Schedule FA from Morgan Stanley — Complete Walkthrough

9 min read · Published July 2026 · Applies to AY 2025-26 and AY 2026-27

Watch: Schedule FA in 2 minutes — Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect

1. First: StockPlan Connect or E*TRADE? The migration explained

Morgan Stanley bought E*TRADE in 2020 and, between 2023 and 2025, moved most Morgan Stanley at Work stock plan participants onto the E*TRADE platform. Depending on where your employer's plan sits today, "my RSUs are with Morgan Stanley" means one of two very different portals:

If your account migrated mid-year, you may need Table A2 rows for both platforms in the transition year, with Table A3 lots sourced from whichever portal holds the history. The rest of this guide covers the StockPlan Connect path.

2. What is Schedule FA and who must file

Schedule FA is a section of ITR-2 and ITR-3 where Indian residents disclose foreign financial assets. It was introduced under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

You must file Schedule FA if you are a Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) in India and hold any of the following:

• Foreign bank or brokerage accounts (including Morgan Stanley / StockPlan Connect)
• Foreign equity shares — vested RSUs/GSUs, ESPP shares, or direct purchases
• Beneficial interest in foreign trusts (the stock plan participant trust qualifies)
• Any other foreign financial asset with value > ₹0

There is no minimum threshold. Even ₹1 of foreign assets requires disclosure. Non-residents (NR) and Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR) are exempt.

See full penalties and legal obligations →

3. Which reports to download from StockPlan Connect

StockPlan Connect is different from Fidelity, Schwab, and E*TRADE in one important way: it has no holdings export and no gains/losses export. There is no file that lists your current lots with cost basis, and no file that pairs each sale with its acquisition date. What it does have — under Activity → Reports — is two flat activity reports, and together they contain everything Schedule FA needs:

4. Table A2 — Foreign Custodial Account

Table A2 covers the Morgan Stanley account itself (the brokerage wrapper). One row per account.

5. Table A3 — Foreign Equity Interest

Table A3 requires one row per lot — for Morgan Stanley RSU/GSU holders that means one row per vest event from the Releases Report.

Sold lots still get a row. A lot sold in June was held from January to June — it must appear in Table A3 for that year with gross proceeds filled in and closing value 0. Because StockPlan Connect has no gains/losses export, itrfa.in reconstructs these rows by FIFO-matching your Withdrawals Report sales against your Releases Report vests. See capital gains on sold RSUs →

For unvested RSUs: also disclose in Table A3 as beneficial interest. Initial value = 0 (you haven't received them yet). Closing value = unvested units × Dec 31 stock price × SBI TTBR. See full RSU guide →

6. Table F — Morgan Stanley Participant Trust

Employer stock plans administered by Morgan Stanley hold unvested RSU/GSU awards through a stock plan arrangement before they vest. As a plan participant, you have a beneficial interest in this arrangement — which a conservative filing discloses as a foreign trust in Table F.

In practice, many CAs omit Table F on the grounds that the beneficial interest is already captured in Table A3. However, a conservative filing includes it. Fields required:

• Trust Name: Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC Participant Trust
• Country: United States
• Trustee: Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, 1585 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
• Settlor / Employer: Your employer name and address
• Date of creation: Your first RSU grant date (approximate)
• Beneficiary details: Beneficial interest as plan participant

7. Common mistakes — the gross-vs-net shares trap

1. Using the gross Quantity instead of Net Share Proceeds. The Releases Report shows both: Quantity is the full vested count (say 100), Net Share Proceeds is what landed in your account after sell-to-cover withholding (say 60). Your Table A3 lot is 60 shares — reporting 100 overstates every value on the row and double-counts shares that were sold on day one for US tax.
2. Treating the statement's "$0.00 Cost Basis" as your initial value. Some StockPlan Connect statement formats print Cost Basis as $0.00 for RSU shares because you paid nothing for them. For India, the correct basis is the vest-date FMV — the amount already taxed as salary perquisite. That figure is the Releases Report's Price column. Reporting ₹0 initial value is wrong.
3. Counting the "Cash" rows in the Withdrawals Report as extra sales. Each stock sale is followed by a Plan = "Cash" row when the proceeds are swept out — same dollars, second row. Summing all rows double-counts your gross proceeds. (itrfa.in skips Cash rows automatically.)
4. Forgetting dividends — the reports don't carry them. Neither the Releases nor the Withdrawals Report lists dividend credits. If your stock pays dividends (Alphabet started in 2024, Microsoft and Apple always have), pull the amounts from your StockPlan Connect statements or year-end tax documents and add them to Table A2 gross income. This is the one number the two reports cannot give you.
5. Using Rule 26 exchange rate (preceding month) instead of Rule 115 (exact date). Schedule FA values must use Rule 115: SBI TTBR on the exact acquisition/event date. Using the wrong rule can cause a 15–20% difference in INR values. See Rule 115 guide →
6. Using March 31 as closing date instead of Dec 31. Schedule FA reports the calendar year ending Dec 31 — closing balance means Dec 31 stock price × Dec 31 SBI TTBR, for both Table A2 and Table A3.

8. Morgan Stanley vs Fidelity vs Schwab vs E*TRADE

The Schedule FA rules are identical regardless of broker — Rule 115, the Dec 31 closing date, and the per-lot Table A3 requirement all apply the same way. What changes is the export mechanics, and Morgan Stanley's are the most unusual:

9. Automate with ITRFA.in

Manual filing from StockPlan Connect data involves:

• Downloading the Releases and Withdrawals Reports
• Working out net shares per vest lot and discarding the Cash sweep rows
• FIFO-matching every sale to its vest lots to reconstruct sold-lot rows
• Looking up SBI TTBR rates for every vest date (often 10–20 dates)
• Looking up daily stock prices to find the true peak balance
• Computing INR values for every lot and entering 15–30 rows into ITR-2

ITRFA.in does all of this from your two report uploads — select Morgan Stanley (StockPlan Connect) as your broker, drop the Releases Report in the Open Lots slot and the Withdrawals Report in the Transaction History slot, type your stock ticker once on the review screen, and download ITR-ready JSON + Excel in under 2 minutes.