How do I receive payment from the USA to my current account in India
There is nothing called best; Depending on the amounts there are several options and each will cost some money.  If your business is still small customers are individuals try PayPal it will be easy for everyone. The other options are accepting Credit Card, you would need to set-up card gateway on your website etc Simple wire transfer, it will cost more both for your customers and to you.
"No.  This is too much for most individuals, even some small to medium businesses.  When you sell that investment, and take the cheque into the foreign bank and wire it back to the USA in US dollars, you will definitely obtain the final value of the investment, converted to US$. Thats what you wanted, right?  You'll get that.  If you also hedge, unless you have a situation where it is a perfect hedge, then you are gambling on what the currencies will do. A perfect hedge is unusual for what most individuals are involved in. It looks something like this:  you know ForeignCorp is going to pay you 10 million quatloos on Dec 31.  So you go to a bank (probably a foreign bank, I've found they have lower limits for this kind of transaction and more customizable than what you might create trading futures contracts), and tell them, ""I have this contract for a 10 million quatloo receivable on Dec 31, I'd like to arrange a FX forward contract and lock in a rate for this in US$/quatloo.""  They may have a credit check or a deposit for such an arrangement, because as the rates change either the bank will owe you money or you will owe the bank money. If they quote you 0.05 US$/quatloo, then you know that when you hand the cheque over to the bank your contract payment will be worth US$500,000.  The forward rate may differ from the current rate, thats how the bank accounts for risk and includes a profit. Even with a perfect hedge, you should be able to see the potential for trouble.  If the bank doesnt quite trust you, and hey, banks arent known for trust, then as the quatloo strengthens relative to the US$, they may suspect that you will walk away from the deal.  This risk can be reduced by including terms in the contract requiring you to pay the bank some quatloos as that happens.  If the quatloo falls you would get this money credited back to your account.  This is also how futures contracts work; there it is called ""mark to market accounting"".  Trouble lurks here.  Some people, seeing how they are down money on the hedge, cancel it.  It is a classic mistake because it undoes the protection that one was trying to achieve.  Often the rate will move back, and the hedger is left with less money than they would have had doing nothing, even though they bought a perfect hedge." "how many of those Indians were immigrants as opposed to born in the USA?  there are tough restrictions for anyone to move from India to USA - only college graduated, high earning people can go to USA to work.  the other groups might have born there and that's why they bring down the ""college-educated"" statistics." "My employer decided to pay my salary in India after I submit a form W-8BEN. This means that the wages / salary is deemed accrued for work from India. Hence your employer need not withhold and pay taxes on this wage in US. Is this payment taxable in the States since I am staying outside of States? Should I declare this income to IRS in case if I go back to the States later this year? No tax is due as the work is done outside on US. If you go back this would be similar to as you had gone first. Depending on your ""tax residency status"" you would have to declare all assets. If my US employer wires my US salary to my NRE account is that taxable in India? This is still taxable in India. It is advised that you have the funds transferred into a regular savings account. Please note you have to pay taxes in advance as per prescribed due dates in Sept, Dec, March. how does the Indian tax man identify if it is a taxable income and not just the regular remittance. This question is off topic here. Whether income taxes finds out about this is irrelevant. By law one is required to pay taxes on income earned in India." There are 2 questions here; My father, an NRI, sold inherited land in India ... This transaction is taxable in India. As its inherited land, and assuming its Non-Agricultural, your Dad will have to pay tax on gains, 20% with Indexation and 10% without indexation. He wants to move the money to the USA, with minimum tax. How to go about it? Money can be moved to US, there is a limit on the amount that can be freely repatriated, the limit is more if the funds are being moved for investment, like property etc outside India. "What you have is usually called a pre-paid credit card.  You pay some money (Indian Rupees) to the credit card company, and then you can use the card to pay for purchases etc in foreign (non-Indian) currencies upto the remaining balance on the card. If a proposed charge exceeds the remaining balance, the transaction will be declined when you try to use the card.  There might be multiple ways that the card is set up, e.g. it might be restricted to charge purchases denominated in US dollars alone, or you might be able to use it anywhere in the world (except India).  The balance on the card might be denominated in INR, or in US$, say. In the latter case, the exchange rate at which your INR payment was converted into the $US balance is fixed and agreed to at the time of the original payment: you paid INR 70K (say) and the balance was set to US$ 1000 even though the exchange rate on the open market would have given you a few more US dollars. In the former case with the balance denominated in INR, a charge of US$ 100, say, would be converted to INR at a fixed agreed-upon rate, or at the current exchange rate that the Visa or MasterCard network is using, plus (typically) a 3% fee currency exchange fee, and your balance in INR will decrease accordingly. With all that as prologue, if you made a purchase from Walmart USA and later returned it for a credit, it should increase your credit card balance  appropriately. You may be whacked with currency conversion fees along the way depending on how your card is set up, but with a US$-denominated card, a credit of US$100 should increase your card balance by US$100. So, that $US 100 can be spent on something else instead.  In short, the card is   your ""bank"" account. You cannot spend more than the remaining balance on the card just like you cannot withdraw more money from your bank account than you have in the account, and you can recharge your card by making more INR payments into it so as to increase the available balance. But it is like a current account in that you are unlikely to earn interest on the balance the way you do with a savings account. So what if you are back in India and have no further use of this card? Can you get your balance back as cash or deposit into your regular bank account? Call the Customer Help line, or read the card agreement you signed." How do I directly get my Freelancing amount in my Axis bank account? Do I need to inform my Bank before receiving any such payment?  Yes you can get it directly into your Axis Bank Account. You would need to inform your client your Bank Account Number, Bank Name and Address and Swift BIC or IFSC Code [Axis Bank website or Branch can tell you]. You can receive credits in Euro's. Upon receipt Axis Bank will automatically convert this into Rupees using standard rate. Your Bank [Axis] may also charge some Bank fees for the wire transfer. How do I pay tax for this extra income in India?  You would need to treat this as income and add it to total income including salary and calculate tax accordingly. You can pay taxes online using Income Tax India website. You can also approach a CA who would do the tax computation, paying taxes and filing returns for as little as Rs 1000 - 2000/- Edit: IBAN is International Bank Account Number. Explain to you client that India does not subscribe to IBAN. Its right now only used by Europe and Australia. Give you normal Bank Account Number. Please call up your Bank / walk into your Branch to get the SWIFT BIC. It will be something like this http://www.theswiftcodes.com/india/page/3/ I think you are asking quite a few questions here;   If you have Rs 10000, its better you get it converted in India before you leave. Most Banks and Exchange houses like Western Union would take Rupees and Give you USD. What do they do with USD, there are other who give them USD and need Rupees. They make a spread in this process.   If you are getting a salary in USD in US, whenever you want to transfer money to India, the Banks or Remittance services like Western Union would take USD from your US Account and Transfter equivalent Money into your Bank Account in India in Rupees. They will tell the exchange rate applicable. Depending on why visa type & the duration you are going, your company should be able to tell you your tax liabilities in the US. Read similar questions here to get a general idea. No it is not required to create a trade account or a current account. If the payment is via Paypal, as per Indian laws, it would automatically get credited to your savings account in 7 days.  You would still need to declare this as income and pay tax accordingly.