Am I an NRI? — the 182 / 60+365 day tests: can I handle this myself?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: a long stay in the current year makes a person resident outright; a shorter stay combined with substantial presence in earlier years does the same.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
How is my Indian residency decided if I visit every year?
By two tests, and either one on its own is enough to make you resident. The first looks only at the current year: a long enough stay in India settles the matter by itself. The second is the one that catches regular visitors — a much shorter stay this year, combined with substantial time spent in India over the preceding four years. Someone who comes home for a few weeks annually can therefore fail the second test while comfortably passing the first. Count the days for the current year and the earlier ones before assuming anything.
Does a long summer in India change my status for the whole year?
It can, and that is the part people are caught by. Indian residency is decided for the year as a whole, not month by month, so a single extended visit that takes your count past a threshold makes you resident for every day of that year — including the months you were abroad and earning abroad. There is no apportionment to fall back on. If a long trip is planned, the time to work out what it does to the count is before the tickets are booked, not when the return is being prepared.
I left India for a job abroad — am I an NRI from the day I left?
Not from the day you left, but from the year, if the year's count works out that way. A special rule applies to Indians leaving India for employment abroad, more generous than the ordinary test, so the answer depends on the reason for departure as much as on the dates. Keep evidence of the employment itself: the contract, the visa, the first payslips. The count is arithmetic, but the rule applied to it turns on why you left, and that has to be capable of being shown.
Do visits by a person of Indian origin count differently?
The reason for the visit can matter. Special rules apply to visits by persons of Indian origin, sitting alongside the ordinary tests rather than replacing them, so two people with identical day counts can reach different answers. What does not change is the need to count. Keep a record of arrival and departure dates for the current year and the preceding ones — passport stamps, boarding passes, immigration records — because the second test reaches back over that period and nobody reconstructs it well from memory.
Which year do I count, the calendar year or the tax year?
The Indian tax year, which is not the calendar year and not the tax year of wherever you now live. That single point changes the arithmetic for most people arriving from a country whose year ends in December, because a trip straddling the turn of the calendar sits within one Indian year rather than being split between two. Establish the boundaries of the Indian year first, then count into it. Doing it the other way round produces a count that looks right and belongs to the wrong period.
Can I be non-resident in India and resident in Canada at once?
Yes, and the two answers are reached independently. Each country applies its own test to your year, so it is entirely possible to be resident in both, or in neither, under domestic law. Where both claim you, the treaty between them decides which one prevails for treaty purposes, working through a sequence of tie-breakers rather than a single question. None of that is reached until the domestic position in each country has been established, which is why the day count comes first and the treaty argument second.
Is dividend income from Indian shares taxable for an NRI?
Yes. Dividends are taxed in the shareholder's hands, and the paying company withholds on payment to a non-resident. The treaty can reduce that withholding, but only if the documents are with the company before it pays: a tax residency certificate from your country, Form 10F, and a PAN on the register. Without them the domestic rate applies and your route back to the difference is a refund claim on an Indian return. See residency certificates and Form 10F.
What is Schedule FA and who has to complete it?
It is the foreign asset disclosure in an Indian return, and the trigger is residential status rather than income: a resident discloses foreign bank accounts, custodial and equity holdings, foreign life insurance with a cash value, immovable property and other assets held at any time in the year, plus any beneficial interest. A non-resident does not. The obligation is disclosure-based, so it applies to an account that earned nothing, and the penalties under the black-money legislation are what make it worth getting right. See Schedule FA reporting.
