is paid, since the certificate only covers a stated period and most payers ask for it fresh each year.
Before each tax year’s first payment - If the payer won’t apply it, claim the rate in your own return insteadOnce you’ve given a valid TRC and form, the treaty rate is the rate the law applies, but the payer carries the risk if your claim turns out wrong, so many banks and buyers won’t take it. Report the income and the higher TDS in your Indian return, and the gap between what was deducted and what the treaty allows comes back as a refund.
An example: Rohan in Sydney
Rohan lives in Sydney and holds an NRO fixed deposit from before he emigrated. Each year he lodges his Australian return first, then requests his certificate of residency once it shows him as an Australian tax resident, and files Form 41 (was Form 10F) online with a scan of it attached. His Indian bank applies 15% instead of 30% plus cess, once both papers are on file — and asks for a fresh certificate again the following year, since last year’s has already expired.
Who gets it, and what goes wrong
You file the form on the department’s portal with the certificate uploaded, then give whoever pays you a copy of the certificate and the form’s acknowledgement: your bank for NRO interest, the company or its registrar for dividends. Once your papers are in, the same bank that would otherwise deduct 30% plus cess on your NRO interest can apply the treaty cap instead — though even that capped rate is often still more than your real Indian tax, so filing a return is usually what gets the rest back.
Most rejections and delays come down to a handful of recurring problems:
Common mistakes
- Sending only the certificate, or only the form. India’s rule asks for both together; either alone is usually treated as incomplete.
- Using a certificate for the wrong period — last year’s certificate doesn’t cover this year’s income, and a calendar-year certificate may not cover the whole Indian tax year it’s meant to.
- Registering as a fresh no-PAN non-resident when the department already has your PAN on file, or, the other way round, applying for a PAN you don’t need just to file the form.
- Assuming a Gulf certificate needs no supporting paperwork because there’s no local tax return to show — the FTA still wants proof of your presence days and residence permit.
- Leaving the application until the payment is due. A UAE certificate takes around 10 business days and Australia’s up to 50 days; start well before the money is due.
When to get a CA
Get one if your bank or company refuses to apply the treaty rate on a large or recurring payment despite complete papers, if you’re resident in both India and your country this year and the tie-breaker matters, if your certificate’s period doesn’t line up with India’s tax year, or if the no-PAN registration hits a technical snag you can’t resolve with the portal’s help desk.
Next steps
Questions people ask
Do I need this for every kind of Indian income?
No. It only helps where a treaty caps India's rate below the domestic one — mainly interest, dividends and royalties. Rent and gains on selling Indian property are taxed here in full under every treaty we cover, so a certificate changes nothing for them. NRE interest is already exempt under Indian law while you're a non-resident, treaty or not.
Do I need an Indian PAN to file the form?
No, not anymore. The e-filing portal now has a registration category for non-residents who don't hold and aren't required to hold a PAN — you register with your identity details and foreign tax number instead, verify by OTP, and file from that login. Earlier rounds of relief only allowed manual, non-electronic filing for a limited period; that's since been superseded by this permanent registration route, not extended again.
Is the certificate from my own country's tax office enough on its own?
No. India's rule asks for two separate things: the certificate itself, and Form 41, which supplies details a foreign certificate often leaves out — your status, nationality, tax identification number abroad, and the exact period. Send the payer both; either alone is usually treated as incomplete.
Does one certificate cover a whole Indian tax year?
Only if your country's tax year happens to match India's April–March year, which most don't. A US or UAE certificate for a calendar year, for instance, covers nine months of one Indian tax year and three of the next. Ask your tax authority for the certificate to cover the period your Indian income falls in, or get two certificates if a single payment straddles both.
My bank still deducted the full rate even though I sent both papers. What now?
CBDT's long-standing instruction (Circular 728) is that a payer should deduct at the treaty rate or the domestic rate, whichever is more beneficial to you, once your papers are in order, but it hasn't been reissued under the 2025 Act and in practice some banks still won't. Nothing is lost: you claim the same rate in your own Indian return instead, and the difference between what was deducted and what the treaty allows comes back as a refund once you file.
Can I skip the certificate and just tell the bank I live abroad?
No. Without a certificate and the form on file, a bank or company has no way to justify anything other than the plain domestic non-resident rate, and most won't take the risk of under-deducting on your word alone. The certificate and the form are what let them stand behind a lower rate if the tax department later asks.
Sources
- Income-tax Act, 2025, s. 159(8) (treaty relief conditional on a certificate of residence and prescribed information; was s. 90(4)–(5))egazette.gov.in
- Income Tax Department, Form 41 (earlier Form 10F): user manualincometax.gov.in
- Income Tax Dept, Form Mapping Guide ITA 1961 to ITA 2025incometax.gov.in
- IRS: Form 6166 – Certification of U.S. Tax Residency, and About Form 8802irs.gov
- GOV.UK / HMRC: Apply for a certificate of residence or letter of confirmationgov.uk
- UAE Federal Tax Authority: Issuance of Tax Certificates (Tax Residency Certificate)tax.gov.ae
- Canada Revenue Agency: Certificate of residencycanada.ca
- IRAS: Apply for Certificate of Residence (COR)iras.gov.sg
- Australian Taxation Office: Certificate of residency and certification of overseas tax relief – request form for individualsato.gov.au
Update log
- First published.