Schedule FA: How to Report Foreign Property and Overseas Bank Accounts in Your ITR
If you are resident and ordinarily resident in India and own a flat abroad, you report it every year in Schedule FA of ITR-2 or ITR-3, whether or not it earned anything. The property goes in Table C, any foreign bank account in Table A1, and the figures cover the calendar year to 31 December, converted at SBI's telegraphic transfer buying rate. Rent from it is reported separately, as income.
Key takeaways
- Schedule FA applies only to residents who are ordinarily resident. Non-residents and RNORs skip it.
- It is not in ITR-1 or ITR-4. Owning a foreign asset puts you on ITR-2, or ITR-3 if you have business income.
- The reporting period is the calendar year (January to December), not the April-March tax year.
- Rupee values use SBI's TT buying rate on the relevant date: purchase date for cost, 31 December for closing values, the peak date for a peak balance.
- Disclosure and income are separate. The rent goes into the house-property and foreign-income schedules; Schedule FA only says where.
- Missed years can be fixed. For a flat bought with already-taxed money, a one-time scheme open until 31 December 2026 charges a Rs 1 lakh fee.
Who has to file it, and on which form
The test is residential status, not citizenship or the asset's value. A resident and ordinarily resident individual (or HUF) reports every foreign asset held at any time in the calendar year, including one sold or closed in that year. An RNOR, typically someone recently returned from abroad, and a non-resident do not file the schedule. Foreign citizens working in India on a business, employment or student visa have a narrow relief for assets bought before they arrived that produce no income.
The schedule exists only in ITR-2 and ITR-3. A salaried person who would otherwise use ITR-1 must move to ITR-2 once they own a flat abroad.
Which return, under which Act
The Income-tax Act, 2025 took effect on 1 April 2026, but returns for 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27) are still filed under the 1961 Act on the old forms, reporting calendar year 2025. The first return under the new Act, for tax year 2026-27, will report calendar year 2026. Its forms had not been notified when we checked, so confirm the table labels when they appear; the reporting logic is expected to carry over.
The calendar-year trap
Everything else in your return runs April to March. Schedule FA runs January to December. So the return for 2025-26, filed in 2026, reports assets held between 1 January and 31 December 2025.
Two things follow. A flat bought in February 2026 does not appear in the 2025-26 return's Schedule FA, even though the money left in the 2025-26 tax year; it first appears in the 2026-27 return. And a flat sold in November still has to be reported for that calendar year, because you held it at some point in it.
Table C, field by field: the property
Table C covers foreign immovable property held at any time in the calendar year, including a beneficial interest. The official guide asks for:
| Field | What to enter | Where people go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Country and ZIP code | Country name and code; the postcode or its equivalent | Changing the address format from year to year; keep it consistent |
| Address | As on the title deed or purchase agreement | Using a marketing tower name instead of the unit and plot |
| Ownership | Direct, beneficial owner or beneficiary | Marking a spouse who paid nothing as beneficial owner |
| Date of acquisition | Date of the purchase or registration | Using the booking date for one year and the handover date the next |
| Total investment at cost | Cost in rupees at the TT buying rate on the acquisition date | Using today's rate or the remittance debit amount |
| Income derived | Rent received in the calendar year, in rupees, and its nature | Leaving it blank for a let flat |
| Taxable and offered in this return | Amount, the schedule where it is offered, and the item number | Showing rent here but not in the income schedules |
Joint owners
The common practitioner view is that each co-owner discloses the property in their own return at its full value, while income is reported according to who actually owns and funded it. A spouse who contributed nothing is shown as beneficiary rather than beneficial owner, and shows zero income where the funding spouse has already offered all of it. Our guide to buying Dubai property jointly covers how contributions and shares are documented in the first place.
Table A1: the foreign bank account
If you opened a bank account abroad to receive rent or pay the service charge, it goes in Table A1, foreign depository accounts. The fields are the country, the bank's name and address, the account number, your status, the opening date, the peak balance in the calendar year, the closing balance on 31 December, and the gross interest paid or credited. Table A2, custodial accounts, is for brokerage and securities accounts, not an ordinary bank account.
The peak balance is the one that catches people. If you parked AED 900,000 in a Dubai account for a week before paying the developer, that week's balance is your peak for the year, even if the account closed at nearly nothing.
The exchange-rate rule, with three worked examples
Every foreign figure is converted at SBI's telegraphic transfer buying rate for the relevant date, not an average and not the rate your bank charged you. On 24 September 2026 SBI's sheet showed TT buying rates of about Rs 25.47 to the dirham, Rs 95.45 to the dollar and Rs 125.49 to the pound. Suppose three buyers each completed a purchase that day:
| Property | Price | TT buying rate | Investment at cost in Table C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai apartment | AED 900,000 | Rs 25.47 | Rs 2,29,23,000 |
| UK flat | GBP 180,000 | Rs 125.49 | Rs 2,25,88,200 |
| US home | USD 240,000 | Rs 95.45 | Rs 2,29,08,000 |
Note that these differ from what each buyer actually paid in rupees. The Dubai buyer's bank sold them dirhams at its own higher selling rate, which is a cost, covered in our page on the cost of sending rupees to Dubai. The TCS collected on the remittance is a separate matter again; see getting TCS back after a foreign remittance. Schedule FA wants the buying rate, and the cost figure it produces stays the same in every later year's return.
All three purchases fall in calendar year 2026, so all three first appear in the return for tax year 2026-27, filed in 2027.
Where the rent goes
Schedule FA only discloses the asset and points to where its income is taxed. The rent itself is computed as income from house property, with the standard 30% deduction, and also listed in Schedule FSI, foreign source income, country by country. If the other country taxed it, you claim credit in Schedule TR, supported by a separate form filed before the return.
- Dubai. No UAE tax on the rent, so Schedule FSI shows the income and Schedule TR shows no credit.
- UK or US. Both tax rent from local property, so there is usually foreign tax to credit. For income earned from 1 April 2026 the claim is made on Form 44, which replaced Form 67 and asks for a foreign tax identification number; a chartered accountant's certificate is needed for claims of Rs 1 lakh or more.
How the rent is computed and taxed in India is set out in our guide to tax on rental income, and the Dubai-specific numbers in tax on Dubai property for Indian buyers, which also covers the Black Money Act penalty for leaving a property out.
Missed a year? The ways back
- Revise the latest return. A return for 2025-26 can be revised up to 31 March 2027, with a fee of Rs 1,000 or Rs 5,000 if revised after 31 December 2026.
- Use the 2026 disclosure scheme. The Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026 is open from 16 August to 31 December 2026. Where the asset was bought with income already taxed, or while you were a non-resident, and was simply left out of Schedule FA, the fee is Rs 1 lakh for assets up to Rs 5 crore. Undisclosed income or assets up to Rs 1 crore pay 30% tax plus an equal additional amount.
- Updated return. For earlier years, an updated return may be possible, with additional tax where income was missed.
A resident who bought a Dubai flat through a bank under LRS and forgot the schedule is the typical second-category case. Take advice before choosing a route.
Frequently asked questions
Do I report a foreign flat in Schedule FA if it earned no rent?
Yes. A resident and ordinarily resident owner discloses the property in Table C every year it is held, whatever its value and whether or not it produced income. A vacant flat shows its cost, the ownership type and date of acquisition, with income shown as nil. Leaving it out because it earned nothing is exactly the gap the Black Money Act penalty targets.
Which exchange rate do I use in Schedule FA?
SBI's telegraphic transfer buying rate on the relevant date. The investment at cost uses the rate on the date you acquired the property, the closing balance of a bank account uses the rate on 31 December, and a peak balance uses the rate on the day the peak occurred. Do not use a yearly average or the selling rate your bank charged you.
I bought a flat abroad in February 2026. Which return shows it?
The return for tax year 2026-27, filed in 2027. Schedule FA follows the calendar year, so the 2025-26 return, which reports January to December 2025, does not include it. The rent, if any, is taxed in the April-March tax year in which it is received, so income and disclosure can land in different returns.
Does my spouse also report a flat we own jointly?
Yes, if your spouse is resident and ordinarily resident. The common practitioner view is that each co-owner discloses the property at full value, marking ownership as direct, beneficial owner or beneficiary depending on who paid. Rent is taxed in the hands of whoever actually owns and funded the share, and a co-owner who has offered none shows zero income.
If you own property abroad and want your disclosures checked against the purchase papers, Realty Hunting can help you pull the documents together before you meet your chartered accountant.
