Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W · Reviewed on 12 October 2026
Steps one to three: file it properly
1. Register on TRACES as a taxpayer, on the same PAN on which you will report the sale. 2. Open Form 128 — the department’s path is Dashboard → e-file and view → File Forms — and enter your estimated income and tax computation: sale value, cost of acquisition, the expected gain, and the buyer’s details. 3. Upload the support — agreement to sell, purchase deed and cost proofs, any reinvestment papers, and your returns for the last four years where filed — then e-verify, submit, and note the acknowledgement number.
Steps four and five: queries, then the buyer
4. The jurisdictional TDS Assessing Officer — International Taxation, for non-residents — reviews the file and may raise a query; answer quickly and completely, because each round adds days. 5. Once issued, download the certificate from TRACES and give it to your buyer, who can verify it there and deducts at the certified rate. It names that buyer, covers the amount and period it states, and protects only payments made after issue — a token advance paid earlier suffers full TDS.
The buyer-side detail that trips people up
The form asks for the payer’s details, including a TAN where the buyer has one — and a wrong TAN means starting again. From 1 October 2026, an individual or HUF buying from an NRI needs no TAN at all: they deduct and deposit through Form 141, the challan-cum-statement, using its NRI-specific Schedule E (CBDT Notification 121/2026). Settle with your buyer, before you file, how the certificate will identify them; several buyers for one property must each be covered. Our NRI property-sale practice runs the whole sequence, from application to repatriation.