NRIWallah team
Updated
October 2026
· 4 min read
Why the day count decides so much
Your residential status is the first question on an Indian tax return, and everything else follows from it. A non-resident pays Indian tax only on income that arises in India. A resident who is ordinarily resident pays Indian tax on worldwide income: foreign salary, overseas rent, interest on a bank account in London or Dubai, gains on a US brokerage account. The difference between the two is not a form you fill in. It is decided by where you physically were, counted day by day, over the Indian tax year that runs from 1 April to 31 March.
A long winter at home can therefore cost far more than the flights. Three months in India over Diwali and the wedding season, a month in summer for a parent’s surgery, and a few long weekends can add up to more than 182 days without anyone noticing, even if you never meant to move back.
The three lines, and which one is yours
182 days. Spend 182 days or more in India in a tax year and you are resident, whoever you are.
60 days plus 365. Spend 60 days or more in the year and 365 days or more across the previous four years and you are also resident. For an Indian citizen or person of Indian origin who lives abroad and is visiting, the 60 is replaced by 182, which is why an NRI visiting India usually only needs to watch the 182 line. An Indian citizen who leaves India during the year for a job abroad also gets 182.
120 days plus 365. The exception to that exception. If your income from Indian sources is over ₹15 lakh, a visit of 120 days or more, together with 365 days in the previous four years, makes you resident. Anyone resident only because of this rule is automatically RNOR (resident but not ordinarily resident), so foreign income stays untaxed, but you are no longer an NRI for that year.
Then there is deemed residency: an Indian citizen with Indian income over ₹15 lakh who isn’t liable to tax anywhere else is resident whatever the day count. From tax year 2026-27 these rules are in the Income-tax Act, 2025, which carries them forward unchanged in substance.
The trip across 31 March
Because India’s year ends on 31 March, a single winter trip can land in two tax years. Arriving on 1 February and leaving on 30 April puts 59 days in one year and 30 in the next. That can be exactly what you want, or it can mean one year is fuller than you thought. The tracker splits every trip at the year boundary automatically.
The country you live in usually runs a different year: 6 April in the UK, 1 July in Australia, 1 January in the US, Canada, Germany, Singapore and the Gulf. The same trip moves two counts at once, on two different calendars. Keeping both in view is the point of this tool.
The other side: where you live
A low India count is only half the picture. To use a tax treaty you usually also need to be resident in the other country. The tracker applies each country’s own test to the days your log leaves you there:
- United Kingdom: the statutory residence test, with days counted at midnight and your ties. The full walk-through is on the UK residence test page.
- United States: citizens and green-card holders are always resident. Everyone else faces the substantial presence test, which weights the last three years.
- Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany: a home and life there generally makes you resident whatever the count. Without one, the 183-day rules take over.
- Ireland and Singapore: tests based on days alone: 183 days, with Ireland adding 280 across two years.
- UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar: no tax on salaries, but residence decides whether you can get the tax residency certificate the treaty requires.
- Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain: no personal income tax and no day test, so India’s count is the one that matters.
If you’re planning the move back rather than a visit, the RNOR tracker works out how long your transitional window lasts, and moving back to India covers what your current country charges on the way out.
