You work at Microsoft. Your RSUs deserve India-first management.

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, typically 30%. Long-term capital gains (LTCG) on foreign shares are taxed at 20% with the benefit of indexation, where your cost basis is adjusted upward for inflation using the Cost Inflation Index (CII). This can meaningfully reduce your effective tax on appreciated shares.

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 who holds foreign assets — including US stocks — at any time during the Indian financial year (April 1 – March 31). Failure to disclose is treated as a violation of the Black Money Act, with penalties of ₹10 lakh per asset and potential prosecution.

Schedule FA requires: the name of the foreign company, the country, the number of shares held, the acquisition cost in INR, and the peak balance during the year. 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.