India Tax Residency (182-day and 60-day rules)

Key parameters
Threshold	182 days
Period / Window	Tax year (1 Apr – 31 Mar)
Alternative	60 days / year + 365 days / 4 prior years
Counting	Any part of a day

You are an Indian tax resident for a tax year — 1 April to 31 March — if you meet either of two basic tests:

• 182 days in the year — you are in India for 182 days or more during the tax year.
• 60 days plus history — you are in India for 60 days or more during the tax year and for 365 days or more across the four tax years before it.

The second test is what catches regular visitors who never stay long in any single year. Two groups have it relaxed, and both are defined by citizenship rather than by where they live:

• Leaving India for a job abroad — if you're an Indian citizen who leaves India during the year for employment abroad, or as a crew member of an Indian ship, only the 182-day test applies. The 60-day test drops away entirely.
• Visiting India from abroad — if you're an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin who lives outside India, a visit makes you a resident only at more than 182 days in the year.

Residents are taxed on worldwide income, non-residents only on income arising in India.

• Being a resident and being taxed on everything aren't the same thing. Residents are further split into "ordinarily resident" and "not ordinarily resident". A not-ordinarily-resident person is taxed on Indian income and on foreign income from a business controlled or a profession set up in India — but not on their other foreign income.
• A thin recent history keeps you not ordinarily resident. That status applies if you were a non-resident in nine of the ten preceding tax years, or in India for 729 days or less across the preceding seven. In practice it gives returning migrants a soft landing for their first couple of years back.
• An Indian citizen taxed nowhere can be a resident with no day count at all. If your income other than foreign-source income is above the set threshold and you aren't liable to tax in any other country, you're deemed a resident regardless of days spent in India. Liability is judged by domicile, residence, or similar criteria, and deemed residents are treated as not ordinarily resident.
• Only ordinarily resident individuals report foreign assets. The return's foreign asset schedule applies to them alone, not to not-ordinarily-resident or non-resident filers.

Getting this wrong usually means foreign income or foreign accounts that went undeclared — and since only ordinarily resident filers are taxed on all of it, misjudging that distinction is easy to miss. Under-reporting income carries a penalty of 50% of the tax on the under-reported amount, rising to 200% for misreporting, and undisclosed foreign income and assets fall under a separate and harsher law. Professional tax advice is strongly recommended in situations like this.

Clearing the main threshold

You move to Bengaluru in April and stay 300 days in the tax year. That's well past 182 days, so you're an Indian tax resident for the year and taxed on your worldwide income.

A visitor the relaxed threshold protects

You live abroad and visit family in India for 100 days this tax year, having spent 400 days there across the previous four. The basic 60-day test combined with that history would normally make you a resident. But as an Indian citizen visiting from overseas you get the higher threshold, so 100 days leaves you a non-resident.

The same visitor, with Indian income above the threshold

You're an Indian citizen based abroad, visiting India for 130 days this tax year, with 400 days there over the previous four and Indian consultancy income above the set threshold. Because your income other than foreign-source income clears that threshold, your relaxed ceiling drops from 182 days to 120 — so 130 days makes you a resident.

• Income Tax Department — Non Resident FAQs under the Income-tax Act, 2025
• Income Tax Department — Income-tax Act, 2025
• Press Information Bureau — Income-tax Act, 2025 comes into force from 1st April, 2026