If you earn or earned income that has been taxed in both India and a foreign country in the same financial year — common scenarios include a returning NRI whose US salary is partially in India's RNOR-and-after window, an Indian resident with US dividends, a UK-based employee with Indian rental income, or a freelancer paid by an overseas client who withheld foreign tax — Indian law lets you claim that foreign tax as a credit against Indian tax on the same income. The mechanism is the Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) under Section 90 / 91 of the Income Tax Act + the relevant DTAA article. The form that activates the FTC is Form 67. Filed late, the FTC is technically forfeitable. This is the 2026 step-by-step guide to filing Form 67 on the income tax portal, the supporting documents you must have, the DTAA-article specifics for the four largest NRI corridors, and the 8-year carry-forward rule that saves any unused credit.
Why Form 67 is the gating step
Rule 128 of the Income Tax Rules, 1962 mandates that a taxpayer claiming FTC under Section 90, 90A, or 91 must furnish a statement of foreign tax paid in Form 67 on or before the due date of furnishing the ITR for that year. The credit cannot be claimed in the ITR unless Form 67 is filed first.
CBDT eased the deadline slightly via Notification 100/2022 (29 August 2022): Form 67 can now be filed on or before the end of the assessment year (31 March of the following year) in cases where the FTC claim was reflected in a belated or revised return. But the original-return filer must file Form 67 alongside or before the ITR. The clean rule of thumb: file Form 67 before filing your ITR every year you have foreign tax paid.
Who needs to file Form 67
- Indian residents (ROR + RNOR) with income that has suffered foreign tax — US salary, foreign dividends, foreign rental, foreign-employer RSU vesting, foreign-bank interest.
- Returning NRIs whose pre-return foreign income has carried forward foreign tax that needs offsetting against India tax on that same income.
- Returning NRIs in the RNOR window whose foreign-source income is exempt in India anyway — Form 67 is not needed; foreign tax has nothing to credit against.
- Pure NRIs filing ITR-2 in India for India-source income only — Form 67 is generally not relevant because India-source income is not foreign-tax-suffered.
Document checklist
- Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) from the foreign country — confirming you were tax-resident there during the income year. Mandatory under Section 90(4).
- Form 10F filed online on the Indian income tax portal — declaration of identifying particulars used in conjunction with the TRC. Mandatory online since October 2022.
- Proof of foreign tax paid — for the USA, Form W-2 or Form 1099 + IRS payment receipt; for the UK, P60 + P45 + HMRC tax certificate; for the UAE, post-2023 corporate-tax payment receipt where applicable + UAE Federal Tax Authority TRC; for other countries, the local employer tax certificate + foreign tax-authority payment proof.
- Foreign income computation — a clean schedule showing gross foreign income, allowable foreign deductions, net taxable foreign income, foreign tax rate applied.
- Indian tax computation on the same income — what Indian tax would be on the same income at Indian rates.
- Bank statement showing the foreign income credit and the tax withholding (if relevant).
Step-by-step online filing
- Log in to incometax.gov.in with your PAN-linked credentials.
- Go to e-File → Income Tax Forms → File Income Tax Forms.
- Select Form 67 — Statement of foreign income offered to tax.
- Choose the relevant Assessment Year (e.g., AY 2026-27 for income earned in FY 2025-26).
- Page 1 — Personal details auto-populate from PAN. Confirm.
- Page 2 — Add Foreign Tax Refund line-items. For each country and source of income:
- Country name and country code
- Source-of-income type (salary / interest / dividend / capital gains / business / rental / other)
- Gross income (INR equivalent at appropriate exchange rate)
- Income offered to Indian tax in the ITR (INR)
- Foreign tax paid (INR equivalent)
- Article of DTAA invoked (or Section 91 unilateral relief if no treaty)
- FTC claimed (INR — lower of Indian tax on the income or foreign tax paid)
- Upload supporting documents (TRC, foreign tax certificate, bank statement) as PDF.
- Preview → e-Verify using Aadhaar OTP or net-banking EVC or DSC.
- Download the filed acknowledgement. The acknowledgement number is the reference for the FTC claim in the ITR.
- File the ITR — Schedule TR (Tax Relief) carries the Form 67 reference and the credit amount.
How much FTC can you actually claim
The credit is the lower of:
- Foreign tax actually paid in the foreign country on the income; AND
- Indian tax on the same income (i.e., the Indian-rate tax that would apply if the income were taxed in India at the applicable rate).
If the foreign rate is higher than the Indian rate, the excess foreign tax is not refundable. It is also generally not carried forward (with treaty-specific exceptions). If the foreign rate is lower than the Indian rate, you claim the foreign tax as a credit and pay the Indian-rate top-up.
The credit is computed per-country and per-source (not aggregate). High-tax-country credit cannot offset Indian tax on low-tax-country income.
DTAA article specifics — the four largest NRI corridors
India-USA DTAA
- Article 25 — Relief from Double Taxation. Provides the FTC mechanism. India allows credit for US tax paid on US-source income.
- Article 22 — Other Income (residual). For income types not specifically addressed in earlier articles. India retains residual right to tax under Article 22.
- Interest: 15% withholding (Article 11). Dividend: 25% Indian rate / 15% reciprocal (Article 10). FTC claim is straightforward.
- Coordination with IRS Form 1116 on US side (for US-residents claiming credit for Indian-source taxes) is symmetric.
India-UK DTAA
- Article 24 — Elimination of Double Taxation. Same FTC mechanism.
- Interest: 15% withholding. Dividend: 15%. UK remittance basis (vs arising basis) can interact — taxpayers on remittance basis can defer UK tax until remitted, complicating the FTC computation.
- UK National Insurance is generally not creditable against Indian tax (it is a social security charge, not income tax).
India-UAE DTAA
- Article 25 — Avoidance of Double Taxation.
- UAE introduced 9% corporate tax in 2023; individual income remains untaxed. For a UAE-resident individual NRI, foreign tax paid = typically zero on personal income, so Form 67 is rarely needed.
- The opposite direction (UAE-source business income earned by an Indian-resident) may now have UAE corporate tax to credit.
India-Singapore DTAA
- Article 25 — Elimination of Double Taxation.
- Interest: 15% withholding. Dividend: 15%. Singapore is a low-tax jurisdiction but not zero — actual Singapore tax paid is creditable.
- Singapore CPF (Central Provident Fund) employer / employee contributions are social-security; generally not creditable as income tax.
The 8-year carry-forward rule
Where the foreign tax paid is higher than the Indian tax on the same income in a given year, the excess credit is not refundable. However, under Section 90 read with the relevant DTAA, excess FTC can be carried forward for up to 8 assessment years immediately succeeding the assessment year in which the foreign tax was paid, to be offset against Indian tax on foreign-source income of a similar nature.
Form 67 in subsequent years discloses the carry-forward balance. Track it on a year-on-year register; tax officers verify the balance during assessment.
Five common Form 67 mistakes
- Filing after the ITR. The credit can be disallowed. File Form 67 before the ITR — same day is acceptable, after the ITR is risky.
- No TRC. Without a TRC from the foreign country, DTAA-rate relief is not available and the FTC under DTAA can be challenged at scrutiny.
- Wrong exchange rate. Use the SBI Telegraphic Transfer (TT) Buying Rate on the date the foreign tax was paid (or, for ongoing tax withheld monthly, the average for the year per CBDT-prescribed method).
- Claiming social security as income tax. US Social Security, UK NIC, German Pflichtbeitrag are social security contributions, not income tax — not creditable.
- Aggregating credit across countries. Credit is per-country, per-source. The form requires separate line-items.
Practical playbook
- If you have any foreign tax suffered in the FY, file Form 67 before filing the ITR. Default the workflow to "Form 67 first, ITR second."
- Get the foreign TRC at the start of the next FY for the previous FY — do not wait until ITR filing season; some foreign tax authorities take 8-12 weeks.
- Maintain a per-country FTC register tracking gross income, foreign tax, Indian tax computed, credit claimed, carry-forward balance year by year.
- Returning NRIs should model the FTC alongside the RNOR-window planning — RNOR foreign-income exemption may eliminate the need for FTC entirely, simplifying the return.
Frequently asked questions
What if I miss the Form 67 deadline?
The CBDT 2022 amendment extended the deadline to the end of the assessment year for belated/revised ITR filers. If you missed both, the FTC is technically disallowed; you may need to file a revised return and Form 67 together, and the assessment officer has discretion. Conservative practice: file by ITR due date.
Do I need Form 67 for tax paid on foreign-source income exempt under RNOR?
No. If the foreign income is not offered to tax in India because of RNOR exemption, there is no Indian tax to credit against, and Form 67 is moot for that income.
Can I get a refund of excess foreign tax paid?
India does not refund excess foreign tax. The excess is carried forward as FTC for 8 years against foreign-source income of similar nature.
What if the foreign country deducted tax but I am not actually required to pay it there?
You must seek a refund from the foreign tax authority directly. Indian FTC requires the foreign tax to have been "paid" — withheld and not refunded by year-end qualifies.
Is Form 67 required for UAE-resident NRIs claiming DTAA-reduced TDS on NRO interest?
No — that is a different flow. NRO TDS at DTAA-reduced rate requires Form 10F + TRC submitted to the bank or payer. Form 67 is for claiming Indian-side credit for foreign tax already paid abroad on the same income — different direction.
Can I file Form 67 in paper instead of online?
No. Form 67 must be filed electronically with digital signature or EVC. There is no paper-route since the online portal mandate.
Sources: Income Tax Rules, 1962 — Rule 128; CBDT Notification 100/2022 dated 29 August 2022; Income Tax Act Sections 90, 90A, 91; relevant DTAA texts (India-USA, India-UK, India-UAE, India-Singapore); accessed May 2026. Form 67 procedure is updated periodically — verify the current process and exchange-rate convention on incometax.gov.in. Editorial research, not tax advice.