Schedule FA: Calendar Year or Financial Year?
5 min read · Published July 2026 · Applies to AY 2026-27
The single most common source of confusion in Schedule FA: the rest of your ITR runs on India's financial year (April–March), but Schedule FA runs on the calendar year (January–December). For AY 2026-27, that means Schedule FA covers January 1 to December 31, 2025 — while your salary, capital gains and other income cover April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
Why the calendar year?
Schedule FA asks for assets held during the "accounting period" of the foreign jurisdiction. For the US — where Fidelity, Schwab, E*TRADE, and Morgan Stanley accounts live — that is the calendar year. It also matches the FATCA/CRS data the Income Tax Department receives from US institutions, which is reported per calendar year. Aligning the disclosure period lets the department cross-check your Schedule FA against what your broker already told them.
What lands where — worked examples
| Event | Income side (FY Apr 2025 – Mar 2026) | Schedule FA side (CY Jan – Dec 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| RSU vests February 2026 | Perquisite in this year's salary schedule | Not here — goes in next year's Schedule FA (AY 2027-28) |
| Shares sold March 2025 | Capital gains were in last year's ITR (AY 2025-26) | Gross proceeds appear in this year's Table A2/A3 |
| Dividend credited January 2025 | Taxed in last year's ITR (AY 2025-26) | Counted in this year's gross amount credited |
| Closing balance | — | Value on December 31, 2025 — never March 31 |
| Peak balance | — | Highest value at any point during Jan–Dec 2025 |
So a vest, sale or dividend can legitimately appear in one year's income schedules and a different year's Schedule FA. That is not an error and not double taxation — Schedule FA is asset disclosure, not income computation. Filling both consistently is what the department expects.
The two mistakes this causes
- Using March 31 as the closing date. The Table A2/A3 closing balance is the December 31 value, converted at the SBI TTBR on December 31, per CBDT's filing instructions (not Rule 115 — see why; find any date's rate with the free TTBR lookup).
- Dropping January–March events. Sales and dividends from early 2025 feel like "last year" because they were taxed last year — but they fall inside CY 2025 and belong in this year's Schedule FA.
- Exporting only Jan–Dec and missing Jan–Mar income. Broker CSV exports are usually pulled Jan 1 – Dec 31 to match Schedule FA — but Schedule OS/FSI and Schedule CG run on the financial year (Apr–Mar), which extends three months past that export. A dividend or sale in January–March 2026 belongs in this year's OS/FSI/CG and Form 67, and a Jan–Dec export won't contain it. Export 15 months (Jan 1, 2025 – Mar 31, 2026) if you're also filing those schedules, not just Schedule FA. If your broker's date picker caps at 12 months, export twice — the app accepts multiple Transaction History files, just select both when uploading.
FAQ
Upload your Fidelity, Schwab, E*TRADE, or Morgan Stanley files — ITRFA.in filters events to the correct Jan–Dec window and computes Dec 31 closing and peak balances at exact-date SBI TTBR rates.
Generate your Schedule FA online →Related guides
- SBI TTBR Rate & Rule 115 — which exchange rate on which date
- Table A2 vs A3 — what's the difference
- Schedule FA Excel template — build one or skip it?
- 10 common Schedule FA mistakes