What happens if I file ITR-4 (Sugam) after the due date?
The charge for lateness attaches to the return itself, so it runs from the due date whether or not tax is owing. The presumptive route makes that easy to underestimate: profit is deemed as a percentage of turnover rather than computed from books, so a year you thought of as quiet still produces a taxable figure, and interest runs on that figure as well. The first thing we establish is turnover for each open year, because that decides both the deemed profit and the size of what has accrued while the return sat unfiled.
Does filing ITR-4 late take away the presumptive option?
Not by itself, but do not assume it survives either. The presumptive scheme carries its own conditions, and the right to compute profit as a percentage of turnover depends on meeting them rather than on the return being punctual. What the delay does affect is the evidence: a return filed years after the fact has to be supported by turnover records you may no longer hold in the same form. We read the scheme conditions for each open year before treating the option as available, because the alternative is computing profit from books that were never kept.
Can a non-resident use ITR-4 (Sugam) at all?
That is the first question, and it is answered by the scheme conditions rather than by what is convenient. Residency is among the conditions that decide access to presumptive taxation, so a non-resident who has been filing on that basis may have been filing the wrong return, which is a larger problem than filing the right one late. Where we find that pattern the work splits in two: establish the correct basis for each open year, then deal with the delay on the returns that actually applied.
How much is the Canadian penalty if I am late on both sides?
For the 2025 tax year the Canada Revenue Agency charges 5% of the balance owing on a return filed late, plus 1% of that balance for each full month it remains outstanding, to a maximum of 12 months. The penalty does not compound; interest does, daily, on the unpaid balance. Those are the Canadian figures and they say nothing about the Indian charge on a late ITR-4, which is worked out under its own rules. Where both years are open we sequence them so the balance that is compounding gets paid down first.
My turnover was small, so is a late nil return harmless?
Rarely, because the presumptive scheme does not produce a nil result out of a positive turnover. Profit is deemed, so once there is turnover there is a taxable figure, and modest turnover often still means tax. There is a second reason to file even where little is payable: the return is the document that evidences the Indian position, and a claim in another country for relief against Indian tax rests on it. Leaving the year unfiled removes that evidence while the exposure for lateness keeps accruing.
Will a late ITR-4 delay my foreign tax credit claim elsewhere?
It can, because a credit in the other country is allowed against tax actually paid, and the late return is usually what establishes how much that was. Until it is filed and the liability settled, the other return either goes in without the claim or goes in on an estimate that has to be corrected later. Where a client has both returns open we normally file the Indian year first and carry the assessed figure across, so the claim is made once with evidence behind it rather than twice.
Is dividend income from Indian shares taxable for an NRI?
Yes. Dividends are taxed in the shareholder's hands, and the paying company withholds on payment to a non-resident. The treaty can reduce that withholding, but only if the documents are with the company before it pays: a tax residency certificate from your country, Form 10F, and a PAN on the register. Without them the domestic rate applies and your route back to the difference is a refund claim on an Indian return. See residency certificates and Form 10F.
Is my Indian provident fund or PPF still tax-free now that I live abroad?
The exemption is an Indian one, and it does not travel. Your new country of residence taxes worldwide income under its own rules, and several — the United States in particular — may treat the annual growth in a foreign retirement or savings plan as currently taxable and separately reportable, whether or not you withdrew anything. So an account that is genuinely tax-free in India can be a taxable, reportable asset where you now live. See Indian pensions received abroad.
