Hi,
I am a citizen of India and resident in Bangalore. I am a corporate attorney who has an idea of taxes, however, not detailed enough to give you sound advice on all the factors involved. What i know is that as an English national, you cannot directly invest in property in India. Which is why someone has suggested to you that you should establish a company and have other directors and invest.
There are a plethora of Indian laws that would be impacted for investing in property in India (FEMA - Foreign Exchange Management Act, Indian Income Tax Act, the Double taxation avoidance treaty between UK and India, Indian Companies Act, and some local state laws and rules of the municipality where you wish to invest, to refer a few). I would suggest that you get in touch with a good law firm (that would involve spending some $$$) in India which specialises in real estate, corporate and tax laws and get advise from them on how to structure the company (branch office of a foreign company, liaison office of a foreign company or indian company) and invest in such a way that you can take out the maximum amount of money when you decide to cash in on your investments.
As far as I understand it, as an English national, you would not be able to take out any of the profits from the sale - only your original investment and that too after a lock-in period.
One reason why you havent gotten a response yet seems to be the low movement on this site and low no. of members around. Anyone who has invested in India property earlier would have spent $$$ and may not want to dispense free advice.
All the best.
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