New Delhi, Aug. 17 -- The Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme (FAST-DS), 2026, is a one-time voluntary scheme that allows eligible taxpayers to disclose specified foreign assets and income that were not previously reported.

The scheme opened on 16 August, with 31 December 2026 as the deadline for making a declaration.

One of the key steps is determining the market value of these foreign assets for reporting under the scheme.

Taxpayers have to look at two values:

The higher of the two is taken as the fair market value (FMV). For example, if a taxpayer bought jewellery for Rs.20 lakh, but it was worth Rs.28 lakh on 31 March, the value to be declared will be Rs.28 lakh.

If no such valuation is done, the indexed cost of a...