Cross-Border Equity Tax - Overview
📌 TL;DR - Foreign Parent ESOP and RSU Services at a Glance
When a US, UK, Singapore or Israeli parent company grants RSUs, ESOPs, ESPP or SARs to its Indian subsidiary employees, three Indian tax events trigger - no tax at grant, perquisite tax at vesting under Section 17(2)(vi) with TDS by the Indian subsidiary under Section 192(1), and capital gains tax at sale under Section 112 (LTCG 12.5 percent post-Finance Act 2024 if held over 24 months). Plus mandatory Schedule FA disclosure for Resident and Ordinarily Resident employees and Form 67 plus Schedule TR for Foreign Tax Credit under DTAA. FEMA OI Rules 2022 and LRS limits apply. The Indian subsidiary must also document its parent-subsidiary equity cost recharge for transfer pricing.
Delhi sits at the policy and corporate-registry centre of the foreign-parent equity question - the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and CBDT are headquartered here, and the NCR as a whole hosts roughly 270 global capability centres. Within Delhi proper, the Nehru Place IT district, the Connaught Place finance core and the Saket-Aerocity corporate belt hold the India offices of US and European groups whose employees carry foreign-parent RSUs and ESPP. Being next door to the MCA and CBDT, Delhi clients tend to ask the governance and assessment questions first - how the recharge is booked, how Schedule FA mismatches surface in AIS/TIS, and how to respond to a notice. The Indian subsidiary is statutory TDS deductor under Section 192 on shares it never issued; employees claim foreign tax credit through Form 67 and disclose in Schedule FA; all across two tax codes, two currencies and two reporting frameworks.
Patron Accounting LLP runs this engagement end-to-end for the Delhi subsidiary (Section 192 TDS, Schedule III, transfer pricing recharge memo, Ind AS 102 group share-based payment) and the senior Nehru Place and Aerocity employees (ITR-2/ITR-3, Schedule FA, Schedule FSI, Schedule TR, Form 67). Delhi subsidiaries file with RoC Delhi, which also covers the wider NCR. One firm, one named CA partner accountability, covering both sides of the cross-border equity stack since 2009.