Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W · Reviewed on 12 October 2026
What the certificate changes
A buyer paying a non-resident must deduct TDS on the whole sale consideration — under section 195 for payments up to 31 March 2026, under section 393(2) of the 2025 Act after that — at 12.5% plus surcharge and cess for a long-term gain: an effective 13% to 14.95%. Your tax is only on the gain. A certificate closes the gap: on a ₹2-crore sale with a ₹30-lakh gain, TDS falls from about ₹29.9 lakh to about ₹3.9 lakh — roughly ₹26 lakh that stays with you instead of waiting a year for a refund.
How the application runs
Log in to TRACES with your PAN and file Form 128 (Form 13 for applications made before 1 April 2026) — the department’s path is Dashboard → e-file and view → File Forms. The form asks for your estimated income and tax computation, the payer’s details including the buyer’s TAN where the buyer has one, and returns for the last four years where filed; you then e-verify and submit. The TDS Assessing Officer — International Taxation, for non-residents — may raise a query before issuing the certificate, which your buyer can verify on TRACES.
Sequencing and the fine print
The certificate is specific: it names the deductor, covers the amount and period it states, and protects only payments made after it is issued — an advance paid earlier suffers full TDS. A new buyer means a fresh application, and each co-owner applies for their own share. Certificates already issued under the 1961 Act stay valid for the period they state. Allow a few weeks for processing and file as soon as a buyer is in sight; our NRI property-sale practice runs the certificate, the buyer’s filing and the repatriation as one sequence.