The LRS limit is USD 250,000 per resident individual per financial year. What counts toward it, how banks track it by PAN, minors, prohibited uses and TCS.
LRS Limit FY 2026-27: How Much Money Can You Send Abroad from India?
A resident individual can send up to USD 250,000 abroad in FY 2026-27 (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027) under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, all purposes combined. The limit is per person, tracked by PAN across every bank, and each family member has their own. TCS is charged on top, by purpose.
Key facts
- LRS limit: USD 250,000 per resident individual per financial year, roughly INR 2.21 crore at 9.93 to the dollar.
- It covers every purpose together: tuition, living costs, gifts, property, shares, travel.
- Minors have their own limit; a natural guardian countersigns Form A2.
- Banks report every LRS transaction against your PAN, so the limit is tracked across all of them.
- Above the limit you need prior RBI approval; some purposes are prohibited outright.
- TCS from 1 April 2026 applies on top: 2% education and medical above INR 10 lakh, 20% for most other purposes above INR 10 lakh, 2% flat on tour packages.
What the USD 250,000 figure actually means
The LRS was introduced by RBI in 2004 with a limit of USD 25,000. It has been USD 250,000 since May 2015, and that is the figure for FY 2026-27. The scheme lets any resident individual, including a minor, remit money abroad for permitted current or capital account transactions without asking RBI each time. The authorised dealer (AD) bank or its partner collects your Form A2 and reports the transaction.
The limit is in dollars, so the rupee equivalent moves. At 88.40 to the dollar, USD 250,000 is INR 2,21,00,000. If you send pounds, the AD converts to dollars on the day: GBP 100,000 at a GBP/USD cross of about 1.27 uses up USD 127,000 of the year’s room.
Two points people miss. The limit resets on 1 April, not on the anniversary of your first remittance. And money that comes back to India does not restore it. RBI’s LRS FAQ is explicit: once a resident has remitted USD 250,000 in a financial year, no further remittance is permitted even if the funds are repatriated.
What counts toward the limit
Nearly everything. The following all consume the same USD 250,000:
- Tuition and hostel fees paid to a foreign institution (purpose code S0305).
- Living expenses sent to a student or relative abroad (S1301).
- Gifts and donations (S1302).
- Medical treatment abroad (S0304) and other travel (S0306).
- Emigration and funding your own account abroad.
- Shares, funds, bonds or property abroad, and investing in a business overseas.
- Loading a forex card for any purpose, and buying foreign currency notes.
International debit card spends abroad also fall under LRS. Credit card spends abroad were brought under LRS by a May 2023 amendment to the FEMA current account rules, though the TCS mechanics for cards have been deferred more than once; treat them as counting and check with your card issuer.
What does not count
The scheme is not available to companies, partnerships, HUFs or trusts, and business imports of goods and services are trade transactions, not LRS. Remittances by NRIs from NRE accounts are repatriation of foreign earnings. Repatriation from an NRO account, up to USD 1 million a year, runs under a separate regulation with its own tax paperwork.
Fees paid in rupees to an Indian entity, such as a visa application centre, are domestic payments. LRS only applies when money leaves the country.
Every family member has a limit of their own
The limit is per individual, not per household. A family of four residents can send USD 1,000,000 in a year, provided each person remits funds that are genuinely their own and signs their own Form A2. RBI allows family remittances to be consolidated for a single purpose, so two parents can each pay part of one child’s tuition. For capital account transactions such as property abroad, clubbing is allowed only if the family members are co-owners.
Minors can remit. The natural guardian countersigns the A2, and the transfer counts against the minor’s own USD 250,000. ADs will ask for the source of a minor’s funds, because a large gift from a parent followed immediately by an outward remittance looks like an attempt to use two limits for one person’s money. The Form A2 explainer covers the declaration.
Each person also has their own INR 10 lakh TCS threshold. For most families that matters more than the LRS limit, as the example below shows.
How banks track the limit across institutions
PAN is mandatory for every LRS remittance, and every AD reports each transaction to RBI. From 2023 ADs must check the aggregate LRS remitted by a PAN in the financial year, across all banks, before processing a fresh transaction. Form A2 also asks you to declare the total you have already sent this year.
So you cannot run separate USD 250,000 allowances at three banks. A false declaration on Form A2 is a FEMA contravention, and compounding fees for LRS breaches are not trivial. If you want to send through a second bank, say so on the form and bring the earlier debit advices; it speeds the check.
Purposes, permitted and prohibited, with TCS
The INR 10 lakh threshold is per PAN per financial year on your aggregate LRS remittances, so once you have crossed it on one purpose, later remittances at other rates are taxed from the first rupee.
| Purpose | LRS status | Purpose code | TCS from 1 April 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuition and hostel fees, self-funded | Permitted | S0305 | 2% above INR 10 lakh |
| Tuition funded by an education loan (Section 80E institution) | Permitted | S0305 | 0% |
| Medical treatment abroad | Permitted | S0304 | 2% above INR 10 lakh |
| Living expenses, family maintenance | Permitted | S1301 | 20% above INR 10 lakh |
| Gifts and donations | Permitted | S1302 | 20% above INR 10 lakh |
| Overseas tour package | Permitted | AD assigns from RBI list | 2% flat, no threshold |
| Shares, funds, property abroad | Permitted | AD assigns from RBI list | 20% above INR 10 lakh |
| Emigration, own account abroad | Permitted | S0023 for emigration; AD assigns for own account | 20% above INR 10 lakh |
| Lottery tickets, sweepstakes, banned magazines | Prohibited | None | Not applicable |
| Margin or margin calls to overseas exchanges; forex trading abroad | Prohibited | None | Not applicable |
| Remittances to FATF non-cooperative countries or terrorism-risk entities | Prohibited | None | Not applicable |
| Cryptocurrency purchases abroad | Declined by ADs in practice | None | Not applicable |
The prohibited list comes from Schedule I of the FEM (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000 and RBI’s Master Direction on LRS. RBI has never notified crypto as a permitted LRS purpose, and ADs decline such requests. Buying FCCBs issued by Indian companies and capital remittances to Nepal or Bhutan are also barred.
Our post on the new TCS rates on LRS from 1 April 2026 explains how the threshold and rates interact.
Worked example: a family sending a year of study costs to the UK
A family is sending their daughter to a London master’s course. The costs for FY 2026-27 are tuition of GBP 25,000, accommodation of GBP 11,000 paid to the university hall, and GBP 9,000 of living money. GBP/INR is 112.40 and GBP/USD is 1.27.
The total GBP 45,000 is about USD 57,150. If the father sends everything, he uses 23% of his USD 250,000. Nowhere near the ceiling. The limit is rarely the constraint for education; TCS is.
The TCS, if the father sends all of it self-funded:
- Tuition GBP 25,000 = INR 28,10,000 (S0305). Threshold INR 10,00,000 consumed. 2% on INR 18,10,000 = INR 36,200.
- Accommodation GBP 11,000 = INR 12,36,400 (S0305, hostel expenses). Threshold gone. 2% on INR 12,36,400 = INR 24,728.
- Living money GBP 9,000 = INR 10,11,600 (S1301, maintenance). 20% on INR 10,11,600 = INR 2,02,320.
Total TCS: INR 2,63,248, all creditable in the father’s ITR but locked up for a year.
Split the same payments across two parents and the picture changes. The father sends tuition and accommodation: education total INR 40,46,400, TCS 2% on INR 30,46,400 = INR 60,928. The mother sends the GBP 9,000 living money from her own account: INR 10,11,600 against her untouched threshold, so 20% on INR 11,600 = INR 2,320. Household TCS drops to INR 63,248, exactly INR 2,00,000 less cash locked up. The mother needs her own PAN, her own funds and her own Form A2, and uses about USD 11,400 of her own limit.
If the tuition were funded by a bank education loan, the INR 36,200 on that leg falls to zero; see tuition fee payments.
What happens if you need more than USD 250,000
The scheme has no in-year top-up. If a genuine need exceeds the limit, you apply to RBI through your AD bank for prior approval, with documents supporting the amount. The current account rules also allow education and medical remittances above the ceiling on the strength of an estimate from the institution or hospital, which is the route parents use when a US medical degree costs more than USD 250,000 in a year. Investment requests above the limit are rarely approved.
Do not split one person’s money among relatives’ PANs to manufacture extra limit. It is the most common LRS breach ADs report, and easy to detect when the funds originate from one account.
Because the limit and the INR 10 lakh TCS threshold both reset on 1 April, a payment due in late March can sometimes be split across two years. A university that accepts term-wise instalments lets you send INR 10 lakh in March and INR 20 lakh in April, saving INR 20,000 of TCS. Check the deadlines first; a late fee costs more than the TCS you defer. For documents and eligibility, read our LRS overview.
How to do this with Fairexpay
Fairexpay exited RBI’s Regulatory Sandbox Cohort II and executes transfers through RBI-authorised AD-I bank and AD-II partners, so every transfer is an LRS remittance with the same reporting and PAN checks a bank applies.
You complete KYC once with PAN and Aadhaar. For each transfer you pick the purpose, upload the supporting documents (passport, offer letter and relationship proof for a child’s tuition, for instance), and Form A2 is executed digitally with the purpose code filled in. The quote shows the live exchange rate with no markup, the transfer fee from 0.4%, GST and the TCS line before you confirm, so you can see the effect of splitting a payment between two parents before either pays. Uploading an education loan sanction letter sets TCS to 0% automatically. Payment is by UPI or net banking, processing is T+1, and each remittance sits under My Remittances with SMS and email updates and the debit advice you will need at tax time.
FAQs
What is the LRS limit for FY 2026-27?
USD 250,000 per resident individual for the year from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, all purposes combined. There is no separate sub-limit for education, travel or investment. The rupee equivalent depends on the rate on the day, roughly INR 2.21 crore at 88.40 per dollar.
Does the limit apply per person or per family?
Per person. Each resident individual, including a minor, has their own USD 250,000. Family members can consolidate remittances for one purpose if each uses their own funds and signs their own Form A2. Clubbing for property abroad requires the members to be co-owners.
Is the LRS limit tracked across banks?
Yes. PAN is mandatory for every LRS transaction, ADs report each one to RBI, and since 2023 they must check your year-to-date total across all banks before processing. You also declare the amount already sent on Form A2.
Can a minor send money under LRS?
Yes. A minor has their own limit, and the natural guardian countersigns the Form A2. ADs will ask how the minor came by the funds, because routing a parent’s money through a child to use a second limit is a breach of the scheme.
What happens if I exceed USD 250,000?
The AD will not process the remittance. For a genuine need, such as medical or education costs above the ceiling, you apply through your bank for prior RBI approval with supporting estimates. Mis-declaring or using relatives’ PANs is a contravention that carries a penalty.
Does TCS reduce how much I can send?
No. TCS is collected on top of the remitted amount and does not count against the USD 250,000. It is an advance tax credited to your PAN and claimed in your ITR: 2% for self-funded education and medical above INR 10 lakh, 20% for gifts and maintenance above INR 10 lakh, 0% for loan-funded education.
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