Selling Property in India

[leo99]

Hello,

I am living in the UK on a Work Permit for the past 4.10 years. I have been sending money through my bank to India towards the repayment of mortgage of my property in India. I pay my taxes here in the UK and not in India as there is no income generated there. I want to know whether if I sell my house in India, can I get that money into the UK and use it as a down payment towards a purchase of property here in the UK. What are the tax implications? More so are there any tax implications in India for taking money out of the country ?

Thanks & Regards
SS

[ns]

leo99,

It depends on a lot of things

Did you buy the property with NRE(foreign currency remitted) money? If so, all the initial payment and amounts paid in should be very easy to remit back.

Tax implications : There is Indian CGT to be paid. And there is UK CGT to be paid(you can claim Indian CGT reduction DTAA). You need not pay the UK CGT if you do not plan to get the money into UK(non-domiciled). Note that you will need to sell all "white", "black" portion will not be easy to get to the UK legally.

There are no tax implications to get the money out of India, but rupee is not fully convertible, that could lead to some more paperwork.

About property, http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/FAQView.aspx?Id=33#D . It seems like any amount can be remitted back to UK.
See http://www.nrirealtynews.com/nri-repatriation/repatriation-rules.php
http://www.nrirealtynews.com/nri-repatriation/repatriation-procedures.php
See the PDF link(http://www.online.citibank.co.in/portal/newgen/nri/pdfs/Repat.pdf) in http://www.online.citibank.co.in/citi-nri/customer-service/faq/nro-repatriation.htm
The PDF has a lot of information.

If I was in your place, I would contact someone who knows about NRI like people in http://www.femaonline.com/aboutus.php, and discuss and make a decision.

There is so much information on the web, I am not sure which of it is up to date and correct.

Good luck,
ns