Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W
What Form 13 changes
By default the buyer must deduct TDS on your entire sale value under Section 195. A certificate granted on Form 13 directs the buyer to deduct only on your actual capital gain, so far less of your money is locked up waiting for a refund.
How to apply on TRACES
- Register on the income-tax TRACES portal with your PAN.
- File Form 13 with the buyer’s PAN and TAN, the sale value, your cost of acquisition, and a computation of the expected gain.
- The jurisdictional TDS Assessing Officer reviews it under a faceless process and issues the certificate at a specified rate.
The certificate is buyer-specific and transaction-specific — a change of buyer means a fresh Form 13.
A worked example and timing
On a sale of ₹2 crore with a gain of ₹30 lakh, a certificate caps deduction at roughly 13% of ₹30 lakh instead of on the full ₹2 crore — freeing up around ₹20 lakh of proceeds. Allow a few weeks for processing and apply well before you register the sale; timelines vary by office, so confirm the current position. If you are reinvesting under Section 54/54EC you may even get a nil certificate. Our NRI property service handles the Form 13 filing end to end.