The Covered Platforms (hereinafter defined) are owned and operated by the Shepherd’s Hill group of companies, having its office located at B5, STC Society, NS Phadke Marg, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400069 (“Shepherd’s Hill”). Shepherd’s Hill provides the eligible user with an online platform to access relevant information.

For the purpose of this Privacy Policy, wherever the context so requires the term “You” or “User” shall mean any natural or legal person including Online and offline clients and the term “We”, “Us”, “Our” shall mean Shepherd’s Hill.

We are focused on securing your privacy and use technology which provides you with a smooth, safe and convenient online experience. We understand and acknowledge the confidentiality of your personal, financial and transaction information. All information shared by you will be safeguarded as confidential information and we will take all reasonable steps to prevent the unauthorised use, dissemination, distribution or publication of your information.

We may utilize personally identifiable information (which may include but is not restricted to, first and last name, physical address, ip address email address, telephone number, birth date, and any other data that distinguishes you as a specific individual) for general purposes, as to fulfil your requests for our products and service, to keep you informed on recent product updates, offers which we figure understand might be of interest to you from us or from partner businesses. We may collect and utilise your data to send you promotions, provide services subscribed by you and to notify and/or contact you regarding availability, expiry, problems or changes with such services.

In order to improve the quality of service provided to you either via our website or other channels, we may have to engage third party services who may have access to the information provided by you.  We shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the confidentiality of your information is maintained by imposing strict confidentiality standards on all the third parties with whom we part this information. We shall endeavour to ensure that the information collected from you is used in the right spirit and context in which it is intended to be used.

We may also have to share your personal information wherever it is so required to be disclosed under the existing laws to any of the governmental authority / statutory authority or any other regulatory bodies/ agencies.

In order to ensure access to secured zone of the website, particularly for products that cannot be generally solicited, a unique login ID and password is required. The secured zone contains access to personal information and other transaction details. These details are confidential, non-transferrable and can only be used by the account holder/authorised user who is eligible to view such secured product information.

In order for us to provide optimum service, it is necessary for you to ensure that the personal information provided by you is updated and accurate.

In case the website contains links to other websites, we shall not be responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other websites.

Although, we take reasonable and appropriate steps to maintain the security of Personal Information we collect from you, the open nature of the Internet is such that data may flow over networks without security measures and may be accessed and used by people other than those for whom the data is intended. Shepherd’s Hill assumes no responsibility of whatsoever nature as to make good the losses and damages you may incur, due to privacy and/or security breach of your Personal Information.

We reserve the right to change our policy at any time with or without notifying users of the existence of a new privacy statement. This statement and the policies outlined herein are not intended to and do not create any contractual or other legal rights in or on behalf of any party.

However, US SEC and IRS rules are quite strict and there are many complexities and nuances that US NRI investors should know about when investing in India.

1. The main hurdle for US residents to invest directly into India is the cumbersome PFIC tax rule of the IRS.
2. A passive foreign investment company (PFIC) is defined as a corporation, located outside the US, which has a large part of its assets in, or receives a large part of its income from, passive investments not related to active business operations.
3. The US IRS would consider most mutual funds and other passive investment vehicles in India as PFICs.
4. If you invest in a PFIC, you will find yourself in a highly complicated tax situation, and you will not be able to take advantage of the beneficial capital gains tax rates of the US.
5. Indian mutual funds generally do not accept investments from US-based NRIs.
6. Indian brokers are generally reluctant to open NRI trading accounts for US NRIs due to strict SEC rules covering services that may be considered to be investment advice.
7. Even if you are able to open a trading account, be careful to not invest in PFICs.
8. Your Indian bank, demat and trading accounts need to be declared in FinCEN Form 114 on an annual basis. It is advisable to do so with your CPA’s advice, when you file your annual tax return.
9. You must declare all income received in India on your US tax returns.
10. Both India and the US will tax your investment returns received in India. This includes capital gains, dividends and interest.
11. You may be able to claim credit for tax paid in India against your US tax liability.
12. In the US, you may be taxed on investment income by both the IRS as well as the state that you live in, depending on which state you live in.
13. Dividend withholding tax for NRIs in India is 20%. Long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on exchange-traded securities is 10% and short term capital gains tax is 15%.
14. In the US, the federal tax rate for qualified dividends and LTCG is 15%. State tax rates vary widely.
15. Your simplest option is to invest in a US-based mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) which in turn invests in India; just be aware that these funds may have high expense ratios and usually invest only in a small set of the largest Indian companies, leaving out a large part of the Indian market from where you could derive superior returns.