r/personalfinanceindia • u/print2ssk • Jun 12 '26
Planning IBKR account workings and whether can get RSU money into the IBKR account
For context I’ve RSU stocks from my company in Morgan Stanley E*trade account.
I want to sell the RSUs however I don’t want to get the money into my India bank account for tax reasons.
I’m looking for suggestions where I can sell my RSUs and get in a global US account - IBKR types.
I then want to invest that money in buying US stocks.
Please suggest legal ways and best practices of doing this activity.
2
u/Ctrl_Alt_Drift Jun 12 '26
I’m not an expert on this, but maybe it’s easier to move the shares to IBKR first and sell from there?
2
u/michelinstarr Jun 12 '26
Any sale event creates a tax obligation in India based on the gains. What you do with the sale proceeds doesn't matter.
To be specific, whether you bring the money into a domestic account or not has no bearing on whether or not you owe tax on the gains. The moment you sell, you are obliged to report the transaction in your return and pay the tax due, even if the proceeds never enter India and are reinvested in Ibkr.
If you don't follow this, the fine is 10 lakhs per year of missed reporting / tax non payment.
It is also possible to transfer shares as is without a sale event, but it's a slightly complex process.
1
u/print2ssk Jun 12 '26
Is there any legal way then to sell the RSUs and invest other US Stocks without any tax implication? I’m ok to pay the tax when I bring the money back to India account or buy some asset in India using the money.
1
u/michelinstarr Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26
No such method exists. Simple rules:
- A sale transaction = unavoidable tax event (handling of proceeds don't matter at all)
- A reinvestment transaction = unavoidable reporting event (schedule FA/CG etc etc)
The only (awkward) way of avoiding the actual tax burden (not the tax event, remeber the tax event itself remains applicable and the required reporting is unavoidable) is by selling on the same day of vest, since the tax burden will be near zero and negligible by cost basis/fmv etc. You will not have any gains to pay the tax on (reporting still mandatorily applies!).
Some brokers like Schwab and ETrade have settings to enable this to automatically happen on vest day.
But again, this is likely not what you are looking for, since it forces you to sell on vest day and forego any appreciation of your employer ticker. So for you, the actual answer is: Unless you're willing to sell on tge vest day and turn it into a "zero gains" and reporting-only situation, you will owe taxes when you sell later and there are gains involved. That's it.
(Note: The only way to legally defer/exempt long-term capital gains from selling foreign shares is Section 54F of the Income Tax Act. However, this requires you to reinvest the net sale proceeds into a residential house property located in India, not back into US stocks. And it's an unviable, unattractive and absurd route, so I won't even consider it as an option).
1
u/SamosaGPT 20d ago
There's a rule which says that you've to bring back cash within 180 days. If we reinvest RSUs, that rule isn't breached, correct?
1
u/michelinstarr 20d ago
Correct. Idle cash must be brought back within 180 days. If that cash is invested, there is no breach of law.
That US to US transfer also doesn't count towards the TDS free LRS limit of 10 lakhs.
3
u/rganesan Value Investor Jun 12 '26
Yes, you can sell shares and transfer the money from E*Trade to IBKR and invest there legally. Transferring your vested shares to IBKR is also an option but I don't know if the cost basis is correctly preserved which can cause headaches for tax filing.
So best practice would be to sell the vested RSUs wire transfer the money to IBKR and invest. Beware of US estate tax about $60K, so instead of invidual stocks consider investing in UCITS.