Short answer: inheriting money, deposits, shares or property in India is not taxed. What stands between you and the money is evidence: each institution has to be satisfied that the asset is now yours, and the document that satisfies it varies by asset, amount and institution. Once transferred, inherited rupee funds land in your NRO account, and you can take out up to USD 1 million per financial year on documentary evidence of the inheritance. Tax arises only on what the assets earn, or gain, after they become yours.
Most delays in these cases are not legal problems. They come from starting with the wrong document for the institution concerned, or from selling before the paperwork that the bank will want at the remittance stage exists.
Three separate steps, in a fixed order
It helps to see the process as three problems, because different people solve each one:
- Establishing entitlement: showing that you are the person the asset now belongs to. This is succession law and paperwork.
- Moving each asset into your name: bank by bank, depository by depository, property by property. Each institution applies its own document list.
- Moving the money out of India: through your NRO account, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) limit, with the tax forms the bank requires.
The third step is where people usually start asking questions. The first two decide how quickly it can happen.
The documents that establish an inheritance
| Document | Issued by | What it establishes | Where it is typically asked for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nomination | Already on the account or folio | Who the institution may pay | Bank deposits, demat accounts, mutual funds, insurance |
| Will | The deceased | Who inherits, and the executor | Everywhere, as the starting point where one exists |
| Probate | A court | Judicial confirmation of the will | Some banks, housing societies and buyers, for larger estates or where there is doubt |
| Letters of administration | A court | Authority to administer an estate (no will, or no executor) | Complex or disputed estates |
| Succession certificate | A civil court, under Part X of the Indian Succession Act 1925 | Authority to collect debts and securities, such as deposits and shares | Deposits and securities with no nominee and no will, above the institution's threshold |
| Legal heir certificate | The local revenue office (for example the tahsildar), under state practice | Who the surviving heirs are | Smaller bank claims, pensions, utility and municipal records |
Which applies when. Where there is a nomination, the institution pays the nominee on a claim form and the death certificate. That does not make the nominee the owner: a nominee receives on behalf of the legal heirs, and the will or the law of succession decides who keeps it. Where there is a will, it is the core document. Where there is no will, succession follows the deceased's personal law, and a court succession certificate is the standard route for deposits and securities above whatever threshold the institution applies.
Probate is no longer compulsory anywhere in India. Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act used to make probate mandatory for certain wills in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The Repealing and Amending Act 2025, which received assent on 20 December 2025, omitted it. Probate is still available, and some banks, housing societies and property buyers continue to ask for it, particularly on larger estates. Treat it as something an institution may request rather than something the law requires.
The requirement varies by asset and by state. Legal heir certificates are issued under state practice and are not uniform. Court fees for succession certificates are set by each state. A bank may accept an indemnity and a legal heir certificate for a small balance and insist on a succession certificate for a large one. Ask each institution for its list in writing before you apply to any court.
Moving each asset into your name
| Asset | What usually moves it | Where it lands for an NRI heir |
|---|---|---|
| Bank deposits | Nomination, or the bank's claim procedure with the documents above | NRO account |
| Listed shares, mutual funds | Transmission request to the depository participant or registrar | A demat or folio designated non-resident, non-repatriable |
| Shares in a private company | Transmission recorded by the company | Held on a non-repatriation basis; dividends and sale proceeds to NRO |
| Immovable property | Mutation in the revenue or municipal records, on the will or succession documents | Held in your name; rent and sale proceeds to NRO |
Bank deposits. The RBI's 2025 directions on settling deceased customers' claims, which banks had to implement by 31 March 2026, require a simplified procedure for claims with no nominee up to ₹15 lakh at commercial banks (₹5 lakh at co-operative banks), and set a time limit for settlement once documents are complete. Above those amounts the bank may ask for a succession certificate or probate.
Shares. Transmission changes the holder, not the holding. The depository or company will ask for the death certificate, the claim documents and your KYC as a non-resident. The account the shares move into has to reflect your status: inherited from a resident, they are held on a non-repatriation basis.
Property. FEMA lets a non-resident Indian or an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) inherit any immovable property, including agricultural land, plantation property and farm houses, from a person resident in India, under Rule 24(c) of the FEMA (Non-Debt Instruments) Rules 2019. Inheritance is the only route by which a non-resident can newly acquire agricultural land. Selling it later is restricted, as covered in inheriting as an OCI or foreign citizen.