~₹5,000 friction per $10,000 repatriated
Schwab's $25 wire + Indian bank FX spread. Apple employees with large AAPL positions pay this multiple times per year.
USD cost basis — INR rebuild is annual manual work
Schwab reports every lot in USD. India filing needs INR cost basis at vest-day SBI TT rate. Apple's quarterly vesting = 4+ new lots per year to reconcile manually.
Schwab stock-plan accounts can't transfer to most US brokers
The only viable ACATS destination for Indian residents is a platform partnered with Alpaca Securities. Rovia is built around this.
No India-tax tools in Schwab
No Schedule FA. No Form 67 / FTC prep. No 24-month LTCG countdown. All manual or CA-managed.
How to transfer your AAPL RSUs to Rovia
Everything is done inside Rovia — takes about 2 minutes.
Download your Schwab Equity Award Center statement
Log into schwab.com → Equity Award Center → Accounts → Download your holdings and gains statement. Apple vests quarterly = 4 new lots per year. Save this for Rovia cost basis import.
Open Rovia → tap Transfer In → select Schwab
Open Rovia and navigate to Transfer In. Select "Charles Schwab · Equity Award Center" from the broker list. Enter your full name as it appears on your Schwab account, and your account number.
Choose full or partial — then submit
Select Full Transfer to move all AAPL holdings, or Partial to pick specific lots. Submit and you're done — shares move in-kind in 3–5 business days. No sale, no tax event.
Upload your statement — Rovia imports your cost basis
Once AAPL shares arrive, upload the statement from Step 1. Rovia computes INR cost basis at the vest-day SBI TT rate per lot and starts the 24-month LTCG countdown for each.
Apple has performance-condition RSUs. Does that affect the transfer?
Once RSUs are vested and in your name at Schwab, they transfer like any other shares. Performance conditions only matter before vesting.
Can I be selective about which lots to transfer?
Yes. ACATS supports partial transfers. You can move only lots past the 24-month LTCG threshold and leave newer lots at Schwab.
Does Apple restrict trading during blackouts? Does ACATS work during blackouts?
ACATS transfers are generally permitted during trading blackouts — you're moving ownership, not executing a sale. Verify with your stock-plan administrator.
Earnings dates are estimates for Q3 FY26. Blackout windows are approximate — actual dates are set by Apple and communicated to employees separately. ACATS share transfers are generally permitted during blackout periods (they are not sales), but always verify with your stock plan administrator.
Apple stock — context for Indian employees
Apple's services business ($100B+ ARR) trades at a higher multiple than the hardware segment, and the market is still learning to value this correctly. iPhone 16 cycle underwhelmed but the installed base (2.2B devices) is stickier than ever. The India manufacturing ramp is a real strategic hedge against China concentration. Analyst consensus: $240–$260, implying 10–15% upside from current levels.
AAPL is the world's largest company by market cap and has historically been one of the most tax-efficient holds — Warren Buffett's long hold thesis. For Indian residents, the math changes: every year you don't move AAPL to a tax-advantaged structure, you're rebuilding lot-level INR cost basis manually. The stock's low beta (0.95) means it's one of the calmer single-stock risks in this list.
Why diversification matters for AAPL holders
Despite the "quality" perception, AAPL is an 80%+ consumer hardware revenue business. A recession, a regulatory tariff on Chinese-made phones, or a generational shift away from iPhone can move the stock 20%+ in months. Indian Apple employees at Cupertino and Hyderabad offices have significant exposure.
India tax guide for US RSU holders
RSU vesting: it's taxable income on Day 1
When your RSUs vest, the fair market value of shares on the vest date is treated as a perquisite — a form of salary income under India's Income Tax Act. This means you owe tax in the year of vesting, regardless of whether you sell. The taxable amount is the number of shares vested × vest-day closing price, converted to INR using the SBI TT buying rate on that date.
Most Indian employees at US tech companies are in the 30% slab plus 4% health and education cess, bringing the effective perquisite tax rate to 31.2%. Your employer's US payroll typically withholds a portion via sell-to-cover, but you must self-assess any balance in your India ITR.
Capital gains: the 24-month rule that most employees miss
India taxes capital gains on foreign shares differently from the US. In the US, long-term capital gains kick in at 12 months. In India, foreign shares must be held for 24 months to qualify as long-term capital assets.
Short-term capital gains (STCG) — shares held less than 24 months from the vest date — are taxed at your income tax slab rate. For a senior IC in the 30% slab with 15% surcharge, that's approximately 35.88% all-in. Long-term capital gains (LTCG) on foreign shares are taxed at a flat 12.5% under the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, effective July 23, 2024 — the prior 20%-with-indexation regime was replaced and indexation was removed entirely. With surcharge and cess on top, the all-in LTCG rate sits around 14–15% for high earners.
The 24-month clock starts from the vest date (not the grant date). Each lot vests separately, so careful lot tracking is essential.
Schedule FA: the foreign asset disclosure most people skip
Schedule FA (Foreign Assets) in the ITR must be filed by every Indian resident & ordinarily resident who holds any foreign asset — including US stocks — at any time during the relevant accounting period. There is no minimum threshold for disclosure: even a single share triggers filing. The accounting period for Schedule FA is the calendar year (January 1 – December 31), not the Indian financial year — a quirk that catches almost every first-time filer.
Failure to disclose is treated as a violation under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act, 2015, with penalties of ₹10 lakh per year under Section 43, prosecution risk under Section 50 (up to 7 years), and reassessment open for up to 10 years under Section 149(1)(c). The Income Tax Department now receives end-of-year balances directly from US financial institutions via the Common Reporting Standard, so non-filing is increasingly mechanically detectable.
Schedule FA requires per-lot disclosure: name of the foreign entity, country code, acquisition date, initial value (INR at vest-day RBI TT rate), peak value during the calendar year, closing value at Dec 31, and any sale proceeds during the period. Rovia auto-generates Schedule FA data at filing time.
Form 67 and the foreign tax credit
If your US stocks pay dividends, the US withholds 30% (or 25% if you have filed a W-8BEN, as all Rovia account holders do). India also taxes dividend income at your slab rate. To avoid double taxation, you can claim a Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) by filing Form 67.
Form 67 must be filed before the ITR due date — not after. It requires the dividend amount, the US tax withheld, and the exchange rate on the dividend payment date. Rovia tracks dividends lot-by-lot to produce Form 67-ready data.
The INR cost basis problem: why it matters
Your broker (Schwab, E*TRADE, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley) maintains your cost basis in USD. But India's capital gains calculation requires INR cost basis, converted using the SBI TT buying rate on the vest date of each lot.
For a 4-year employee with quarterly vesting, this means 16 individual lots, each with a different USD price, different exchange rate, and different 24-month clock. Getting this wrong — even by using the wrong exchange rate — constitutes an incorrect ITR filing.
Rovia applies SBI TT rates automatically at each vest date and maintains lot-level INR cost basis. Your CA gets a ready-to-file summary rather than a 1099-B in USD.
What Rovia automates for you
INR cost basis — automatic
Every lot gets INR cost basis at the vest-day SBI TT buying rate. No manual conversion, no spreadsheet, no CA fee for pulling rates.
24-month countdown per lot
Rovia shows a countdown to LTCG eligibility for each lot. You can see at a glance which AAPL lots are short-term vs. long-term before you sell.
Schedule FA ready to file
Rovia generates Schedule FA data (peak balance, acquisition cost in INR, country) for your CA or your own ITR — no manual reconstruction from statements.
Form 67 / FTC tracking
Dividend withholding tracked lot-by-lot. Form 67 data ready at filing. Claim back the US 25% withholding as a foreign tax credit in India.
0 platform FX markup
When you repatriate AAPL sale proceeds, Rovia adds no FX spread. You pay your bank's wire rate — saving ₹4,000–₹7,000 per $10,000 repatriated vs. Schwab.
India-based support, IST hours
Rovia's support team is in India. If you have a tax or transfer question at 10 AM IST, someone answers — not an overnight ticket queue.
Ready to move your
Apple RSUs?
Transfer in minutes inside Rovia. Your AAPL shares arrive in 3–5 days with INR cost basis, lot-level 24-month LTCG countdown, and Schedule FA ready for filing.
Transfer to Rovia →
