NRI Tax Services

India taxes residents on worldwide income and non-residents only on income that arises or is received in India. Everything therefore turns on residential status, which is a factual test based on days of physical presence, not on your passport, your visa or where you consider home.

Between the two sits Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident — a transitional status that exempts most foreign income for a period and is extremely valuable to anyone returning to India permanently.

Once status is settled, the practical questions follow: which India-source income is taxable, whether a treaty reduces the rate, how much tax is withheld on a property sale, and what can be repatriated from an NRO account.

Residency is a day count, not a feeling

You are resident if you are in India for 182 days or more in the year, or 60 days or more in the year and 365 days or more across the four preceding years. The 60-day limb is relaxed to 182 days for Indian citizens leaving for employment and for crew members. For Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin visiting India whose Indian income exceeds ₹15 lakh, the threshold is 120 days rather than 182.

There is also a deemed-residence rule: an Indian citizen with Indian income above ₹15 lakh who is not liable to tax in any other country is treated as resident. This catches people in genuinely zero-tax jurisdictions who assumed they were outside the Indian net.

RNOR is the window worth planning for

An individual returning to India after a long period abroad typically qualifies as Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident for a limited period, during which foreign income not derived from a business controlled in India remains outside Indian tax. For someone with overseas investments or a foreign pension, this can be worth a great deal — but only if the timing of the return is planned. Coming back in March rather than April can change the position by an entire year.

Property sale TDS is on the sale value

When a non-resident sells Indian property, tax is withheld under section 195 on the whole consideration, not on the gain. On a property bought years ago, the withheld amount can vastly exceed the actual tax. The remedy is an application under section 197 for a lower or nil deduction certificate, made before the sale. Applying afterwards means waiting for a refund that can take a year or more.

Repatriation has a limit and a process

Balances in an NRE account are freely repatriable. From an NRO account, up to USD 1 million per financial year may be remitted, supported by Form 15CA and a chartered accountant’s certificate in Form 15CB confirming that applicable taxes have been paid. Banks will not process the remittance without them.

Residency rules and filing utilities are published by the Income Tax Department; remittance rules by the Reserve Bank of India.

Keep a travel log. Residency turns on day counts, and reconstructing them from passport stamps years later is unreliable — particularly for people who travel frequently on business.

Obtain the tax residency certificate for each year in which you claim treaty benefit. They are issued annually and expire, and a treaty rate claimed without one is difficult to sustain.

If you are planning to return to India permanently, take advice before you book the flight rather than after you land. The RNOR window and the treatment of foreign assets both depend on timing decisions that cannot be revisited.