TCS
Tax an Indian bank collects when you send money abroad under the LRS: nil up to ₹10 lakh a year, then 20% for purposes such as buying property, creditable against your income tax.
What TCS means for a buyer
Tax collected at source (TCS) is collected by your Indian bank on LRS remittances. Since 1 April 2026 it sits in the Income-tax Act, 2025, replacing section 206C(1G) of the 1961 Act. Kotak Mahindra Bank and Standard Chartered India publish the same rates for 2026 to 2027: nil on the first ₹10 lakh in a financial year, then 20% for purposes other than education, medical treatment and overseas tour packages. A property purchase is not one of those exceptions.
TCS is not a final tax. Kotak's guidance states that the remitter can claim credit for it when filing the income tax return, so it is a cash-flow cost until then. On a booking payment of AED 211,020 (about ₹53.9 lakh at ₹25.56 per dirham on 12 November 2026), the first LRS remittance of the year would attract about ₹8.8 lakh of TCS.
See buying Dubai property from India and the costs in rupees.
Related terms
Guides that use this term
Where TCS comes up in practice, with the costs, rules and steps around it.
Questions about the buying process?
An adviser can explain how this applies to the property you're considering.
- Current price list and availability, direct from the developer
- No fee to you on off-plan purchases: the developer pays us
- One salaried adviser, not on commission, from first call to handover
