Form 13 (lower TDS certificate) vs Form 15CA/15CB — what's the difference
Form 13 (the lower TDS certificate) reduces how much tax gets deducted when you're paid in India — on a property sale, rent, or interest. Form 15CA/15CB comes later, when you want to remit that money out of India to your overseas account — it certifies to the bank that applicable tax has been paid or deducted on the remittance. Many NRIs selling property in India end up needing both, at different points in the same overall transaction.
Two forms, two different moments in the same journey
Picture an NRI in London selling an apartment in Chennai. The moment the buyer pays for the property is where a lower TDS certificate matters — it determines how much the buyer withholds before crediting the rest to the seller's Indian bank account. Weeks or months later, when the seller wants to move those sale proceeds from India to their UK bank account, that's a completely separate step governed by Form 15CA/15CB, not Form 13.
What Form 13 actually does
Form 13, under Section 197, is about the deduction that happens when income is paid to you in India. It results in a certificate you hand to the person paying you, so they deduct less (or nothing) at source. It has nothing to do with whether or how you later move that money out of the country.
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See both services →What Form 15CA/15CB actually does
Form 15CA is a self-declaration, and Form 15CB is a CA's certification, both required (in most cases) before a bank processes an outward remittance from India — they confirm that applicable tax has been accounted for on the funds being sent abroad. This is a compliance step for the outward transfer itself, separate from whatever TDS treatment applied when the money was first received. Our guide on NRO-to-NRE transfers and Form 15CA covers a closely related scenario for NRIs repatriating funds.
Why the sequencing matters
Getting the Form 13 certificate sorted first means more of the sale proceeds actually land in your Indian account rather than being withheld unnecessarily. Only once the funds are sitting there does the question of remitting them abroad — and the accompanying 15CA/15CB requirement — become relevant. Treating these as one undifferentiated 'NRI tax paperwork' problem is a common source of confusion; they're sequential, not interchangeable.
Do I need Form 15CA/15CB if I'm keeping the sale proceeds in India?
No — Form 15CA/15CB is only relevant when you're remitting funds out of India to an overseas account. If you're keeping the proceeds in an Indian NRO account for now, a lower TDS certificate under Form 13 is the relevant form at the point of sale; 15CA/15CB only becomes relevant later, if and when you decide to repatriate the money.
This article is for general information only. For your specific situation, consult a practicing CA.
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