Scrutiny and reassessment notices for NRIs — low-cost, fixed fee

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: scrutiny runs largely through a faceless electronic process on deadlines from the notice, and reassessment requires the department to share the information relied on.

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.

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.

Notices often follow a mismatch between information reported by an NRI's Indian bank or investment platform and what appears on the filed return, or from property transactions, high-value deposits, or foreign remittances that the system flags for review. Being a non-resident does not exempt someone from this kind of automated matching. We review the notice against the underlying transactions to identify exactly what triggered it before drafting a response.

A reassessment notice sets out a specific basis and a window for response, and that basis needs to be addressed directly with supporting documentation rather than answered in general terms. Non-residents are often at a disadvantage here simply because gathering records and responding within the stated timeframe is harder from outside the country. We prepare the substantive response and coordinate directly with the tax office so the client is not managing the process alone from abroad.

Generally, a non-resident's foreign-source income sits outside the scope of Indian tax and should not itself be the basis for a reassessment, but authorities sometimes raise questions where foreign income has been used to fund an Indian transaction or where residency status itself is in dispute. Establishing the correct residency position clearly is often the first step in resolving a notice like this. We assess the residency facts before addressing the substance of any notice.

Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement — India's name for a tax treaty. It does the same work as any treaty: allocates taxing rights between India and the other country, caps Indian withholding on payments abroad, and sets out whether relief comes by exemption or by credit. To use one you generally need a tax residency certificate from the other country, Form 10F, and a PAN in the deductor's records. See DTAA relief between India and Canada.

They clear a payment out of India. Form 15CA is the remitter's declaration of the payment and the tax withheld on it; Form 15CB is an accountant's certificate on the taxability of the amount, the treaty article relied on and the correct withholding rate. The bank generally will not execute the transfer without them, in the categories where they are required. The work is deciding the rate correctly, because the certificate is the record of that decision. See 15CA and 15CB certification.