India follows financial year whereas US follows the calendar year. All the data that the US based brokers share is in calendar year. Do we need to report the schedule FA, FSI etc. as per the financial year? There is contradictory information about this online. Is anyone having a link to the official section or law about this?
In the tax reports provided by INDMoney, under the dividend report it says
The dividend payout dates mentioned in this report are the actual payment dates. This may differ from DriveWealth statements which have publicly announced payment dates.
For US and Indian Income tax purpose, which date is used to calculate the dividend, the date when the dividend hits the investing app (in case of US dividends) or the bank (in case of Indian dividends) or the dividend announcement dates (in case of both US and Indian stocks)?
Note- Dividend details as per the report shared by INDMoney are from 01.04.2024-31.03.2025 so that means that they have taken financial year here and not calendar year as per this report atleast. Is calculation needs to be done as per financial year everywhere?
For the short term and long term, capital gain or capital loss from Indian and US stocks, do we need to club the total of both and mention them together in the ITR?
How to prepare schedule FA from the data/statement shared by the broker like IBKR? Schedule FA has peak balance, closing balance and other columns. Do we need to mention these values of a stock as per their highest blance and closing balance as per 31st March after converting them to INR?
The commission paid to these brokers/apps for investing in the US market, can this be claimed somehow? IBKR’s support said that it can be claimed. Even INDmoney’s support mentioned this in some thread here.
The 25% dividend tax deducted in the US, can it be used to offset only taxes which arise from capital gains (both from India and the US) or can it be used to offset taxes which arise from salary/income from other sources also?
For the short term and long term, capital gain or capital loss from Indian and US stocks, do we need to club the total of both and mention them together in the ITR?
Yes, unless the ITR has specific different sections. Section 112 and 111 I believe
How to prepare schedule FA from the data/statement shared by the broker like IBKR? Schedule FA has peak balance, closing balance and other columns. Do we need to mention these values of a stock as per their highest blance and closing balance as per 31st March after converting them to INR?
Yes.
The commission paid to these brokers/apps for investing in the US market, can this be claimed somehow? IBKR’s support said that it can be claimed. Even INDmoney’s support mentioned this in some thread here.
It can be deducted as it cost of transfer(“expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively in connection with transfer”) and cost of acquisition
The 25% dividend tax deducted in the US, can it be used to offset only taxes which arise from capital gains (both from India and the US) or can it be used to offset taxes which arise from salary/income from other sources also?
No it cannot even be claimed against Capital gains. It can only be claimed against Indian “dividend” income. You also need to file a extra form before ITR to claim even that.
in respect of income by way of dividends, the last day of the month immediately preceding the month in which the dividend is declared, distributed or paid by the company;
The “or” implies you can use any of the dates: declaration or paid dates. Paid date would be much apt in my opinion.
PS: Small retail users use Irish UCITS Accumulating ETF to bypass dividend income altogether.
To answer your queries regarding US stock taxation and Schedule FA:
Calendar vs Financial Year: For Schedule FA reporting, the Income Tax Department mandates reporting for the calendar year ending immediately before the assessment year (i.e., Jan 1 to Dec 31). So for AY 2025-26, you report foreign holdings and peak balances for calendar year 2024. However, your actual income (dividends and capital gains) offered to tax in Schedule CG/OS is computed for the Indian Financial Year (April to March).
Dividend Date: For tax purposes, the dividend is recognized on the date it is credited/paid into your brokerage account, converted to INR using the SBI TT Buying rate for that specific month’s last day or credit date.
Clubbing Capital Gains: Both Indian and foreign capital gains go under Schedule CG in your ITR-2 or ITR-3. Foreign gains must be converted to INR. You cannot offset Indian tax directly with foreign tax deducted, but you can claim Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) under Form 67 and Schedule FSI/TR for taxes withheld in the US (like the 25% dividend withholding tax).
Preparing Schedule FA from IBKR/DriveWealth: You need to calculate the initial investment, peak value reached during the calendar year, closing balance on Dec 31, and total gross earnings (dividends/sales). If crunching peak values and currency conversions across dozens of transactions feels tedious, you can search online for a tool called itrfa which parses statements from brokers like IBKR and generates these exact Schedule FA figures automatically without manual spreadsheet work. Hope this clarifies!
Thanks for this note. I noticed that Quicko also allows for Schedule FA details to be first entered into a xls template for each asset and then bulk uploaded. The columns in the xls are pretty clear. However the last column is asking for income from Dividend. Does the value filled in this go towards Schedule FSI or Schedule OS , or both ?
Many times I feel Quicko has simplified the tax filing but if they had also put up helpful messages on each such location telling the assessee what’s happening in backend in his ITR, lot many of their queries would be solved automatically…