How do I know if I count as an NRI for this tax year?
Status is decided year by year, and for an Indian year running April to March rather than a calendar year, which is why people who feel thoroughly settled in Canada are occasionally still resident in India for a particular year. It turns on physical presence in that Indian year and, for those who have left recently, on presence across the preceding years as well, with separate treatment for the year of departure itself. Settle the answer before deciding anything else, because it determines the shape of the whole return: a resident's return reaches worldwide income and asks about foreign assets, while a non-resident's is confined to Indian-source income. Count from passport stamps and boarding records, not from recollection.
What do I need from India before I can file anything?
Start with the trail of tax already deducted, because the Indian side runs on withholding and nothing can be computed until you know what was taken. That means the annual statement of tax deducted against your name, interest certificates from each bank, and the tenancy agreement and rent records for any let property. For anything sold, the purchase deed, the sale deed and receipts for improvements. Then the status evidence, meaning arrival and departure dates for the Indian year. Then the Canadian treatment of the same income, so the two returns can be reconciled rather than filed in ignorance of one another. The deducted-tax statement is what everything else is checked against, so obtain it first.
I have not filed in India for years, where do I begin?
Work out the earliest year that actually required a return, rather than the earliest year you can remember. For a non-resident the requirement follows Indian-source income against the filing threshold for each year, so a stretch with a vacant flat and no interest may have needed nothing while the year a tenant moved in needed a return. Then take the years in order, treating each as its own filing with its own deducted tax and its own limitation position, because late filing is constrained by how long a year stays open for recovery. Where tax was deducted and the real liability was lower, the oldest years may be past reclaiming, and that usually decides how far back the exercise is worth taking.
Should I file in India before or after my Canadian return?
Sequence India first where the calendar allows it, because the Canadian claim for relief rests on Indian tax charged on the same income, and the Indian return is what establishes that amount. Filing Canada first on an estimate and amending later is workable, but it doubles the work and invites a query. The complication is the calendar itself: India's year ends in March and Canada's in December, so the Indian return covering part of a Canadian year may not yet exist when the Canadian filing falls due. Where that happens, file in Canada on the deducted figures with the schedules retained, then reconcile once the Indian assessment arrives.
Does selling my Indian property change what I should do first?
Yes, and it moves one decision to the front of the queue. Deduction on a property sale is applied to the consideration rather than to the gain, so on a long-held property the buyer will hold back considerably more than the transaction owes and you will be waiting on the difference. The time to address that is before completion, by applying for a certificate authorising a lower deduction on the basis of the computed gain. That application needs the cost documents, the improvement receipts and a gain computation, which is the same evidence the return will need afterwards. So start there, and start well ahead of the completion date rather than in the week of it.
Who tells the Indian tax office that I have moved abroad?
Nobody does it for you, and there is no single notification that changes your position everywhere at once. Status for a given year is a question of fact established through your return. What does need doing actively is the banking side, because resident accounts are meant to be redesignated once you are non-resident, and the designation affects how interest is taxed and how much is deducted. Leaving old accounts as they stood is among the commonest sources of a mismatch between what has been deducted against your name and what your return says. Deal with the redesignation, record the date it took effect, and check that the year's deduction statements reflect the account as it then was.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
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.
