How Many Days Make You an NRI for Tax Purposes?

Indian tax residency is determined solely by the number of days you are physically present in India, under Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and is decided fresh for every financial year (April–March). Four tests apply in a fixed order: the 182-day basic test, the 60+365-day alternative test, the 120-day test for high-Indian-income citizens and PIOs, and the deemed-resident rule for "stateless" Indians. If you clear all of them you are a Non-Resident (NRI); if you are caught but were mostly non-resident in recent years, you are RNOR; otherwise you are Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR). Your status, not your citizenship, decides whether India taxes your global income or only your Indian income.

Key residency rules and day counts at a glance

• 182-day threshold: 182 days or more in the financial year makes you Resident.
• Visiting citizens/PIOs, Indian income ≤ ₹15 lakh: you keep the 182-day threshold.
• Visiting citizens/PIOs, Indian income > ₹15 lakh: the threshold drops to 120 days, coupled with 365 days over the prior four years.
• Counting method: both the arrival day and departure day count as one day each, and separate visits in the same year are added together.

This residential status under Section 6 is a separate question from FEMA residency, which depends on your intent and the date you arrive or leave, so the two can disagree in the year you move. The day-count decision table below shows which test fires and what status it produces.

The 182-day rule makes you a Resident of India for a financial year if you are physically present in India for 182 days or more between 1 April and 31 March, under Section 6(1)(a). Spend 181 days or fewer and you pass this first test as a Non-Resident, subject to the 60+365-day alternative below. Both your arrival day and your departure day count as full days in India, and separate visits in the same year are added together. India's threshold is 182 days, not the "183-day rule" you see for the US, UK, Australia and most other countries, and India uses the April–March financial year, not the calendar year. This is why many NRIs cap India visits at 181 days per financial year to protect their non-resident status.

A short worked example shows how visits add up. Suppose you spend 90 days in India from April to June and another 100 days from December to March: that is 190 days in one financial year, so you cross 182 and become Resident, even though neither trip alone was long. The evidence of your day count is your passport stamps and boarding passes, and the department relies on passport entries in a dispute.

The 4-year rule (Section 6(1)(c)) makes you a Resident even with under 182 days this year if you were in India for 60 days or more this financial year AND for 365 days or more, in total, across the four preceding financial years. The 365 days are counted inside India over four years combined, not outside it. Two relaxations replace the 60-day limb with 182 days: Indian citizens who leave India for employment or as a crew member of an Indian ship (Explanation 1(a)), and Indian citizens or PIOs who merely visit India (Explanation 1(b)). For visiting citizens or PIOs with Indian income above ₹15 lakh, that relaxed limb is 120 days, not 182, as the next section explains. The 60-day alternative does not apply at all to citizens leaving for employment or to visiting citizens and PIOs below the ₹15 lakh line.

"The 4-year rule" and "the 60+365 rule" are two nicknames for the same test. It is the provision that makes long-absent NRIs resident again once they start spending more time in India, because the four-year lookback keeps counting even in the years you were mostly away.

The 120-day rule applies only to Indian citizens and PIOs visiting India whose total Indian income (income other than from foreign sources) exceeds ₹15 lakh in the year: for them the 60-day limb of the alternative test drops to 120 days, so 120 days in India plus 365 days over the previous four years makes them Resident. It was introduced by the Finance Act 2020 and has applied since AY 2021-22. It is not a new April-2026 rule, despite viral posts and even some online answers that call it an "Income Tax Bill 2025" change effective 1 April 2026. Anyone made resident by this 120-day route is automatically classified as RNOR, not ROR, under Section 6(6)(c), so genuine foreign income still stays exempt. Only the person's Indian income counts toward the ₹15 lakh threshold; foreign income is ignored for the test.

What changes on 1 April 2026 is the statute itself: the Income-tax Act 2025 replaces the 1961 Act and carries the same residency tests forward. The Income Tax Department already treats the 120-day rule as a current, standing rule. The RNOR classification under 6(6)(c) is what protects your foreign income once you are caught, and the full mechanics of how long your RNOR window lasts after you return are covered on the RNOR page.

The deemed-resident rule, Section 6(1A), treats an Indian citizen as Resident even with zero days in India if their total Indian income exceeds ₹15 lakh and they are not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence. It targets "stateless" Indians living in zero-tax jurisdictions such as the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Monaco or Bermuda, and, like the 120-day rule, was enacted by the Finance Act 2020 with effect from AY 2021-22. A person deemed resident this way is classified as RNOR under Section 6(6)(d), so only Indian income and income from a business controlled in India is taxed, not their genuine foreign income. If your foreign country does tax you, this rule does not apply to you at all.

"Not liable to tax" is the phrase that decides it, and it means no tax liability by domicile or residence in any country, not merely paying a low rate. A salaried NRI in a country that levies income tax is untouched by Section 6(1A). The two tests differ: the 120-day rule needs 120 days in India plus Indian income above ₹15 lakh, while the deemed-resident rule needs Indian income above ₹15 lakh plus no foreign tax, regardless of how many days you spent in India.

Your final status is one of three: Non-Resident (fails every residency test), RNOR (Resident but meets a Section 6(6) relaxation), or ROR (Resident and ordinarily so). You are RNOR if, being Resident, you were a non-resident in 9 of the 10 preceding financial years, or were in India for 729 days or fewer across the 7 preceding financial years, under Section 6(6)(a), or you were caught by the 120-day or deemed-resident routes. An NRI is taxed only on Indian-sourced income; an RNOR is taxed on Indian income plus income from a business controlled or profession set up in India, with all other foreign income exempt; an ROR is taxed on worldwide income under Section 5. This is why the question of how much NRI income is tax-free has a simple answer: all genuinely foreign income, for as long as you are NRI or RNOR.

When you are returning to India from abroad, your status typically shifts from NRI through RNOR, or Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident, to ROR across a few financial years, and the tax scope widens at each step.

An NRI's Indian income is tax-free only up to the basic exemption limit: ₹2.5 lakh under the old regime or ₹4 lakh under the new regime, which is the default for FY 2025-26. NRIs get no Section 87A rebate and no senior-citizen higher exemption. On bank interest, NRE and FCNR interest is tax-free while you are a non-resident under FEMA, but NRO interest is fully taxable, with TDS deducted at around 30%. Whether you must file a return, and whether you can claim a refund of that TDS, turns on your income level, not merely your status. Because taxability follows status, how much use you can make of the home-loan tax benefits for NRIs also depends on which of the three statuses applies to you.

You keep NRI status by staying within your day-count limit for the financial year: 181 days or fewer under the basic test, under 60 days if the 60+365 alternative can catch you, or under 120 days if you are a citizen/PIO with Indian income above ₹15 lakh. You lose NRI status, deliberately or accidentally, the moment you cross the threshold that applies to you, after which India can tax your global income. To count your days, include the exact date of arrival and the date of departure, add up every separate trip in the year, and exclude days spent only in airport transit without clearing Indian immigration.

For many returning NRIs, keeping non-resident status indefinitely is worse than planning the RNOR tax window when you move back: a two to three year window in which foreign income stays exempt while you settle. Before you book your final travel, confirm your residency for the year against the four tests; when you do return for good, you convert your NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts, update your residential status on the income-tax e-filing portal, and re-designate your demat account. Those account steps are FEMA-side and separate from the income-tax day count.

To convert your days in India into a definitive residency status for the financial year, gather six facts: your days in India this year, your total days in India across the previous four years (and, if needed, the previous seven), whether you are an Indian citizen or PIO, whether you left India for employment or as ship crew, whether your Indian income exceeds ₹15 lakh, and whether you are liable to tax abroad. Then apply the 182-day, 60+365, 120-day, deemed-resident and Section 6(6) tests in that order: the first test that catches you decides the answer, and the result is NRI, RNOR or ROR. The outcome is indicative for planning; a chartered accountant should confirm your status before you file.

Two exclusions apply in the count. Days spent by a seafarer on a foreign ship outside Indian territorial waters are not India days, under Rule 126, Income-tax Rules 1962. Days spent only in airport transit, without clearing Indian immigration, are likewise excluded. Both the arrival day and departure day count as one day each, and every separate visit in the year is added together.