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I would like to get information on Bank accounts and Indian tax procedures related to working from Germany. I am from India and will be moving to Germany in two weeks. I have some mutual fund investments and planned to use MFU platform for further Mutual fund investments. There are different choices available and I would like to understand about the choices.

  1. MFU and NRO
  2. MFU and NRE
  3. Demat (Not sure on how to access Demat i.e, through NRE or NRO)

I would like to know the flexible(retrieving in India / Germany ) and tax efficient approach for this. It is not yet decided if I will come back to India after some time or I will be working in Germany.

P.S: I prefer MFU due to the possibility to invest in Direct Mutual Fund plans. In Demat, only limited AMCs are listed. Switching between funds of the same AMC is not possible in Demat mode.

This could be helpful to those who move from India to Europe in general and Germany in particular.

Thanks in Advance.

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Once you become NRI or know for sure you would be one, you can't hold ordinary accounts.

Convert existing savings account into NRO. Open new NRE account so it's easier to move funds.

In simple terms an NRE type of account means you can repatriate the funds outside of India anytime without any paperwork, there are some tax benefits as well.

MFU platform can be used for operating demat, else you need a brokerage account.

If you have stocks, then existing demat need to be converted to NONPINS account, it's actually open new, move, close old. Any new stock you need to open a PINS Demat account.

You can use NRO account of MFU, it creates some complexity of taxes... MFU NRE would be more easier for taxes and flexible for repatriation

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  • Thanks Dheer for your answer. I was expecting yours here. Unfortunately, I have some 8 stocks and ELSS MF in Demat mode. I prefer to keep it simple, so I could sell the stocks and deal only with MFU. But ELSS MF?? PINS and NONPINS is new to me. Will look up the details. I have Demat with HDFC. I checked with HDFC demat section in Chennai. Guess what?? I was told nothing need to be done and good to go for an NRI.
    – Rajkumar
    Jun 20, 2016 at 16:40
  • @Rajkumar you could sell shares. NRI are not allowed to invest in ELSS. There are plenty of other equity diversified funds available.
    – Dheer
    Jun 20, 2016 at 17:16
  • The PINS was a recent regulation ... still few years old... prior to that NRIs were not allowed to invest in stocks directly...
    – Dheer
    Jun 20, 2016 at 17:17

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