I am moving back to India mid-year — which year do I become resident?
Residency in India is settled by counting days, not by intention or by the date on your air ticket. The year you become resident therefore depends on how many days you spend in the country in each tax year, and a move made late in one year often falls into the next. The count is worth doing before you book, because the same relocation can land on either side of the line depending on a few weeks. We map the day counts for the year of arrival and the year after it, then tell you which dates change the answer and which do not.
Does the transitional status stop India taxing my foreign salary?
Not exactly. The transitional status limits what foreign income India brings into charge for a period after you return. It is a restriction on scope rather than a blanket exemption, and it does not last indefinitely, so the useful questions are when the window opens, when it closes, and what falls inside it while it is open. It also does not touch disclosure. Foreign assets have to be reported from the first year of full residency whatever the transitional position does to the income. We set out both halves in writing before you decide when to move.
Do I have to declare a small overseas account I never use?
Yes. India's foreign-asset disclosure carries no minimum value, so a dormant current account with a token balance is reportable in the same way as a portfolio. The same is true of a single foreign share, and of signing authority on an account that belongs to somebody else. Clients are most often caught by the last of those, because it is not an asset they think of as theirs. The practical step on returning is an inventory of everything you hold or can sign on, built before the first return is prepared rather than after a query arrives.
Should I sell my overseas shares before I move back to India?
It is a real question and the answer is a timing one. Whether a disposal falls inside or outside the years India can tax depends on when you become resident and on what the transitional window still covers while it is open, so the same sale can sit on either side of the line. The disclosure side is separate: holding the shares means reporting them once you are fully resident, whether or not anything is sold. We look at the possible disposal dates against the residency dates first, and only then at whether selling early helps at all.
What happens to my overseas pension when I return to India?
Two things have to be kept apart. The pot itself is a foreign asset, so it becomes disclosable on your Indian return from the first year of full residency regardless of whether anything is drawn from it. The payments are income, and whether India taxes them turns on your residency position and on what the transitional window still excludes at the time they are received. Because that window closes, the position on a pension can change from one year to the next without anything changing in the pension. That is the part worth planning before drawings start.
Where do I actually start if I moved back last year?
Start with the residency position for the year you arrived, because everything else hangs off it: which year is your first as a resident, whether the transitional window was open, and therefore which year first requires foreign-asset disclosure. Then build the asset inventory, covering accounts, holdings and anything you have signing authority over. Only once those two are settled is it worth opening a return. Doing it the other way round produces a filing that has to be revisited. We take the arrival dates and the inventory first, on a fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts.
Is the foreign tax credit refundable?
No. It reduces your tax to nil at most; it never pays out beyond that. Where foreign tax exceeds the credit you are allowed, the excess is generally carried back or forward within its own category rather than refunded — so a high-tax year abroad can leave a balance you use in a later year. Tracking those balances matters, because an unused carryforward can expire. Our carryforward tracker keeps the running position.
Do I have to declare my dual citizenship?
A tax return does not generally ask you to declare which passports you hold; it asks about residence, and in the US case it applies to citizens by definition. What does ask is your bank. Account-opening self-certification under FATCA and the Common Reporting Standard asks which countries you are a tax resident or citizen of, and the answer is reported onward to the tax authority. So the practical answer is that the information arrives either way. See FATCA reporting.
