Returning to India: resident, not ordinarily resident, or still non-resident

Section 3 says a tax year is the twelve-month financial year commencing on 1 April. The day counts in section 6 are for that tax year, and for the tax years before it. They are not the January-to-December count used on Schedule FA.

Section 6(2) says an individual is resident in India in a tax year if either of these is true.

Meeting row (a), or meeting row (b) where that test still applies, makes you a resident. The next section is where row (b) is switched off. Section 6(12) says a person who is resident for any source of income is resident for every other source. If subsections (2) to (6) do not make you resident, and subsection (7) does not deem you resident, section 5(2) is the column for a non-resident.

The 182-day test in section 6(2)(a) stays in place in the rows below. What changes is section 6(2)(b), the 60-day test.

Section 6(14) says income from foreign sources means income which accrues or arises outside India (except income derived from a business controlled in India, or a profession set up in India) and which is not deemed to accrue or arise in India. The figure in the section is fifteen lakh rupees. The test is income that exceeds ₹15 lakh.

Section 6 uses the words citizen of India and person of Indian origin. The text on that page does not mention an Overseas Citizen of India card, and it does not define person of Indian origin. Holding an OCI card is not, by itself, a row in this table.

Section 6(13) is a second label. It can sit on top of residence. Any one of these is enough for the section to call the person not ordinarily resident.

Subsection (a) also covers a Hindu undivided family whose manager meets (a)(i) or (a)(ii). For someone who has become resident on the 182-day test, (a)(i) and (a)(ii) look at the tax years before this one.

Section 5(1) is the resident rule. The words "not ordinarily resident" limit that rule at section 5(1)(c). Section 5(2) is the non-resident rule. It is in the table further down this page.

Section 6(7) applies irrespective of subsections (2) to (6). An individual is deemed resident for a tax year if all three of these are true: the person is a citizen of India, is not liable to tax in any other country or territory because of domicile, residence, or similar criteria, and has total income, other than income from foreign sources, exceeding ₹15 lakh in that tax year.

Section 6(8) says subsection (7) does not apply to someone who is already resident under subsections (2) to (6). Section 6(13)(c) says a citizen who is deemed resident under subsection (7) is not ordinarily resident.

Subsection (7) says "a citizen of India". It does not say a person of Indian origin, and it does not say the holder of an OCI card.

The label from section 6 decides the column. A resident who is not covered by section 6(13) uses the full resident column. A resident who is not ordinarily resident uses the middle column. A non-resident uses the last column.

Section 5(3) says income accruing outside India is not deemed to be received in India only because it is taken into account in a balance sheet prepared in India. Section 5(4) says income already included because it accrued, or is deemed to have accrued, is not included a second time because it was received in India.

This page stops at sections 5 and 6. It does not apply a tax treaty, and it does not set a separate rate for a non-resident.

A salary received in India is in the first row of the table. That row is included for a resident, for a person who is not ordinarily resident, and for a non-resident. Salary that accrues in India is in the second row, on the same three labels. The label changes income that accrued outside India.

The income-tax calculator and the salaried guide compute that Indian salary. They do not rerun the day count. PF on the salary is the ₹25,000 wage ceiling. If you are working backwards from a monthly in-hand figure, use the reverse CTC calculator.

Read the Section 87A page before you treat a zero result as yours. That page says only a resident individual can claim the rebate. A non-resident does not get it at any income. The threshold and the rebate amounts on that page do not apply to a non-resident.

If section 6 makes you a resident, a foreign bank account or foreign shares are on Schedule FA. That page applies the schedule to a resident. The exception it names is an individual who is not an Indian citizen and who was a non-resident in the year the asset was acquired: that asset stays off the schedule if no income is derived from it in the current year. The ₹10 lakh penalty on that page is for a resident other than not ordinarily resident. The same page does not list ITR-1 or ITR-4. Which of ITR-2 or ITR-3 fits the rest of the income is on the ITR filing guide.