How to Transfer RSUs from Schwab Equity Awards to Rovia

Who is on Schwab Equity Awards

Schwab Equity Awards is the stock-plan platform behind a tight cluster of US employers — most relevant for Indian residents: Google (Alphabet), Apple, Cisco, Eli Lilly, IBM, and a handful of others. If you are an Indian-resident IC at any of these companies, this guide is for you.

The single most important thing to understand about Schwab Equity Awards: it is not a full Schwab brokerage account. It is a restricted stock-plan account that exists primarily to receive and hold your employer's grants. You cannot ACATS-transfer shares out of it directly. Every transfer mechanic flows from this constraint.

1. The Schwab Equity Awards architecture

There are actually two Schwab logins in play: schwab.com/equity-awards (your stock-plan portal — restricted) and schwab.com (your Schwab One brokerage, if you have opened one). They share single sign-on but have distinct account numbers and operational rules.

For most Indian-resident employees, the Schwab One account was never opened — you only ever interacted with the Equity Awards portal. The fix is straightforward: open one before initiating any transfer.

2. The transfer playbook

Step 1 — Open a Schwab One brokerage account (if you don't have one)

On schwab.com → Accounts → Open new account → “Schwab One Brokerage Account.” The application asks for your W-8BEN (required for non-US-resident status) and an Indian residential address. Approval is typically 24–48 hours.

Step 2 — Internal transfer from Equity Awards to Schwab One

Once Schwab One is open: log into schwab.com → Service → Move Money → Internal Transfer. Select Equity Awards as source, Schwab One as destination, and the specific lots to move (or “all eligible shares”). This is same-day, sometimes instant. Cost basis and acquisition dates carry over.

Step 3 — Decide: sell-and-remit, or ACATS out

Now the shares are in a full brokerage and both paths are open. The decision is covered in depth in the Broker Transfer pillar. Short version: ACATS-out preserves your lot history and 24-month LTCG clock; sell-and-remit gives you INR immediately but realizes the gain.

Step 4a — ACATS out (preserves clock)

If transferring to another US broker that supports Indian residents (Interactive Brokers is the common choice): open the destination account first, get its DTC number and your account number, then on schwab.com → Service → Move Money → Transfer to External Account → ACATS. Standard ACATS completes in 5–7 business days.

Step 4b — Sell and remit USD

On schwab.com → Trade → Sell. Important: change Cost Basis Method to “Specific Identification” in Account Settings BEFORE the sell ticket, otherwise Schwab defaults to FIFO. Identify the specific lots you want sold (LTCG-eligible lots first, usually). Then Service → Funds Transfer → Wire to your Indian bank.

3. Fees and FX — what it actually costs

4. The four Schwab-specific mistakes

Mistake 1 — Selling directly from Equity Awards without specific lot ID. Equity Awards has limited cost-basis-method settings. If you sell from there, FIFO is essentially the only option. Move to Schwab One first; the “Specific Identification” method is only fully exposed in the brokerage account.

Mistake 2 — Skipping the W-8BEN check. Schwab is strict about W-8BEN currency. If yours is within 6 months of expiry, renew before initiating any transfer or large sale. Expired W-8BEN triggers 30% backup withholding instead of the 25% DTAA rate.

Mistake 3 — Wire to the wrong receiving account. If you have been an Indian resident throughout the holding period, the proceeds belong in your NRO/resident savings account, not an NRE account. Wiring to an NRE-restricted account can trigger a bank-level reject + conversion penalty.

Mistake 4 — Using Schwab's USD cost basis on your Indian ITR. Schwab reports cost basis in USD. India needs INR basis at vest-day RBI TT rate. Schwab does not convert this for you; if you copy the USD figure into your ITR, the Income Tax Department recomputes at TT rate and you owe top-up tax with interest. Covered in the RSU Taxation pillar.

5. What Rovia does

Once Schwab Equity Awards is behind you and your lots are with Rovia, the India-side operations are automated end-to-end:

• Schwab statement parsing. Drop your Year-End Tax Information PDF or Gains/Losses statement, lots are extracted with vest dates, share counts, USD cost basis.
• RBI TT rate at each vest date. INR cost basis per lot computed automatically using the actual RBI reference rate on each vest day.
• Schedule FA auto-generation for AY 2026-27 and beyond, including peak-value computation per lot using daily USD prices and daily TT rates.
• 24-month LTCG clock per lot with alerts at month 23 and month 25 (the safe-LTCG threshold).
• 0-markup FX channel for sale-and-remit transactions. Interbank rate, no broker spread.

Frequently asked questions

Last reviewed June 5, 2026. Schwab procedures and fees change — verify on schwab.com before initiating. This article is informational and not personalised tax or financial advice — your specific position should be reviewed by a qualified chartered accountant.