Investing in US stocks using INDmoney: what to know before you start

INDmoney launched as an Indian personal finance app — a place to track your mutual funds, monitor your PF balance, and manage SIPs without switching between five different apps. The US stocks product came later, somewhere around 2021, but it has matured significantly. INDmoney is now one of the two platforms — alongside Vested — that most Indian investors encounter first when they search for US stock investing.

That early-platform status comes with a question: does the product actually hold up, or is it riding name recognition? The honest answer is that it holds up well in specific areas — particularly tax documentation — and has real gaps in others. Here is exactly what you are working with.

What INDmoney actually is

INDmoney is a SEBI-registered Indian entity. When you open a US investing account, the underlying US brokerage account is held at DriveWealth, a FINRA-registered US broker-dealer. DriveWealth also clears for Vested and Borderless (formerly Stockal).

What this means practically: your shares sit in a DriveWealth custodial account in your name. You have SIPC protection up to $500,000 per account (including $250,000 in cash). The Indian-facing layer — the app, the KYC, the tax documents, the customer support — is INDmoney. The US-facing execution and custody layer is DriveWealth.

You get access to the full NYSE and NASDAQ universe plus OTC (over-the-counter) securities. More on what OTC means below.

Opening an account

The KYC process is entirely in-app and takes 24–48 hours for most users. You need three things:

PAN card — your permanent account number is the anchor for the Indian tax side of the transaction. Every purchase you make is linked to your PAN for ITR purposes.

Aadhaar — used for video KYC verification. The in-app flow walks you through this; it typically takes under 10 minutes.

Indian bank account — the bank account from which you will remit funds via LRS. This needs to be pre-linked and verified.

There is no minimum account balance to open. You can start with $1.

Adding funds via LRS

The Liberalisation of Remittance Scheme (LRS) is the FEMA provision that allows Indian residents to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for permitted capital account transactions, including investment in foreign securities. Every transfer you make to your INDmoney US account goes through LRS.

The practical flow: INDmoney provides you with SWIFT beneficiary details for your DriveWealth account. You initiate a wire transfer from your Indian bank using these details. Processing time is typically 2–5 business days, depending on your bank and whether it routes the transfer directly or through correspondent banks.

The TCS issue you cannot ignore. Under current tax rules, your Indian bank is required to collect TCS (Tax Collected at Source) at 20% on LRS remittances above ₹10 lakh per financial year (for investment). If you have already remitted ₹10L earlier in the year and you remit another ₹10L, your bank collects ₹2L in TCS before sending the balance.

This is not a permanent loss — TCS is advance tax collection that you reclaim at ITR filing. But it blocks capital for months, which has a real cost. Plan your remittance calendar around the financial year to manage this: spreading remittances across financial years keeps each year's total closer to the ₹10L threshold.

INDmoney itself does not collect TCS — this happens at your bank. But INDmoney provides the documentation your bank needs to classify the transfer correctly as an LRS remittance for portfolio investment.

See our full explainer on LRS, TCS, and Schedule FA compliance.

What you can buy

NYSE and NASDAQ stocks — the full universe. Apple, NVIDIA, Microsoft, every S&P 500 component, every NASDAQ-listed stock. Fractional shares are available across the full universe.

OTC (over-the-counter) stocks — this deserves explanation. OTC securities are stocks that trade outside formal exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ. They are quoted on systems like OTC Markets (the pink sheets). OTC includes:

• Companies too small to meet NYSE/NASDAQ listing requirements
• Foreign company ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) that haven't listed on a major exchange
• Some well-known large companies that trade OTC for historical reasons (Berkshire Hathaway's BRK-A, for example, is NYSE-listed, but many foreign-based giants trade as OTC ADRs)

Most retail investors do not need OTC access. The companies are often smaller, less liquid, and sometimes have disclosure practices that make valuation difficult. But for investors who specifically want access to certain foreign companies via their ADRs, or who have a reason to hold specific OTC-listed securities, INDmoney's OTC access is a differentiator. Most competing platforms restrict you to NYSE/NASDAQ.

Fractional shares

INDmoney supports fractional investing with a $1 minimum. This matters more than it sounds.

NVIDIA stock (NVDA) trades around $130–$140 per share as of mid-2026. Amazon (AMZN) trades around $190. Without fractional shares, a new investor putting ₹5,000 (roughly $60) into the market cannot buy either of these. With fractional shares, you can own $1 worth of NVDA and $1 worth of AMZN on day one.

Fractional shares are held as fractional interests in DriveWealth's omnibus account. They carry the same economic exposure as full shares (price appreciation, dividends) but cannot be transferred to another broker via ACATS in their fractional form — you would need to sell the fractional portion first.

The tax document advantage

This is where INDmoney genuinely stands apart from most alternatives, and it matters to anyone with a CA or who files a detailed ITR.

INDmoney provides lot-level tax statements in ITR format. What does that mean?

Standard US brokerage platforms give you Form 1099-B (or equivalent) in USD. You get a line for each sale: the number of shares sold, the sale price in USD, and the cost basis in USD. To use this in your Indian tax return, you or your CA needs to convert every figure to INR using the relevant exchange rate on each transaction date. For an active investor with 50+ transactions across a year, this is a significant manual exercise.

INDmoney's statements give you something different: each lot listed with the purchase date, purchase price in INR (already converted at the applicable rate), sale date, sale price in INR, and the computed gain or loss in INR. The format aligns with what Indian ITR software expects.

Your CA gets a document they can work from directly. The risk of conversion errors — which can cause discrepancies between what you report and what the actual gain is — goes down substantially.

This is not a trivial advantage. If your CA charges by the hour, the time saved on conversion is a direct fee reduction. If you file yourself, the complexity drops significantly.

Schedule FA: what it is and why you must file it

Schedule FA is the foreign asset disclosure schedule in the Indian ITR. If you hold foreign financial assets at any point during the financial year — including US stocks — you are required to disclose them in Schedule FA, even if you made no gains and owe no additional tax.

The disclosure asks for: the name of the country, the nature of the asset, the peak value during the year, and the closing value. Failure to disclose is treated under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, which carries penalties of up to ₹10 lakh per undisclosed asset plus potential prosecution.

INDmoney's tax documents include the figures you need for Schedule FA preparation. The platform does not file your ITR for you, but it provides the source data in a format that makes Schedule FA preparation straightforward.

FX rates: what INDmoney charges

INDmoney typically marks up FX rates by approximately 50–75 paise above the interbank rate at the time of conversion. On a ₹10 lakh remittance, this translates to a cost of roughly ₹5,000–7,500 in FX markup.

This is in line with most LRS-route platforms (Vested is similar). It is meaningfully higher than IBKR's near-interbank rates (IBKR charges 0.002% with a $2 minimum). For investors remitting above ₹25–30L per year, the FX cost difference between INDmoney and IBKR/Paasa starts to matter.

For smaller, regular investors — say, ₹10L–15L per year across monthly SIP-style purchases — the FX spread is a known, manageable cost, and the convenience of INDmoney's integrated app likely outweighs it.

The Indian wealth bundle

INDmoney's core competitive advantage is not US stocks — it is the integration. The app handles mutual funds, fixed deposits, Indian stocks (via a separate demat account), EPF tracking, and US stocks in a single interface. Your net worth view includes all of these in one dashboard.

Who benefits from this:

Consolidator investors. If you want to see your full financial picture — Indian MF portfolio, PPF balance, US stock holdings — in one place, INDmoney is the only platform that does all of these natively.

First-time US investors who are already on INDmoney for Indian investments. The friction of opening a new account, going through a second KYC, and learning a new interface is real. For this user, starting US investing inside an app they already use daily is a genuine advantage.

Who does not benefit:

Dedicated US investors who have no interest in the Indian wealth tracking features. If you are moving ₹50L+ to US markets and want the best possible FX rate, deepest liquidity, and most sophisticated execution, the Indian wealth bundle adds noise without value.

Limitations

Limited ACATS support. INDmoney supports inbound ACATS transfers in some cases, but the process is not prominently documented. RSU holders with shares at Fidelity, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley, or Schwab may need to contact INDmoney support directly. For a purpose-built RSU consolidation workflow with documented ACATS support, Rovia is the stronger option.

No options or futures. INDmoney is strictly a cash equities platform. No covered calls, no protective puts, no futures-based hedging. If you want derivatives access, you need IBKR or Paasa.

Brokerage structure. INDmoney charges 0.25% brokerage on US stock trades, capped at $35 per order. The cap kicks in at trade sizes above $14,000 (≈₹12 lakh). For large individual trades above that threshold, $35 is the maximum — making IBKR's $1 Fixed-plan minimum the cheaper option at scale. Rovia's 0.15% brokerage (capped at $15 per order) is lower on every trade.

No US tax optimisation tools. No specific lot identification (you cannot choose HIFO vs FIFO), no tax-loss harvesting schedules, no vest-date SBI TT rate application. These tools matter most to RSU holders and tax-sensitive investors.

Who INDmoney is for

• Consolidator investors who want Indian + US + mutual funds in one app
• Investors who need ITR-format tax documentation — the lot-level INR statements are a real differentiator
• OTC access seekers — investors who specifically want stocks not listed on NYSE/NASDAQ
• Regular monthly investors making smaller, recurring purchases (the SIP mindset applied to US stocks)

Who should look elsewhere

• RSU holders with shares at Fidelity, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley, or Schwab → Rovia (ACATS, vest-date SBI TT rates, specific lot identification)
• Large lump-sum investors (₹50L+/year) where FX costs matter → IBKR or Paasa's Apex plan
• Options and derivatives traders → IBKR via Paasa
• Investors wanting GIFT City route (no TCS, no LRS limit impact) → Dhan

For a full side-by-side comparison, see Vested vs INDmoney vs Interactive Brokers and our Vested vs INDmoney comparison page.

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Vested.blog is the editorial publication of Rovia, a US stock investing platform for Indian residents.

Step-by-step: opening an INDmoney US stocks account

The full onboarding flow takes 15–30 minutes in-app and 24–48 hours for verification:

1. Download INDmoney from the App Store or Google Play and create an account with your mobile number
2. Navigate to "US Stocks" from the home screen → tap "Start Investing"
3. Complete KYC: PAN card number, Aadhaar number (for e-KYC), and a selfie/video verification
4. Link your Indian bank account: account number and IFSC code; INDmoney verifies via a test transaction or bank statement upload
5. W-8BEN form: INDmoney walks you through this in-app — it certifies your non-US status to claim the 25% WHT rate on dividends under the India-US DTAA (without W-8BEN, the default 30% US WHT applies)
6. Account approval: DriveWealth reviews and approves; most approvals complete within 24–48 hours
7. Fund via LRS: INDmoney provides SWIFT beneficiary details; initiate a wire from your Indian bank using Form A2 (LRS declaration); bank processes within 2–5 business days

INDmoney fee structure: what you actually pay

Brokerage: 0.1% of trade value (some sources cite 0.25% — verify the current rate in-app as it may vary by account type). Capped at $35 per order.

FX markup: Approximately 50–75 paise above the interbank rate (~0.5–0.8% of remittance value).

No account maintenance fee: INDmoney does not charge a monthly or annual fee for holding a US stocks account.

TCS: Collected by your Indian bank (not INDmoney) on LRS remittances above ₹10 lakh per financial year — 20% on the amount above the threshold. Refundable at ITR filing.

Schedule FA: custodian entity and annual statement

INDmoney's US custodian for Schedule FA purposes is DriveWealth LLC (the clearing broker). For Schedule FA in ITR:

• Country: United States
• Custodian: DriveWealth LLC
• Nature of asset: Foreign equity (Schedule FA Table B)

INDmoney provides an annual tax statement downloadable from within the app (typically available by mid-May for the previous financial year). The statement includes all buy/sell transactions with dates, prices in both USD and INR (converted at RBI reference rates), computed gain/loss per lot in INR, and dividend income with WHT deducted. Download this before filing your ITR — your CA can use it directly for Schedule FA preparation.

Dividend handling: W-8BEN and WHT rates

Without W-8BEN: US withholds 30% on all dividends before they reach your account.

With W-8BEN (standard for INDmoney accounts): The India-US DTAA reduces WHT to 25%. INDmoney files W-8BEN on your behalf during account opening — verify in-app that yours is current (it expires every three years).

Note: The India-US DTAA dividend WHT rate is 25%, not 15%. The 15% rate applies to the India-UK DTAA and the US-Ireland treaty (benefiting UCITS ETFs). If you want lower dividend WHT, Ireland-domiciled UCITS ETFs (accessible via UK or UAE brokers if you are an NRI there) have the 15% treaty rate at fund level.

The 25% WHT paid to the US can be claimed as a Foreign Tax Credit in India via Form 67 (or Form 44 from AY 2027-28 onwards), reducing your Indian income tax liability on the same dividend income.

INDmoney GIFT City vs LRS track

INDmoney offers two distinct tracks:

LRS track (primary): funds leave India via LRS, held at DriveWealth LLC in the US. Subject to $250K annual limit and 20% TCS above ₹10L.

GIFT City track (newer): investments route through INDmoney's GIFT City IFSC entity. No TCS. No LRS limit impact. Transactions in USD. Product range and maturity differ from the LRS track. If TCS is a significant concern, the GIFT City track is worth evaluating for new investments.

Fractional shares: minimum investment

INDmoney supports fractional investing with a minimum of approximately ₹100 (roughly $1.20 at current rates). This makes it possible to start with any amount:

• ₹500 buys you fractional exposure to NVIDIA, Amazon, or any other stock regardless of share price
• ₹5,000 can be spread across 5–10 companies with meaningful diversification
• There is no minimum portfolio value to maintain

Fractional shares are held as fractional interests in DriveWealth's omnibus account. They carry the same economic exposure as full shares (price appreciation, dividends) but cannot be transferred to another broker via ACATS in fractional form — you would need to sell the fractional portion first before an ACATS transfer of whole shares.