International Investing

International investing means holding securities issued by companies or governments outside an investor's home country. It is an investment strategy that involves selecting global investment instruments as part of an investment portfolio. 

An investor can look to the same types of investment options internationally that they have domestically, including variations of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

There are two ways for international markets –

• Invest directly in the stock market of your preferred company.
• Invest in Indian mutual funds that invest in global equity.

Through global investment, portfolios are more diversified and may enhance returns and reduce portfolio risk. Although, it is advisable to study the economic condition, political stability, and the market of the country you want to invest in. 

Benefits of Investing Globally

• Investment Diversification: You significantly reduce your risk by parking your money in different investment vehicles across geographies. As the correlation between geographies is usually low, even if one country faces an economic slowdown, it’ll only have a limited impact on your portfolio. Diversification also provides stability to your portfolio by guarding it against market volatility.
• Multiple investment options: With global market investing, your investment options are not only limited to your country. You can invest in financial instruments that are not available in India and enjoy high returns. You can also invest in international stocks of different sectors. Moreover, you can invest in multiple countries through ETFs. International investing enables you to invest in industry giants across the world.
• Currency appreciation: You benefit from international investment not only in terms of profit on the investment but also in the form of currency fluctuation. For instance, suppose you purchased a US stock for Rs. 7 lakhs when the rupee was trading at Rs. 70/$. Now, you decided to sell this stock when its value became Rs. 8 lakhs. At the same time, the value of the dollar appreciated and the value of the rupee became Rs. 75/$. Hence, in addition to the gain of Rs. 1 lakh on your investment, you also gain from the appreciation of the dollar.
• Investment Protection against Fraud: Another significant benefit of global investing is the protection of investments against fraud and liquidations. Developed market companies generally have strong regulations that ensure sound corporate governance and severe penalties for market abuse. This protects retail investors from potential scams and insider trading losses.
• Building up a foreign currency corpus: If you’re looking at saving up global currency like US Dollars for your children’s education, foreign travel or other offshore investments including but not limited to real estate, global investing helps you create that corpus in the foreign currency and grow it efficiently.
• Participate in the global growth story: With access to international markets, you have the option of investing into the leaders & innovators across the globe. This helps you participate in the growth story of other leading economies – e.g. the US is home to large giants like Meta, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet. To simply gauge the size of the US market which is the world’s largest stock market – US stock market is almost 16x of the Indian stock market. Furthermore, there are certain themes like Artificial Intelligence, semi-conductor and precious metal mining, etc. which are not available in markets like India but can be accessed through others. 

Investment Options in International Market for Resident Individual

• Acquisition of Immovable Property
• Investment in equity shares of foreign entities
• Investment in International mutual funds or Exchange-traded Funds
• Investment in listed debt instruments 
• Depositary Receipts
• Acquisition of foreign securities by way of inheritance/ gift
• Investment in entities located in IFSC (GIFT City in Gujarat)

Liberalised Remittance Scheme

Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, all resident individuals, including minors, are allowed to freely remit up to USD 2,50,000 or its equivalent in any freely convertible foreign currency per financial year (April – March) for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both.

Capital Account Transactions

A transaction which alters assets or liabilities including contingent liability

• Opening, holding, maintaining a foreign currency account abroad with a bank
• Purchase of property abroad.
• Making foreign investments in equity shares, debt instruments, mutual funds, venture capital funds, etc.
• Extending loans to Non-Resident Indians who are relatives as defined under the Companies' Act
• Setting up a Wholly Owned subsidiary (WOS) or a Joint Venture (JV) outside India for any bonafide business purpose subject to the rules framed under the Overseas Direct Investments (ODI) regulations

Current Account Transactions

• Travel and tourism to foreign countries (except Nepal and Bhutan)
• Gift or donations to legitimate beneficiaries
• Going abroad for employment
• Emigration
• Maintenance of close relatives living abroad
• Business trips
• Expenses in connection with medical treatment abroad
• Paying for education abroad
• Any other current account transaction that is not covered under FEMA.

Importance of LRS Scheme

It eases the process of transferring money. LRS provides an extensive and structured system to remit funds without the hassle of too many protocols and paperwork.

Key Features of LRS Scheme

• The overseas investment by an Indian resident must be within the overall ceiling of the LRS for permissible investments (OPI and ODI route) and other purposes such as private visits outside India, gift or donations, maintenance of relatives abroad, medical treatment abroad, education abroad, etc. 
• Once a remittance is made for an amount up to USD 2,50,000 during the financial year, a resident individual would not be eligible to make any further remittances under this scheme, even if the proceeds of the investments have been brought back into the country. Any Remittance exceed this limit would require prior permission from the RBI. 
• Remittances under the facility can be consolidated in respect of close family members subject to the individual family members complying with the terms and conditions of the scheme. Clubbing is not permitted by other family members for capital account transactions such as opening a bank account/investment/purchase of property, if they are not the co-owners/co-partner of the overseas bank account/investment/property.
• In case of remitter being a minor, the LRS declaration form must be countersigned by the minor’s natural guardian. 
• For LRS individual applicant needs to furnish an application cum declaration in the prescribed Form A2 to the Authorised Dealer (AD)/Full Fledged Money Changer (FFMC). The Authorised dealer is responsible to carry out further due diligence.

Exceptions under LRS Scheme

• Individuals may avail the exchange facility for an amount in excess of the limit prescribed under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme if it is required by the country of emigration, medical institute offering the treatment or the university, respectively.
• Resident Individuals (who are not permanently residents in India) can remit up to net salary (after deduction of taxes, contribution to provident fund and other deductions). Also, if they wish to remit any other income apart from their salary, they may approach RBI with all the relevant documents through their Authorised Dealer Bank for consideration.

Transactions prohibited under the LRS Scheme

• Remittance for any purpose specifically prohibited under Schedule-I (like purchase of lottery tickets/sweep stakes, proscribed magazines, etc.) or any item restricted under Schedule II of Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000.
• Remittance from India for margins or margin calls to overseas exchanges / overseas counterparty.
• Remittances for purchase of FCCBs issued by Indian companies in the overseas secondary market.
• Remittance for trading in foreign exchange abroad.
• Capital account remittances, directly or indirectly, to countries identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as “non- cooperative countries and territories”, from time to time. As of now, Iran, North Korea and Myanmar are the three black listed countries.
• Remittances directly or indirectly to those individuals and entities identified as posing significant risk of committing acts of terrorism as advised separately by the Reserve Bank to the banks.

Taxation

• Resident and ordinarily resident Indians have to pay tax even on income earned through foreign assets that they own in other countries. It will form part of their total income in India. This includes gains made on sale of such assets.
• The sale of foreign assets would be taxed as per the provisions of Capital Gains and the income generated on such foreign investments would be included under Income from other sources head.
• For instance, gains on sale of foreign stocks held for more than 24 months attract a long-term capital gains tax of 20 percent plus cess and surcharge wherever applicable. Profits from sale of short-term holdings (held for less than 24 months) will be taxed at the slab rates applicable to you. 
• The tax department requires such taxpayers to furnish details like country where these assets are held, income generated by the asset, nature of ownership, and so on.
• The details of foreign assets are to be reported in income tax return (ITR) form (Schedule FA).
• In case of double taxation Foreign Tax Credit can be claimed (Form 67)
• Tax is collected at source by authorized dealer at 20% for purposes other than that of medical or education. This means that 20% of the total amount of transfer will be withheld by the bank and deposited in transferer’s name to the government. Although, TCS credit can be claimed for the same at the time of filing of Income tax returns it will lead to additional capital being blocked for the intermediate period between actual remittance and receipt of Income tax refunds.