I moved to Australia this year — does India still tax my salary?
For the year of the move, quite possibly. India decides residence by day counts over the year and the years before it, so the months spent in India before leaving can be enough to make you Indian-resident for that whole year, which brings your worldwide income, Australian salary included, onto the Indian return. Australia looks at the same period from the other side and works out when you became resident there. Both positions have to be established together, from one travel record, and the relief sorted out afterwards. Doing them separately is how the same salary ends up taxed twice on paper.
Is my Australian superannuation taxable in India?
It depends on facts rather than on a general rule, and this is one to take advice on rather than infer. The questions are whether you are Indian-resident during the years the fund accrues, how the treaty treats the particular payment when it comes out, and whether what you receive is a pension or a lump sum under the fund's own terms. We work from the fund statements and the treaty text, not from what applies to a domestic retirement product. Where the answer is genuinely unclear we say so, set out the position we would take and the reasoning for it, and document that before anything is filed.
Do I pay Australian tax on rent from my flat in India?
India taxes the rent first, because the property is there. If you are resident in Australia your return there reports worldwide income, so the same rent appears again and relief for the Indian tax is claimed against the Australian liability on that income. The practical difficulty is that the two computations will not match: allowable expenses, depreciation and the treatment of interest differ, so the net rent on each return is a different figure drawn from the same lettings. Keep the Indian computation and the evidence of Indian tax paid, and expect to explain the difference rather than bury it.
Which country taxes me first in the year I emigrate to Australia?
Work it out in this order. Establish your Indian residence for that year from the day counts, then establish the date from which Australia treats you as resident, then take each item of income and ask where it arose and what the treaty says about it. Salary for work done in India before the move is India's first; salary for work done after it is generally Australia's. Interest on Indian deposits and rent from Indian property stay Indian-source throughout. Only once that allocation is settled does relief come into it. Reversing the order is what produces a credit claim nobody can support.
I am moving back to India from Australia — what changes in the first year?
The year of return is the one that needs planning, because status can change while the income does not. Depending on the day counts and on how long you were away, that year can bring worldwide income into the Indian return, and people coming back after a long absence may have a transitional status that treats foreign income differently for a limited period. Indian foreign-asset disclosure also starts to apply once you are resident, and it reaches accounts and funds held in Australia. The date of the move is the one variable still in your hands, so settle the counts before you book if there is any choice.
Do I have to tell India about my Australian bank and super accounts?
Once you are Indian-resident, the return asks about assets and accounts held outside India, and Australian bank accounts, investments and retirement fund interests come within that reporting whatever their size, and whether or not you have drawn anything from them. The mistake is leaving those schedules blank in the first year back on the basis that nothing has been received. Report the holding, document how you valued and converted it, and keep the statements. Completing the disclosure from source records is a great deal easier than explaining an empty schedule later.
How do I get a refund of TCS collected on a foreign remittance?
You claim it on your Indian return for that year. The collected amount is credited against your total tax, and if it exceeds the tax due the balance is refunded like any excess payment. Two practical conditions: the collector must have filed its statement so the credit appears in your annual tax statement, and your PAN must be correctly recorded on the remittance. A salaried remitter can also ask their employer to account for it against salary withholding. See LRS limits and TCS.
What is DTAA?
DTAA — a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement — is India's term for a tax treaty. It allocates taxing rights between India and the other country, caps withholding on cross-border payments, and gives relief for income taxed twice by either exempting it or crediting the foreign tax. Relief is claimed, and from the Indian side that normally means a tax residency certificate, Form 10F and Form 67. See DTAA relief.
