Form 10F is not an email attachment: what ITA 2025 actually requires NRIs to file online

Ask ten NRIs how they "did" their Form 10F and at least seven will tell you they signed a PDF, scanned it, and emailed it to the Indian company that was about to deduct tax on their payment. That was acceptable once. It is not acceptable now, and treating Form 10F as a loose attachment is one of the most common reasons NRIs still lose 20% or more of an Indian payment to Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) even when a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) should have brought it down to 10% or nil.

Here is the correction, stated plainly: since 1 October 2023, Form 10F must be generated and filed electronically on the Income Tax e-filing portal. A signed paper or PDF copy carries no legal weight on its own. The transition into the Income Tax Act, 2025 (ITA 2025), effective for income from 1 April 2026 onward, has not relaxed this — the electronic-filing discipline is now the settled position, not a temporary rule.

What the law actually says

Form 10F is the self-declaration a non-resident files to unlock treaty benefits. Its legal spine is treaty relief for non-residents — historically Section 90 and Section 90A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, read with Rule 21AB of the Income Tax Rules. Under ITA 2025, the same DTAA-relief machinery continues under the Act's treaty provisions (the successor to Sections 90/90A), and the Form 10F obligation carries over intact.

Two documents work together, and NRIs routinely confuse their roles:

The Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) is issued by the tax authority of the country you actually live in — the UAE Federal Tax Authority, HMRC in the UK, the IRS in the US, and so on. It proves you are a tax resident there. India does not issue your TRC; your country of residence does.

Form 10F is filed by you, in India, on the e-filing portal, to supply the specific details a TRC sometimes omits — your status, nationality, tax identification number in your home country, the period of residence, and your address. Section 90(5) of the 1961 Act (and its ITA 2025 equivalent) makes furnishing the TRC mandatory; Rule 21AB fills the gaps through Form 10F.

The critical mechanical fact: Form 10F cannot be downloaded, filled by hand, and emailed. It exists only as an online submission generated on incometax.gov.in, digitally authenticated, and producing a system-generated acknowledgement. Note also that ITA 2025 uses the term "Tax Year" — so a Form 10F you file now typically covers Tax Year 2026-27, not "AY 2027-28" in the old language.

There is a second point of confusion worth clearing up. Form 10F is not the same thing as a lower- or nil-deduction certificate. Some NRIs conflate the two. Form 10F is a self-declaration you produce to help a payer apply the treaty rate; a lower-deduction certificate is something the Assessing Officer issues on application (historically under Section 197 of the 1961 Act) directing a payer to deduct at a reduced rate. For most treaty-rate situations — interest, royalties, fees for technical services, professional fees — the combination of a valid TRC and a portal-filed Form 10F is what the payer relies on. A Section 197-style certificate becomes relevant in larger or more complex cases, for example a property sale where the buyer would otherwise deduct on the whole sale value rather than the gain. Knowing which tool you actually need prevents wasted effort.

Practical implications for NRIs

Consider three real scenarios where the online-versus-email distinction decides how much money you keep.

Scenario 1 — The Dubai consultant. An NRI in Dubai invoices an Indian company Rs.15,00,000 for advisory work. Under the India-UAE DTAA, if the income is not attributable to a permanent establishment in India, the correct Indian tax can be nil. Without a valid, portal-filed Form 10F plus TRC, the Indian payer is legally exposed and will deduct TDS under Section 195 at rates that can reach 20%+ — roughly Rs.3,00,000 or more locked up until you file an Indian return and claim a refund a year later. With the online Form 10F acknowledgement in hand, the payer can apply the treaty rate at source.

Scenario 2 — The US-based investor earning Indian interest. An NRI in the US earns Rs.8,00,000 of interest on an NRO deposit. Domestic TDS on NRO interest is 30% (plus surcharge and cess) — about Rs.2,40,000. The India-US DTAA caps interest at 15% in many cases. The treaty rate applies only if the bank has your TRC and a valid portal-generated Form 10F on file before it deducts. An emailed PDF gives the bank no defensible basis; it will apply 30%.

Scenario 3 — The NRI without a PAN. Many NRIs assumed the online portal was closed to them because it demanded a PAN. Since October 2023 the portal permits Form 10F filing for non-residents without a PAN, through a specific registration route. So "I don't have a PAN" is no longer an excuse to fall back on email — it is now a solvable, documented process.

The common thread: the tax you save is real money, and the only version of Form 10F that protects both you and the Indian payer is the one that produces a system acknowledgement number.

Why the payer cares as much as you do. When an Indian company or bank deducts less than the domestic rate, it is taking a position that the treaty applies. If that position is later questioned and the payer cannot show a valid TRC and a portal-generated Form 10F, the payer — not you — can be treated as an "assessee in default" and made to pay the shortfall, plus interest. This is precisely why Indian finance teams became strict after October 2023: an emailed PDF gives them nothing to stand on in an assessment. When you hand over a proper acknowledgement, you are not just helping yourself; you are giving the payer the defensible document they need to release your money at the lower rate without fear. Framing your request this way — "here is my portal acknowledgement, you are fully covered" — is often what unblocks a reluctant accounts department.

Timing is everything. The single most expensive mistake is filing Form 10F after the payment has already been made. TDS is deducted at the moment of credit or payment, whichever is earlier. If the deduction happens before the payer has your TRC and acknowledgement, the money is gone at the full domestic rate and your only remedy is a refund claim through your Indian return — which means waiting until after the Tax Year ends, filing an ITR-2, and then waiting for processing. Front-loading the paperwork before the first invoice or interest credit of the year is the difference between keeping your cash and lending it interest-free to the government for a year.

Step-by-step: what to do

• Get your TRC first. Obtain a current Tax Residency Certificate from your country's tax authority covering the relevant period. Form 10F references it, so it must exist before you file.
• Register on incometax.gov.in. If you have a PAN, register/log in normally. If you do not have a PAN, use the portal's "non-resident not having PAN" registration option to create access — this is the route that replaced the old email workaround.
• Open Form 10F under e-File → Income Tax Forms. Search for Form 10F and select the correct Tax Year (under ITA 2025 language, e.g., Tax Year 2026-27).
• Enter the details that the TRC does not always contain: your status (individual/company), nationality or country of incorporation, your tax identification number in your home country, the period for which residency is claimed, and your address in the country of residence.
• Attach the TRC as the supporting document within the online form.
• Authenticate and submit. Verify using OTP or a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC), as applicable. On success, the portal generates an acknowledgement — this is the document that has legal value.
• Send the acknowledgement, not a scan, to your Indian payer or bank before they deduct tax, so they can apply the treaty rate at source rather than the full domestic rate.

Closing

Form 10F is small, but the money riding on filing it correctly — online, with a TRC, before tax is deducted — is not. For your specific situation, book a consultation at harunraaj.com.

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See Also

• US-India DTAA Article 15 vs Article 16: What ITA 2025 Actually Says About Your Salary
• "My UAE residency exempts my Indian income": What ITA 2025 actually says
• "NRIs don't pay advance tax": What ITA 2025 actually says about deadlines and penalties

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