Non-Resident Indian
Indian tax and law for global Indians
Non-Resident Indians live under two rulebooks at once. The Foreign Exchange Management Act decides which bank accounts you may hold, how money moves in and out of India, and what happens to your NRE, NRO and FCNR(B) deposits the day you return for good. The Income-tax Act decides whether India taxes only your Indian income or your worldwide income, and it does so by counting days: the 182-day and 60-plus-365-day tests, the 120-day rule for high Indian income, deemed residence, and the RNOR window that shelters foreign income for the first two or three years after you come back.
This section collects our writing on that intersection: the loans an NRI can take in India and how they are repaid through NRE or NRO accounts; what a returning NRI must do with existing loans, standing instructions and deposit accounts; RNOR status and the residency tests that drive it; the FEMA rules on lending to and borrowing from relatives in India; the penalties for running the wrong account type; and the documents, credit history and eligibility that lenders actually ask for when you apply from abroad or after you return.
Each article answers one question first and then works through the rules behind it, citing the section of the Act or the RBI direction it rests on. Start with the guide to what happens to your loans, bank accounts and taxes when you return to India, then follow the links into the detailed pages on each topic.
