Registering NRI property in India without a PAN — what actually works in 2026

"Can I register Indian property without a PAN?" is one of the most commonly asked NRI questions, often surfacing a few days before a sale-deed appointment when the registrar's clerk has asked for one and the buyer or seller realises they never applied. The short answer is that Form 60 is accepted as a declaration in lieu of PAN under the Income Tax Rules, but in practice most sub-registrars push back, and the downstream TDS, capital-gains filing and repatriation workflow will require a PAN anyway. This page covers the 2026 position — what the rule says, what the sub-registrar actually accepts, and the practical call.

The rule — Rule 114B of the Income Tax Rules

Rule 114B lists the transactions where the person must quote their PAN. Property transactions are covered:

Sale or purchase, by any person, of any immovable property for an amount of ₹10,00,000 or more, or valued by the stamp-valuation authority referred to in section 50C of the Act at ₹10,00,000 or more.

Two thresholds — the consideration or the stamp- valuation / circle-rate value — and PAN is required when either crosses ₹10 lakh. Below both thresholds, there is no PAN-quoting requirement, and Form 60 becomes irrelevant.

For urban-India property in metros and tier-1 cities, the ₹10 lakh threshold is almost always crossed — even a modest plot or small flat pushes past it at market rates. The rule is effectively "every real transaction needs PAN quoting".

Form 60 — the substitute

Where PAN is required to be quoted but the transacting person does not hold one, Form 60 is the authorised substitute:

• A self-declaration stating that the declarant has not been allotted a PAN.
• Carries name, address, date of birth, father's name, transaction amount and type, a declaration of Indian-tax residency, and the reasons for not holding PAN (for non-residents: "non-resident, not otherwise required to hold PAN").
• Signed by the declarant; verified by the counterparty (here, the sub-registrar or the other party to the sale deed).
• Submitted in addition to the normal ID / address proofs required for registration.

Form 60 is not an ongoing tax status — it is a one-off declaration for the specific transaction.

Who can actually use Form 60

The declaration presupposes the declarant is not required to hold a PAN in the first place — that is the premise of saying "I do not have one". In the NRI context:

• Foreign citizens (including OCIs) who have never had Indian-taxable income and have not otherwise been pulled into the PAN net — yes, Form 60 is formally available.
• Indian-passport NRIs with no Indian-source income history — yes, formally.
• NRIs who already have an Indian bank account, demat account, or have filed an Indian return — no. They were already required to hold PAN for those earlier activities; they cannot now declare "not allotted" credibly.
• Anyone whose PAN is dormant or forgotten — the correct route is to search for the existing PAN via the Know Your PAN service on the Income Tax e-Filing portal, not to file Form 60 as if no PAN exists.

What sub-registrars actually accept in 2026

The Income Tax Rules allow Form 60. Sub-registrar practice varies widely:

• Metropolitan sub-registrar offices — Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai — usually refuse Form 60 in practice for any significant transaction. The system they use is linked to an automated PAN- quoting check, and the clerk will ask the party to obtain PAN before registration. Sometimes the refusal is explicit; sometimes it manifests as repeated "missing document" objections.
• Smaller city / town sub-registrars — more likely to accept Form 60 for an occasional NRI seller's transaction, especially when the consideration is just above the threshold.
• Both consistently ask for buyer's PAN on the deed for TDS Section 194-IA purposes — Form 60 by the buyer is rare in practice because Section 194-IA requires the buyer to deduct 1% TDS (for resident-seller transactions); the TDS form references PAN.

Even in the more flexible offices, Form 60 usually slows the registration down and triggers repeated queries.

The downstream chain that needs PAN anyway

Even if Form 60 successfully clears the sub-registrar, PAN will be needed further down the chain:

• TDS compliance under Section 195 (non-resident seller) — the buyer deducts TDS on the full consideration. Both buyer's TAN and seller's PAN appear on Form 26QB / Form 27Q. Without seller's PAN, Section 206AA applies a 20% floor on TDS.
• TDS certificate (Form 16B) from the buyer — PAN is the index.
• Lower-deduction certificate under Section 197 — NRIs often apply to the AO for a lower / nil TDS certificate on property-sale consideration. The AO cannot process without PAN.
• Capital-gains tax filing — the NRI seller files an Indian return to reconcile TDS against actual capital-gains tax liability. Return-filing requires PAN.
• Repatriation of sale proceeds — Form 15CA / 15CB for NRO-to-abroad transfer reference seller's PAN at every step. Without PAN the AD-I bank cannot process the repatriation.
• Future transactions — any subsequent Indian bank account, fixed deposit, rental income, investment, pension receipt needs PAN.

So even a successful no-PAN registration defers, rather than avoids, the PAN requirement — and the defer often costs more in Section 206AA TDS than the PAN application itself.

Why PAN-before-registration is almost always the answer

The full end-to-end cost comparison:

• PAN application — ~₹107 (Indian dispatch) or ~₹1,017 (foreign dispatch), online, e-PAN issued within a week.
• Form 60 route — Indian-dispatch PAN fee deferred, but potentially:
  • Sub-registrar delay and rescheduling.
  • Buyer / seller friction (the other side may refuse to complete without PAN).
  • Section 206AA 20% TDS floor on the sale consideration — on a ₹1 crore sale, that is ₹20 lakh withheld instead of ₹12.5 lakh at the 12.5% LTCG rate.
  • Future lower-TDS certificate blocked.
  • Delayed return filing and refund of over-withheld TDS.

The e-PAN reaches the applicant within 3–7 days when filed online. Any property registration that is not time-critical-to-the-day should wait the week and go in with PAN in hand.

If the property is already registered without PAN

Some NRIs inherit or are already partway through a no-PAN registration and ask what comes next. Steps:

• Apply for PAN immediately using Form 49A (Indian passport) or Form 49AA (foreign passport). See PAN card — how to apply.
• Update counterparties — buyer's TDS challan (if applicable) can be corrected to include the seller's PAN once obtained; Form 27Q refilings accept corrections.
• Engage a CA to coordinate the TDS reconciliation, Section 197 application (if the transaction is recent), and capital-gains filing.
• Update the bank account KYC to include PAN so the sale-proceed credit does not get blocked on deposit.

Scenarios — worked through

NRI seller, resident buyer, ₹1.5 crore consideration

• Buyer's obligation — Section 195 TDS on the full consideration (because seller is NRI). Typical rate 12.5% LTCG + surcharge + cess, or 20% if Section 206AA applies (no seller PAN).
• Without seller PAN — Section 206AA applies, ₹30 lakh+ TDS; seller files for refund over 12–18 months via return + recovery.
• With seller PAN — ~₹18.75 lakh TDS (at 12.5%
  • surcharge + cess); possibly lower with a Section 197 Lower-Deduction Certificate obtained in advance.

NRI buyer, resident seller, ₹1.5 crore consideration

• Buyer's obligation — Section 194-IA, 1% TDS on the consideration if seller is resident.
• Without buyer PAN — the buyer cannot file Form 26QB (TDS return for property purchase); registration of the deed can proceed in theory on Form 60, but the TDS compliance chain breaks. Sub-registrars increasingly check Form 26QB payment challan before registering.
• With buyer PAN — TDS paid as Form 26QB, registration proceeds on schedule.

Both NRI / OCI, ₹40 lakh consideration

• TDS Section 195 on the seller side; buyer is the NRI TDS deductor.
• Without PANs — Section 206AA cascades on both sides; sub-registrar routinely stalls.
• With both PANs — routine.

Below the ₹10 lakh threshold (rare for real property; usually garage / parking / micro-plot)

• Rule 114B does not apply — no PAN quoting required.
• Form 60 not needed; the sale-deed and stamp- duty paperwork runs without PAN.

Common pitfalls

• Using Form 60 when a PAN already exists but the applicant has forgotten. Search Know Your PAN first; duplicate PAN applications attract a ₹10,000 penalty under Section 272B.
• Filing Form 60 when Indian-taxable income history exists. The declaration's basic premise ("not allotted a PAN, no Indian taxable income") fails.
• Assuming the sub-registrar will accept Form 60 in an urban metro transaction. They often don't.
• Deferring PAN to avoid the ~₹1,017 foreign- dispatch fee. Section 206AA alone will cost orders of magnitude more on a substantial sale.
• Signing the sale deed before the TDS route is planned. TDS is the buyer's legal obligation on NRI-seller transactions; the buyer will insist on seller PAN. Make the PAN part of the pre- registration document pack.
• Believing a one-off Form 60 cures the problem for subsequent transactions. It does not — each transaction above the threshold requires its own PAN quoting or Form 60. A repeat user will be pushed to PAN.
• Trusting a "facilitator" who offers to do the registration without PAN for a fee. Usually means the clerk will accept Form 60 under informal inducement — a compliance risk the NRI does not need.

Checklist — property registration and PAN for NRIs

1. Well in advance of the sale-deed appointment (at least 2–4 weeks), check that every party — buyer, seller, co-owner — holds an operative PAN.
2. Apply for any missing PAN immediately — Form 49A (Indian passport) or Form 49AA (foreign passport); e-PAN issues in 3–7 days.
3. Check PAN operative status at incometax.gov.in → Verify PAN; fix any inoperative flag. See PAN without Aadhaar.
4. For NRI seller, apply for a Section 197 Lower-Deduction Certificate at the Jurisdictional AO, based on actual capital-gains computation, to reduce the Section 195 withholding from the default to the genuine tax liability.
5. For NRI buyer, arrange TAN (if required) or set up Form 26QB payment channel for Section 194-IA TDS.
6. Book the sub-registrar appointment only after all PANs and TDS planning are in place.
7. If the transaction must close without PAN (rare), file Form 60 at the registration, and apply for PAN immediately after; plan the downstream TDS correction and return-filing exercise with a CA.
8. After registration, file Form 26QB (resident seller) or Form 27Q (NRI seller) and issue the TDS certificate to the seller within the statutory timeline.
9. NRI seller files the Indian return in the next return season to reconcile TDS against capital gains and claim refund of any over-withholding.
10. Repatriate proceeds via NRO → Form 15CA/CB within the USD 1 million / FY cap. See transferring funds from India.

Summary

• Rule 114B requires PAN quoting for immovable- property transactions of ₹10 lakh or more by consideration or stamp-valuation.
• Form 60 is the authorised self-declaration substitute for non-PAN-holders — legally valid but often refused by sub-registrars in urban metros.
• Downstream TDS, capital-gains filing and repatriation all require PAN; Section 206AA applies a 20% TDS floor where PAN is missing, and no Section 197 Lower-Deduction Certificate is available without PAN.
• Cost comparison is decisive — a ~₹107 / ~₹1,017 PAN application vs lakhs in Section 206AA over-withholding on a large property sale.
• The practical rule for 2026 — get PAN before the sale deed; Form 60 is only a last-resort escape for small-value, low-urgency transactions.

For the full PAN framework, see PAN card — how to apply. For the NRI-specific angle, see PAN for NRIs. For Form 60 and the broader list of transactions possible without PAN, see transactions without PAN. For the property transaction framework, see buying and selling property in India as an NRI. For the repatriation chain, see transferring funds from India.