🇮🇳 Tax residency in India

India decides tax residency by arithmetic, not by where your heart is. You are resident for a financial year (1 April to 31 March) if you spend 182 days or more in India during that year, or if you spend 60 days or more in that year and 365 days or more across the four preceding years combined. The second limb is the one frequent visitors miss: you can stay under 182 days every single year and still become resident through the 60-plus-365 combination. The day-count rules also carry category-specific variations (notably for Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin visiting India), so verify which version applies to you rather than assuming the base numbers.

There is no centre-of-vital-interests test in India's domestic residency rule; property or family in India do not by themselves make you resident. Where those ties matter is downstream: Indian-source income (rent from an Indian flat, income from an Indian business) is taxable in India whether you are resident or not, and residency then decides how much of your foreign income joins it.

The scope of taxation depends on a second classification: Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) versus Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR). ROR status brings worldwide taxation: foreign freelance income, foreign investment income, foreign rental income, all of it is assessed in India. RNOR status, which generally applies for a transition period to people who were non-resident for a long stretch, keeps most foreign-source income out of Indian scope. The top marginal rate reaches 42.74% at the highest income levels once surcharge and cess are included, so the ROR/RNOR distinction is worth real money.

India has no digital-nomad tax regime and no general shelter for foreign income beyond the RNOR transition treatment. If you land in ROR status, plan on your global income being assessed.

On treaties: the US and India have an income tax treaty in force, which provides credit relief so the same income is not taxed in full twice; US citizens file US returns on worldwide income regardless of where they live. For the UK, Germany, or any other home country, relief depends on whether a treaty is in force between that country and India; check the official treaty list of either tax authority for your pair before relying on it.

An accountant is worth engaging when you hold Indian property or a stake in an Indian business, when your day counts put you anywhere near either residency limb, or when the ROR/RNOR classification is in play, since that classification alone decides whether your worldwide income is on the table.

The rule of thumb: in India, count your days across five years, not one.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or tax advice.