I have received a scrutiny notice from India, what do I do first?
Read the notice for what it actually asks, and for the date the reply is due, because the deadlines here run from the notice rather than from when you get round to it. Then gather the documents that prove the figures in the return you filed, rather than a narrative about them. Responses are uploaded with the documentary evidence attached, so a reply describing a bank credit without the statement behind it is a reply the file does not really record. If you are a non-resident, treat your residency and treaty position as part of that first reply, not as something held back in case matters go badly. Our fee for handling an assessment is agreed in writing before work starts.
Can I answer an Indian scrutiny notice while living overseas?
Yes. The assessment is conducted largely through a faceless electronic process, so the reply and its annexures are uploaded rather than carried into an office. What living abroad changes is the evidence, not the venue. The material supporting a non-resident's position — the passport pages behind the day count, the employment or business record abroad, the treaty entitlement — sits in another country and takes time to assemble, while the deadline runs from the notice. So the order of work matters. Fix what has to be proved, request the documents from banks, employers and registries, then draft the reply around what has arrived. Leaving the gathering until the drafting is what produces a request for more time.
What happens if I miss the deadline on an Indian scrutiny notice?
The assessment does not pause. Deadlines run from the notice, and where no reply is filed the officer proceeds on the material already held, which for a non-resident usually means transaction data reported by banks and registrars with no explanation beside it. The assessment that comes out of that is the document every later stage starts from. It can be challenged, but you are then arguing against a finding rather than preventing one, and evidence you did not file is evidence the appellate record does not contain. If a date has already passed, the sequence is to get the reply and its annexures onto the file as fast as the documents allow, and to record why it was late.
Do I have to prove I am a non-resident during scrutiny?
If your position depends on it, yes, and this is the stage to do it. Treaty entitlement and residency evidence should be established during the assessment rather than on appeal, because the record built here is what the appellate stages read. In practice that means the day counts with the travel record behind them, the certificate of residence from the other country where the treaty relies on one, and the source documents for income you say is not taxable in India. An assertion of non-residence with nothing filed beside it is not a proven fact, and the proof is much harder to introduce once an officer has decided the point against you.
Can I file more documents after I have replied to scrutiny?
Often you can, and if something material was left out you should try. But treat it as a repair rather than a plan. The scrutiny stage is where the record is made and the appellate stages read that record, so a document produced late has to be explained as well as filed. The more common gap is not a missing document but a missing link between documents — a remittance shown without the source of the funds, or a sale shown without its cost. When you add material, add the connecting explanation with it, and check whether the point it supports was framed clearly in the original reply or needs restating.
Who decides my case in a faceless scrutiny assessment?
The process is largely faceless and electronic, so there is no local officer to go and see and no earlier relationship to fall back on. Everything the decision rests on is what has been uploaded. That has one practical consequence worth planning around: the reply has to be self-explanatory to a reader who knows nothing about you. Label the annexures, tie each one to the query it answers, and state the residency and treaty position in full rather than by reference to something filed in an earlier year under s.143(2). Assuming context that is not on the file is the commonest reason a well-founded position reads as unsupported.
How does an NRI prove residence to get the treaty rate?
With a tax residency certificate issued by the country you are resident in, plus Form 10F giving the details the certificate does not carry, plus a PAN in the payer's records. The certificate has to cover the period of the payment, and the payer needs it before paying, not afterwards. Missing any of the three and the deductor is obliged to withhold at the domestic rate, which turns a rate reduction into a refund claim. See TRC against Form 10F.
How does a remittance actually work, and is it taxed?
A remittance is a transfer of money, not a category of income, and moving your own funds between your own accounts is not what creates tax. What can create tax is the income behind the money and the rules of the country it leaves. India, for instance, collects tax at source when a resident individual remits abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and requires certification before certain payments leave. The transfer is the trigger for paperwork rather than for tax. See the LRS and tax collected at source.
