How much does it cost to get Form 15CB from a CA?

Last updated 18 October 2026 · Reviewed by CA Rinky Vishwakarma, Chartered Accountant

Who needs this

• Indian businesses paying foreign vendors, agencies or software companies
• Remitters claiming a lower tax rate under a DTAA (tax treaty)
• NRIs moving money abroad from an NRO account
• Anyone whose bank has asked for a CA certificate before releasing a foreign payment

What's included with Shunya (Rs 2,999)

• Form 145 (15CA) and Form 146 (15CB) prepared by a practising CA
• UDIN on the certificate
• Bank-ready PDFs
• 100% online, no office visit needed

What a Form 146 certificate costs

Form 146 is the new name for Form 15CB from 1 April 2026. The CA does the same work for it, so everything below about what drives the fee still applies. The government charges no fee to file Form 145 or Form 146 on the income tax portal. What you pay is the CA's professional fee.

At Shunya, the Form 146 certificate comes with your Form 145 filing for ₹2,999 per remittance, signed by a practising CA with UDIN. Each remittance that needs Form 146 gets its own certificate, so recurring payments are charged per remittance. If your payment needs only Form 145 and no CA certificate, ask us for the fee before you pay.

Full Answer

A product startup in Bengaluru found a CA on a freelance platform offering 15CB at Rs 600 per certificate. The CA delivered in two hours. The 15CB stated TDS was not applicable, citing the India-US DTAA, but the TDS section was left blank without any analysis. When the bank reviewed the certificate, they asked why the applicable DTAA article was not cited and why the beneficial ownership condition was not addressed. The bank's forex compliance officer escalated it internally. The startup needed a revised certificate from a different CA. What was Rs 600 became Rs 4,500 plus a four-day delay on a time-sensitive vendor payment.

Form 15CB (now Form 146) is a signed legal certificate. The fee reflects the work required to produce a certificate that can withstand bank scrutiny and potential Income Tax department review. Buying the cheapest option is a false economy when the certificate itself carries legal weight.

For a straightforward remittance where the invoice is clear, the nature of payment is unambiguous (a pure services contract or a clear product purchase), no DTAA benefit is being claimed, and TDS has been correctly deducted and deposited, most practicing CAs charge between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500 outside metros. In Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, the same clean transaction typically costs Rs 2,500 to Rs 4,000.

What pushes fees higher is complexity. DTAA benefit analysis requires the CA to review the specific treaty, confirm the applicable article, verify the Tax Residency Certificate from the foreign entity, assess the beneficial ownership condition, and certify the reduced rate. This adds meaningful analysis time and typically adds Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 to the base fee.

Payment classification analysis adds cost when the nature of the payment is genuinely ambiguous. A contract that describes work as both technical consulting and software maintenance, for example, requires the CA to determine whether Section 9(1)(vi) (royalty) or Section 9(1)(vii) (FTS) applies. If there is relevant ITAT or High Court case law specific to the payment type, the CA needs to review it. This is not padding; it is the work that protects you from an incorrect certification.

Urgency carries a premium. A CA who reorganises their existing queue to deliver a certificate in three to four hours instead of the standard next-day timeline will charge 40 to 80 percent more for the express slot. This is reasonable. Express fees are common in professional services and the alternative is the payment being delayed by a day.

For NRI repatriation certificates where the scope extends to reviewing ITR compliance, income source documentation, and property transaction records, the 15CB is typically bundled into a broader NRI tax engagement. These engagements run from Rs 8,000 to Rs 25,000 or more depending on the complexity of the income sources and the number of years of ITR filings involved.

For businesses with recurring foreign payments, per-certificate pricing is inefficient. A monthly retainer covering a defined number of certificates, say five to ten, plus same-day turnaround for urgent requests, typically costs Rs 6,000 to Rs 20,000 per month depending on transaction volume and average complexity. This is significantly less per certificate than individual pricing and gives you priority turnaround without negotiating every time.

Under ICAI's guidelines, a CA issuing a 15CB certificate is responsible for verifying the facts and is professionally accountable for the certificate's contents. A certificate issued without proper verification is a disciplinary matter under the ICAI Code of Ethics. When evaluating a CA for 15CB work, ask specifically about their experience with foreign remittances, the typical range of payment types they handle, and whether they have dealt with DTAA analysis for the specific country involved in your transaction.

This article is for general information only. For your specific remittance, consult a practicing CA.