Residential Status
Residential Status Under Income-tax Act,1961
The residential status of a person in India depends on his period of stay in India. The period of stay is counted in number of days for each financial year beginning from 1st April to 31st March (known as previous year under the Income-tax Act, 1961). It is pertinent to note that the day of departure from India and the day of arrival in India shall also be considered as a day of stay in India. The definition is explained in simple terms as under.
NON-RESIDENT
If an individual who satisfies understated both the conditions of section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the "Act") then he shall be considered as a Non-Resident as per the Act.
|
Condition |
Status |
1. |
He is not in India for 182 days or more during the
relevant previous year.
|
If yes, then he is a non-resident. (subject to
condition "2")
|
2. |
He is not in India for 60 days or more during the
previous year and he is not in India for 365 days or
more during the 4 years prior to the previous year.
|
If yes, then he is a non-resident. (subject to the
exceptions mentioned below)
|
Exceptions
- If an individual being a citizen of India or a person of Indian origin comes on visit to India during the year or
- If an individual being a citizen of India leaves India during the year as a member of the crew of an Indian ship for the purpose of employment or
- If an individual being a citizen of India leaves India during the year for employment outside India.
In other words, the above categorized individuals are non-resident if they satisfy condition "1" alone.
RESIDENT
In a case where any one of the above two conditions are not satisfied, the person shall be treated as a Resident in India. Resident is further classified into two categories:
- RESIDENT BUT NOT ORDINARILY RESIDENT (RNOR)
- RESIDENT AND ORDINARILY RESIDENT (ROR)
RESIDENT BUT NOT ORDINARILY RESIDENT (RNOR)
An individual who has returned to India for good is covered under the provisions of section 6(6) of the Act. He is given a special status of RESIDENT BUT NOT ORDINARILY RESIDENT (RNOR) if he satisfies one of the following conditions:
|
Condition |
Status |
1. |
He is not a resident, as per the above provisions, for at least 9 out of 10 previous years prior to the previous year under consideration.
|
If yes, he is RNOR
|
2. |
His stay in India during the 7 previous year prior to the previous year under consideration should not be 730 days or more
|
If yes, he is RNOR
|
If an Individual doesn't satisfies both the above conditions, the he will be considered as RESIDENT BUT NOT ORDINARILY RESIDENT (RNOR)
Note:
Generally, a person who is returning to India after 9 years of stay outside India (and who was non-resident for each of the 9 years under the Act), shall remain RNOR for the period of two years. - by A M B JAIN & CO.