I left India in the middle of the year — am I resident for all of it?
India decides your residence for a whole tax year, not for the part of it you spent in the country. There is no split-year mechanism in the law, so the year you leave is either a resident year or a non-resident year in its entirety. Which one it is turns on a day count, and on the date you actually left. That is why the departure year is worth planning before you go rather than explaining afterwards. If you are already abroad, the count becomes a matter of evidence: dates of exit and entry, and the documents that prove them.
Is my overseas salary taxable in India in the year I move?
It depends on the status the departure year carries. If the year is a resident year, income arising anywhere is within India's reach, including salary earned abroad after you left. If it is a non-resident year, that salary sits outside the Indian charge. Nothing about the employer, the currency or the account it is paid into changes that; the status for the year does. This is why a departure a few weeks either side of the count can change the Indian tax on an entire overseas package, and why we ask about travel dates before anything else.
Do I need to tell my Indian bank that I have moved abroad?
Yes. Resident accounts do not become non-resident accounts because the holder has moved; they have to be redesignated, and that is a compliance step rather than housekeeping. Until it happens, interest is credited and reported on the footing that you are still resident, which is not the footing your return will take. Exchange control also treats your status as changing on departure, independently of what the tax position for the year turns out to be. So you can be a non-resident for one purpose and still a resident for the other in the same period.
Can I choose my departure date to reduce Indian tax on my salary?
The date is a fact, but it is usually a fact you still control while the move is being arranged. Because the status for the year decides whether post-departure foreign salary is taxable in India, moving a flight can change the answer for the whole year. What cannot be done is deciding the date after the event: the count runs on when you actually left, and immigration records, tickets and stamps are what evidence it. Planning is legitimate; backdating is not. Bring the proposed dates to us before the tickets are issued.
Am I an NRI for exchange control as soon as I land abroad?
The two tests run on different clocks. Your FEMA status changes on departure, tied to leaving India for employment or an indefinite stay abroad. Tax residence is decided for the year as a whole. So in the weeks after a move you can already be a non-resident for banking and exchange-control purposes while the tax year you are in still resolves as a resident year. Confusing the two is common and costs people money in both directions: accounts left in the wrong category, or a return filed on a status the day count does not support.
I moved abroad years ago and never redesignated my accounts — what now?
The position is repairable, and it is better repaired deliberately than left to a bank query. The work is usually in two parts. First, fix the account category so that interest is credited and reported on the correct footing from here. Second, look back at the years already reported: interest may have been treated as a resident would treat it, deduction at source may have been applied on the wrong basis, and returns may be needed to reconcile what was deducted with what was actually owed. The order matters, because the corrected account is what the later filings rely on.
What is Schedule FA and who has to complete it?
It is the foreign asset disclosure in an Indian return, and the trigger is residential status rather than income: a resident discloses foreign bank accounts, custodial and equity holdings, foreign life insurance with a cash value, immovable property and other assets held at any time in the year, plus any beneficial interest. A non-resident does not. The obligation is disclosure-based, so it applies to an account that earned nothing, and the penalties under the black-money legislation are what make it worth getting right. See Schedule FA reporting.
Do NRIs have to file an Indian tax return?
If you have Indian-source income above the filing threshold, or you want a refund of tax withheld at source, or you are claiming treaty relief — then yes. Interest, rent, capital gains on Indian shares or property, and TDS deducted at a rate higher than your real liability all commonly force or reward a return. Filing is also how a lower-rate treaty claim and a foreign tax credit get onto the record. See NRI tax return filing.
