Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W · Reviewed on 12 October 2026
What the buyer is now facing
Payments to a non-resident seller carry TDS on sums chargeable to tax — section 195 of the 1961 Act for payments up to 31 March 2026, section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act 2025 after that. Doing it properly meant a TAN and quarterly Form 27Q filings (Form 144 for payments from 1 April 2026) — and from 1 October 2026 (CBDT Notification 121/2026), an individual or HUF buyer instead deposits through Form 141, a challan-cum-statement with its NRI-specific Schedule E, no TAN needed, and issues Form 132; companies and firms stay on the TAN route. Having skipped the deduction altogether, the buyer can be treated as assessee-in-default under section 201: the tax he should have deducted, interest at 1%/1.5% a month, late-filing fees, and disallowance exposure. Buyers usually discover this at registration or when their own assessment opens.
How your tax payment rescues both sides
Once you pay the tax on the gain and file your return, the buyer’s default softens: on the settled principle that tax cannot be collected twice, his exposure narrows to interest up to the date of your payment — documented through a chartered accountant’s certificate in Form 26A (Form 149 under section 398(2) of the 2025 Act, for defaults from 1 April 2026) confirming the seller has returned the income and paid the tax. Many registrations are completed exactly on this footing.
What you should actually do now
Don’t wait for the buyer’s problem to become a notice addressed to you. Compute the gain (with the 2001 base-year or actual cost), pay advance tax in the quarter of sale or self-assessment tax with the return, and keep the sale deed, cost proofs and computation in one file. If repatriation is next, the 15CA/15CB step wants exactly the same papers. Our NRI property-sale practice handles the seller’s side and supplies the Form 26A / Form 149 certificate the buyer will come asking for.