How do I know if I count as an NRI this year?
Status is decided year by year, on your physical presence in India during that year and in the years behind it. It is not a label you carry with you and it does not follow your job, your intentions or your address. Because India's tax year runs from April to March, the count you need is against those months, not against the calendar year your foreign employer or your other tax authority works to. Start from a presence record you can actually evidence, with arrival and departure dates for every trip, and settle the status before you take any position that depends on it.
I work abroad but visit India often, does that affect my status?
It can, and frequent short visits are the pattern that most often surprises people. The test counts days present in India, and a series of visits that each feel too short to matter can add up across an April to March year to something that does. Work trips, family visits and stopovers all count as presence. Keep a running record rather than reconstructing it at filing time, because the evidence is your travel history and it is much easier to assemble as you go. If a year is close to the line, the timing of a single trip can decide the status for the whole year.
My status changed halfway through the year, which rules apply?
Status is determined for the whole tax year, not for parts of it, so there is no half-and-half answer. What changes in a year of arrival or departure is that the general rule is often displaced by rules written specifically for the transition, and those rules govern how income arising on either side of the move is treated. The practical consequence is that the transition year has to be worked out first and separately. Decisions taken in that year, such as when to sell, when to remit and when to draw, are worth ordering deliberately, because they land under whichever set of rules applies.
Does my visa or passport decide whether I am a non-resident?
No. Citizenship, passport, visa category and permanent residence elsewhere are not the test for Indian tax residence, although they can matter for particular reliefs and for how the transition rules apply. The test is presence measured against the Indian tax year. People routinely assume that holding foreign permanent residence settles the question, and then find that a long stay in India during one year has changed their status while their immigration position stayed the same. Answer the residence question on the days, and treat immigration status as a separate fact that may affect the consequences rather than the status itself.
I moved back to India this year, am I still non-resident?
That depends on when in the year you returned and on how much of it you spent in India, and it is decided against the April to March year rather than from the date you landed. A return late in the year may leave the status unchanged for that year; a return early in it usually will not. There is also a transitional treatment for people coming back after a long period abroad, which affects how foreign income and foreign assets are handled in the first years home. Work out the year of return before the first filing, because the position taken then tends to be followed afterwards.
Does my bank's classification of my account decide my tax status?
It does not. The account category your bank has recorded reflects the declaration you gave it, sometimes years ago, and banks rarely revisit it. Tax status is decided under the tax rules on your presence in the year, and the two can drift apart without anyone noticing. The mismatch matters because deduction at source is applied according to how the payer has classified you, so an outdated bank record can mean tax is withheld on a basis your actual status does not support. Correct the bank record when the status changes, and expect to reconcile any difference through the return.
Can an NRI claim back TDS deducted on Indian income?
Yes, by filing an Indian return for the year. Withholding on rent, interest, dividends, professional fees or a property sale is an advance payment, not a final tax, so where the actual liability is lower — because of the treaty, because of the basic exemption, or because the deduction was computed on gross proceeds rather than gain — the excess comes back as a refund. It needs your PAN, a validated Indian bank account and the deductor's statement filed. See Indian filing and credit claims.
What are Forms 15CA and 15CB for?
They clear a payment out of India. Form 15CA is the remitter's declaration of the payment and the tax withheld on it; Form 15CB is an accountant's certificate on the taxability of the amount, the treaty article relied on and the correct withholding rate. The bank generally will not execute the transfer without them, in the categories where they are required. The work is deciding the rate correctly, because the certificate is the record of that decision. See 15CA and 15CB certification.
