How do I know whether I am an NRI for Indian tax?
By counting days, and by counting them against two separate tests rather than one. Indian residency is decided by two day-count tests and either of them is enough on its own. The first looks only at your stay in the current year: a long enough stay makes you resident outright. The second combines a much shorter stay this year with time spent in India over the preceding four years, so somebody who visits regularly can be caught by it while never coming close to the first test. Most people who get this wrong have checked one test, found they passed it, and stopped.
Can a long holiday in India change my residential status?
It can, and that is the part people do not expect. Because one of the tests combines a shorter current-year stay with your presence in India over the preceding four years, a single extended visit can tip the status for the whole year rather than for the weeks you were there. Status is determined for the year as a unit; there is no part-year setting for the trip. The practical consequence is that a long summer at home is worth checking before it is booked, not after, since by the time you are back the days have been spent and the year is what it is.
Does the four-year look-back count against me if I visit every year?
That is exactly what it is designed to capture. The second test pairs a much shorter stay in the current year with substantial presence in India across the preceding four, so the risk builds from a pattern of regular visits rather than from one long trip. Someone who spends a few weeks in India every year can accumulate enough prior presence that a comparatively modest current-year stay becomes decisive. It also means the test cannot be assessed from this year's travel alone. You need the day counts for the earlier years before you can say what this year's visit does.
I left India for a job abroad, does the same test apply to me?
Not necessarily in the same way. Special rules apply to Indians leaving India for employment, and separately to visits by persons of Indian origin, so the test that decides your status in the year you left may not be the one that applies to somebody who simply travelled. This is the single most common reason a departure year is got wrong: the general day count is applied to a person the special rule was written for. Establish which category you fall into for that year first, then count the days against the test that actually governs you.
Am I still an NRI if I moved abroad part way through the year?
The year of the move is the one to look at carefully, because the status is decided for the whole year and your days in India fall on one side of the move. Whether you are resident for that year turns on which test applies to you and how the days count under it, and the special rule for Indians leaving for employment can make the departure year behave differently from the years either side of it. Treat the move year as a separate exercise rather than assuming it follows the year before or the year after. It frequently does not.
What records prove how many days I spent in India?
Passport pages with the entry and exit stamps are the backbone of it, supported by tickets, boarding passes and the immigration record where stamps are missing or illegible. Keep them for the current year and for the preceding four, because the second test reads back across those years and a day count you cannot document is a day count you cannot rely on. Build the record as a schedule of trips with dates and the supporting document for each, rather than a total. Anyone reviewing the position later, here or in the other country, will want to see how the total was arrived at.
What is a DTAA?
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement — India's name for a tax treaty. It does the same work as any treaty: allocates taxing rights between India and the other country, caps Indian withholding on payments abroad, and sets out whether relief comes by exemption or by credit. To use one you generally need a tax residency certificate from the other country, Form 10F, and a PAN in the deductor's records. See DTAA relief between India and Canada.
How do I get a refund of TCS collected on a foreign remittance?
You claim it on your Indian return for that year. The collected amount is credited against your total tax, and if it exceeds the tax due the balance is refunded like any excess payment. Two practical conditions: the collector must have filed its statement so the credit appears in your annual tax statement, and your PAN must be correctly recorded on the remittance. A salaried remitter can also ask their employer to account for it against salary withholding. See LRS limits and TCS.
