How Rovia works: RSU consolidation, US stock investing, and Indian tax compliance

What Rovia is — and what it isn't

Rovia is a US stock investing platform for Indian residents. It is SEBI-registered and routes US execution through Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA-member, SIPC-covered US broker-dealer. Your shares are held at Alpaca in your name, not by Rovia.

What makes Rovia different from other Indian US-investing platforms is the audience it was built for: Indian residents at US multinationals who receive RSU and ESPP compensation and end up with shares scattered across Fidelity, E*TRADE, Schwab, or Morgan Stanley employer brokerage accounts. These platforms are built for US-resident plan administrators, not for Indian residents managing lot-level capital gains in INR.

Rovia solves three distinct problems for this audience:

1. Consolidation: Move vested shares from any of the four major US employer brokers into a single India-aware account via ACATS transfer — without selling, without triggering capital gains, without losing the original vest date.
2. Tax tooling: See INR cost basis per lot with vest-day SBI TT rates pre-applied, select specific lots at sell, and get ITR-ready output including Schedule FA, a realized-loss schedule, and Form 67 / Form 44 prep.
3. Ongoing investing: Buy US stocks and ETFs at 0.15% brokerage — the lowest among Indian-facing platforms — and hold USD proceeds without forced round-tripping through INR.

Rovia is not the right platform if you have no RSU exposure and simply want to invest ₹5 lakh in VOO. The tooling is over-engineered for that use case and other platforms serve it equally well or better.

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Account opening

Opening a Rovia account is a standard digital KYC process:

• PAN card — the anchor for your Indian tax identity. Everything on the Indian compliance side ties back to your PAN.
• Aadhaar-linked mobile — for video KYC verification, which takes around 10 minutes.
• Indian bank account — the source account for LRS remittances and the destination for repatriation.
• W-8BEN — the US treaty form that reduces US dividend withholding from 30% to 25% under the India-US tax treaty. Signed digitally during onboarding. Rovia handles renewal every three years automatically.

The full KYC to Alpaca account opening takes 1–3 business days for most applicants. You do not need to fund the account before ACATS-transferring shares in — the zero-balance account is valid for receiving an inbound ACATS transfer.

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Transferring RSU shares from your employer broker

Why you'd do this

Your RSUs vest into an account at Fidelity, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley (Shareworks / SPS), or Schwab — whichever your employer chose. That account is built for plan administration, not for Indian-resident portfolio management. It shows cost basis in USD. It classifies holding periods using the US 12-month rule, not the Indian 24-month rule. It provides US 1099 forms, not INR Schedule FA data.

Moving the shares to Rovia preserves the original cost basis and vest dates — you do not sell, so there is no capital gains event at transfer — while giving you access to Indian-tax tooling on the other side.

The ACATS process step by step

Step 1 — Export your lot history first. Before initiating any transfer, download a full transaction history from your employer broker: each vest date, number of shares released, vest-day USD price, and any sell-to-cover details. This is your reference ledger. Keep it regardless of where the shares end up.

Step 2 — Initiate ACATS-in from Rovia. Inside your Rovia account, go to "Transfer in shares." Fill in:

• Sending broker name (e.g., Fidelity Investments, E*TRADE Securities LLC, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, Charles Schwab)
• Your sending account number (visible on your employer broker's statements or account profile page)
• Account holder name — must match exactly, including middle names and initials. Mismatches cause delays.
• Lots to transfer — all shares, or a subset

Rovia generates the ACATS request and Alpaca submits it electronically to your employer broker.

Step 3 — Confirm on your employer broker's side. Within 1–3 business days, your employer broker will notify you (typically by email) that an outbound transfer request has arrived. You need to confirm it. Without your confirmation, the transfer does not proceed.

Note: most employer brokers charge an outbound ACATS fee of $50–$75 per transfer. This is a one-time charge and is separate from Rovia's fees.

Step 4 — Wait 5–7 business days. ACATS settlement is electronic. Shares arrive at Alpaca with the original vest dates and USD cost basis preserved. The 24-month India LTCG clock continues from the original vest date — you do not lose holding period on lots that have already crossed the threshold.

Step 5 — Reconcile. Cross-check lots against the history from Step 1. Each lot should show the correct share count, vest date, and USD cost basis. Rovia applies the SBI TT buying rate for the relevant vest date to compute INR cost basis per lot. Verify this matches your own back-of-envelope calculation.

If anything is off — wrong share count, wrong vest date — flag it to Rovia support immediately. Edge cases include stock splits, ESPP lots (which have different cost-basis treatment than RSU lots at vest), and dividend reinvestments.

Step 6 — Leave the employer broker account open. Future vests continue at your employer broker. Don't close it. The model is: plan administration stays at the employer broker for new vests; the post-vest holding and tax management lives at Rovia.

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The tax tooling — what it actually does

This is the core reason Rovia exists. Here is what the platform generates and how it helps.

Lot-level INR cost basis

Every lot in your Rovia portfolio — whether it arrived via ACATS or was purchased directly — shows:

• Vest date (or purchase date)
• Number of shares
• USD cost basis per share at vest
• INR cost basis per share, computed using the SBI TT buying rate published by State Bank of India for the specific vest date

This matters because Indian capital gains tax uses INR cost basis converted at the SBI TT rate, not a round-number exchange rate or the rate you happened to see on the day. If a lot vested on March 15, 2023, the SBI TT rate for March 15, 2023 is the correct rate. Rovia pre-applies this, so you and your CA see the correct INR cost basis rather than starting from scratch.

Specific-lot identification at sell

When you place a sell order, Rovia surfaces lot selection as the primary workflow step — not a buried option. You can select:

• Specific lots manually — the most tax-efficient option for most situations
• HIFO (Highest cost basis first) — minimizes current-year taxable gain
• LIFO (Last in, first out) — sells the most recently vested lots first
• FIFO (First in, first out) — sells the oldest lots first; often the least tax-efficient choice

For Indian RSU holders, the right choice usually depends on whether lots have crossed the 24-month LTCG threshold (taxed at 12.5%) vs still being short-term (taxed at your income slab rate, often 30%+). Rovia's 24-month countdown per lot makes this visible, so the sell decision is informed.

Schedule FA output

Rovia generates automated Schedule FA values:

• Peak account balance during the financial year (from daily portfolio snapshots, converted at SBI TT rates)
• Closing balance as of March 31
• Income credited during the year (dividends, net of US withholding)

These values feed directly into Schedule FA of ITR-2 or ITR-3. The SBI TT conversion is already done. You or your CA populate the Schedule FA cells from Rovia's output rather than extracting from a USD brokerage statement and converting manually.

Realized-loss schedule and carry-forwards

Every time you realize a loss on a lot — even a partial sale — Rovia logs the loss in INR, the lot that generated it, and adds it to a carry-forward inventory. Indian tax law allows capital losses to be carried forward for 8 years and offset against future capital gains of the same or a higher category.

The realized-loss schedule shows:

• Lot-level details for each loss event
• Total short-term losses and long-term losses separately (the distinction matters for set-off rules)
• Cumulative carry-forward balance available

This is the tooling that makes deliberate tax-loss harvesting tractable. Without lot-level INR P&L, you would need to build this spreadsheet yourself.

Form 67 / Form 44 dividend prep

US stocks and ETFs pay dividends with 25% US withholding tax already deducted (reduced from 30% under the India-US treaty, confirmed via your W-8BEN). Indian residents can claim foreign tax credit (FTC) for this withholding against their Indian income tax liability via Form 67 (being renumbered Form 44 from TY2026-27).

Rovia tracks dividend income by lot, logs the US withholding tax paid per dividend event, and generates Form 67 / Form 44-ready output covering each dividend. This is particularly useful for investors who accumulate dividends across many positions — tracking which company paid what withholding, and on which date, is tedious without tooling.

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Investing in US stocks on Rovia — the direct investing flow

You can invest in US stocks on Rovia without any ACATS transfer. The standard LRS flow:

1. Initiate a wire from your Indian bank to your Rovia / Alpaca account via SWIFT. Your bank will ask for Form A2 / LRS documentation; Rovia provides the SWIFT beneficiary details.
2. TCS is collected by your bank at 0% on the first ₹7L of aggregate annual LRS remittances, 20% above that. This is your bank's obligation, not Rovia's. The TCS is creditable at ITR filing.
3. USD lands in your Alpaca account, typically within 2–5 business days.
4. Buy US stocks and ETFs at 0.15% brokerage. Fractional shares supported from $1.
5. Your holdings appear in the same Rovia dashboard as any ACATS-transferred RSU shares — unified lot-level view, unified tax reporting.

What you can buy

Rovia's launch universe covers major NYSE and NASDAQ-listed stocks and ETFs — the full S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100 constituents, major sector ETFs, and broad index funds (VOO, VTI, QQQ, VXUS, and others). OTC (pink-sheet) stocks are not available at launch. UCITS funds and global exchange-listed stocks are on the roadmap for Q2–Q3 2026.

For most RSU holders diversifying employer equity into index funds, the launch universe is sufficient.

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Repatriation — moving money back to India

When you sell US stocks and want INR in your Indian bank:

1. Sell shares in Rovia. USD settles to your Alpaca cash balance (T+1 for US equities as of 2024 settlement rule change).
2. Initiate a repatriation request in the Rovia app.
3. Rovia charges a flat $5 fee. That is the full platform cost.
4. Your Indian bank receives the USD wire and converts at their FX rate. The USD-to-INR conversion is done by your bank, not by Rovia. You can negotiate this rate with your bank, especially if you have HNI or priority banking.
5. INR typically arrives in your Indian account within 3–5 business days.

The flat $5 structure means the platform cost does not scale with the amount you repatriate. A $5,000 repatriation and a $50,000 repatriation both cost $5 on the Rovia side.

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Fees: complete list

Fee	Amount
Account opening	₹0
Annual maintenance	₹0
Brokerage — stocks and ETFs	0.15% per trade
Inbound ACATS fee (charged by sender)	$50–$75 one-time (charged by employer broker, not Rovia)
Repatriation — Rovia platform fee	Flat $5
FX markup on inbound LRS	~50–60 paise above interbank
Dividend collection	Free (US withholding tax of 25% applies at source — this is a tax, not a Rovia fee)
Account closure	₹0
TCS on LRS	0% up to ₹7L / 20% above ₹7L (collected by your bank, not Rovia; creditable at ITR)

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Rovia's limits — what it does not do

• No options or futures. Rovia is a cash equities platform at launch.
• No OTC (pink-sheet) stocks. Available on INDmoney; not on Rovia.
• No Indian asset integration. Your Indian mutual funds, Indian stocks, and PF balance are not visible in Rovia.
• Narrower catalog vs full-universe platforms. The major stocks and ETFs most investors need are available, but Rovia's total listed universe is smaller than what Vested or INDmoney offers.
• Youngest platform. Founded 2025, which means a shorter track record than Vested (2018) or INDmoney (2019). Edge cases that have been ironed out on older platforms may still surface at Rovia.

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Who Rovia is for

Rovia is the clearest choice for:

• Indian residents with RSUs or ESPP shares at Fidelity, E*TRADE, Schwab, or Morgan Stanley who want to consolidate into a single India-aware account without selling first
• Investors managing multiple vest tranches from one or more employers who want a unified lot-level view with INR cost basis per lot
• Tax-conscious investors who want specific-lot identification at sell, automated loss-harvesting reports, and Schedule FA output that is already converted to INR
• Cost-sensitive investors who want the lowest per-trade brokerage among Indian-facing platforms (0.15%)

Rovia is less suited for:

• Pure retail investors with no RSU exposure who simply want to buy VOO with ₹5 lakh — Vested or INDmoney serve this equally well and have longer track records
• Investors who need an all-in-one Indian + US wealth view — INDmoney wins on that dimension
• Investors who need options, international exchanges, or very large corpus FX efficiency — IBKR via Paasa is the right answer there

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Related reading

• Rovia vs Vested: which platform is right for your US stock situation?
• Rovia vs INDmoney
• RSU lot selection and tax-loss harvesting for Indian investors
• The share transfer problem: why Indian residents are stuck with their employer's broker
• Vested vs INDmoney vs IBKR vs Rovia: four-way comparison

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Vested.blog is the editorial publication of Rovia.