FAST-DS 2026 closes on December 31, 2026. I think most families who need it will lose time on one question: which of the scheme's two tracks do your facts actually fit?
The Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, or FAST-DS, is a one-time window for people who left foreign assets or foreign income out of their Indian tax filings. The two tracks cost very different amounts, so the sorting matters more than the paperwork.
What the scheme is
Online filing opened on August 16, 2026 and shuts on December 31, 2026. Assets are valued as of March 31, 2026, according to the CBDT FAQ dated August 13, 2026.
It covers people who were resident in India in the relevant year. It also covers non-residents and RNORs (residents not ordinarily resident, a status many returning Indians hold for a few years) if they were resident in the year the income arose or the asset was acquired.
The grounds are plain. You did not file a return, you filed one that left the item out, or the item escaped assessment.
FAST-DS 2026: the two tracks
Track one is for undisclosed foreign income, or a foreign asset not offered to tax, where the combined value is up to ₹1 crore. The cost is 30% tax plus an additional amount equal to that tax, so 60% of the value in total.
Track two is for a foreign asset that was already taxed, or bought while you were a non-resident, but never shown in the filing. The asset can be worth up to ₹5 crore, and the fee is a flat ₹1 lakh.
Read those two sentences again. A reporting gap and an unexplained source of money are treated as different problems, and the price reflects it. That is why I would sort the facts before touching Form 1.
Questions I would ask first
I am not your tax advisor, and nothing here is a view on your case. This is the order in which I would work through it.
- Where did the money come from, and can it be documented? Track one turns on whether the source of the asset or income was offered to tax.
- Was I resident in India in the year the income arose or the asset was bought? That decides whether a non-resident or RNOR status helps or hurts.
- What did the account or asset hold on March 31, 2026? The valuation date is fixed, and foreign bank accounts are valued from deposits, with adjustments for withdrawals reinvested in the account.
- Does anything in the picture involve proceeds of crime or an assessment already completed under the Black Money Act, 2015? Both are excluded from the scheme.
If you have years of LRS history, start with the LRS rulebook and your bank statements for each financial year. Most of the answers sit in those two places.
The trade-off
A valid declaration brings immunity from further tax, penalty and prosecution under the Black Money Act for the item you declared. The price of that immunity is that you cannot seek rectification, revision or appeal relief on it later.
So the choice is not free. Declare and you pay a known amount and close the item. Stay silent and the item stays open, with whatever exposure your facts carry. Which side that favors depends on details only you and your CA can see.
The clock is also longer than the headline date suggests, in a way that can hurt. After you file Form 1, the department issues a Form 2 order stating the amount. You pay within two months of the end of the month you receive it. Pay late and you get up to two more months, with interest of 1% for every month or part of a month. After that, the declaration is treated as void.
Filing on December 31 does not mean you are done on December 31. Build the payment into the plan before you file.
One more point. Disclosure fixes a reporting problem. It does not fix the investment risk of what you hold abroad. Foreign assets can lose value, be hard to sell and move with currencies, whatever your filings say.
The deadline is the easy part. The facts are the work. If a tax officer asked you to explain one foreign account today, which part would take you longest: finding the records, or deciding which track they belong to?
This post reflects my personal views and is for general education only. It is not investment, tax or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including loss of capital, illiquidity and currency movements, and past performance does not indicate future results. Raveum offerings are available only to eligible investors in the countries Raveum serves, under the applicable securities exemptions, and are not open to the general public. Speak to a qualified advisor and your own bank or CA about your situation.