I am moving back to India next year — what should I plan first?
Work out the status before you book anything. The transitional status follows from your residency record in the preceding years, which means it can be forecast rather than discovered, and the forecast is what the rest of the plan hangs on. Once you know which years the window would cover, the other decisions arrange themselves: which year to return in, when to realise foreign gains, when to close or restructure foreign accounts, and the year from which foreign-asset disclosure applies on your Indian return. Done in that order it is planning. Done after arrival it is reporting whatever happened.
How do I work out when my RNOR window would start and end?
By reconstructing your presence in India across the preceding years, because the status is decided by that history rather than by your intentions. Start with passports, immigration stamps, airline records and employer posting letters, and build a year-by-year record of days present that a third party could follow. The status conclusion for each coming year is then read off that record. The reason this comes first is that it is the only input you cannot change once the move has happened, and every other decision in the file is timed against the answer it gives.
Should I sell my overseas shares before or after I move back?
That is exactly the question the window is for, and it cannot be answered before the status timeline is drawn. The transitional status shelters most foreign income for a limited period, so the year of disposal changes how India treats a foreign gain. Against that sits the treatment in the country where the asset is held, which the relevant treaty governs, and any local charge triggered by ceasing residence there. So the sequence is: fix the status years, map the disposals you expect, then test each candidate year on both sides before committing to one.
Does it matter which month of the year I move back to India?
It can matter a great deal, because residency turns on day-count tests applied to a tax year, and the arrival month decides how many days of that year fall on each side of the move. The point of establishing this early is that the arrival date is usually the most movable item in the plan, where a job start date or a school term is not. Where a date has some flexibility, it is worth testing the year either side of it against your day-count record before it becomes fixed by everyone else's arrangements.
Should I close my foreign accounts before returning to India?
Do not close anything until the timeline is drawn. Closing or restructuring foreign accounts is one of the decisions the window is meant to inform, and closing early can cost you the evidence you need for the disclosure schedule and for any treaty relief later. What is worth doing first is an inventory: every account, investment, employer plan and jointly held holding, with the statement that evidences it. Then decide, holding by holding, whether it should be kept, restructured or closed, and in which year, against the status timeline.
I have already moved back — is it too late to plan anything?
The residency conclusion for years already run is fixed, but very little else is. Establish the status for each year on the day-count record first, because that tells you which years the transitional window still covers and which it does not. What remains open is usually more than people expect: the timing of foreign disposals still to come, the order in which foreign accounts are restructured, and getting the first disclosure year right rather than filing on the wrong footing and correcting it. Start with the record, then the year you are currently in.
What is RNOR status and why does it matter to a returning NRI?
Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident is a transitional Indian status that can apply for a limited period after you return, based on how long you were non-resident before. While it lasts, certain foreign income stays outside the Indian net that would be taxed once you become an ordinary resident — which makes the timing of a return date, and of realising foreign gains, a genuine planning decision rather than an administrative one. See the RNOR window.
How many days can I spend in a country before I become tax resident?
It depends on the country, and a day count is only ever the start. Many use a threshold in a tax year, some also look at averages across several years, and some have no day test at all and decide on where your home and life are. Two countries can both conclude you are resident, which is what the treaty tie-breaker exists to settle. Counting days without checking the tie-breaker is how people end up filing as resident nowhere. See the residency tie-breaker.
