Do I have to file at home while living in India?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and India?
Treaty networks change with each protocol and each multilateral-instrument position, so we confirm the treaty in force for your specific year with the issuing authority rather than relying on a published summary. Where there is none, unilateral relief and domestic law do the work instead.
I own property in India. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
When does my Canadian residency actually restart after years in India?
Residence restarts when the ties that make you resident are back in place, not on the date the aircraft lands. A home available to you, a spouse and children living here, the licence, the health card and the bank accounts opened in the weeks around your return are all read together. We normally fix the date from the documents before the first return is prepared, because that date decides which income belongs to the part-year and which belongs to the period you were still non-resident. Getting it wrong in either direction is expensive to unpick later.
Why is Indian tax still being deducted from my deposits?
India collects tax at source on most receipts paid to a non-resident before any exemption or treaty relief is considered, and the deductor keeps applying the status it holds on file. Your bank, your tenant or a registrar will not change that because you have moved; they change it when the documentation in their records changes. Until then the deduction continues, and the only route to the excess is the Indian return, filed for the Indian year and claimed back as a refund. Plan that paperwork with the move rather than after it.
How do I claim credit when the two tax years do not line up?
India's year runs April to March and the Canadian return is a calendar year, so one Indian year always straddles two of your returns. The credit is claimed against the return that reports the income, apportioned to the period that return covers. It is not claimed in the year the Indian refund finally arrives, which is the mistake we see most often. That means keeping the Indian deduction certificates and the return itself in a form that can be split by period, rather than filed away as a single annual total.
What should I value before I become resident here again?
Anything you intend to keep in India: the flat, the plot, the shares, the units you inherited. When residence resumes, the new country generally starts measuring gains from the value at that point rather than from what you originally paid, so a valuation taken at the time is worth far more than one reconstructed years later when you sell. Registered valuations, broker statements and bank confirmations dated around your return are the evidence. We ask for them at the start of the engagement for exactly that reason.
Do I have to report Indian property I inherited?
Reporting and taxing are separate questions. Once you are resident again, holdings outside the country generally have to be disclosed even where no income arises and no tax is due, and an inheritance that produces nothing but a municipal bill still sits inside that disclosure. Penalties in this area attach to the failure to disclose rather than to unpaid tax, which is why a property producing no income is the one people forget. Bring the title documents and the succession papers and we will set out what is reportable.
Can I file the Indian return after I have left India?
Yes, and in most returning cases you have to, because tax deducted at source over the year usually exceeds the liability once exemptions and treaty relief are applied. The return is the reconciliation. What changes after departure is practical rather than legal: the bank mandate, the address on record and the person authorised to act all need to be in order, and a refund has to have somewhere to land. We prefer to set that up while you still have easy access to the branch.
I work remotely from another country for a company back home — who taxes me?
Usually the country you are physically in, because employment income is generally sourced where the work is done, with your residence country taxing it as well if you are resident there and giving credit. Three things follow: your employer may acquire withholding and social security obligations where you sit, a treaty tie-breaker may be needed if both countries call you resident, and a short trip that becomes a long stay can cross a residence threshold nobody was watching. See remote workers and digital nomads.
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.
