Indian Residential Status Calculator

1. Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR)

To be classified as Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR), an individual must satisfy at least one of the following basic conditions:

• Basic Condition 1: They are in India for a period of 182 days or more during that financial year.
• Basic Condition 2: They are in India for a period of 60 days or more during that financial year AND for 365 days or more during the four years immediately preceding that financial year.

AND both of the following additional conditions:

• Additional Condition A: They have been a resident of India in at least 2 out of the 10 previous years immediately preceding the relevant financial year.
• Additional Condition B: They have resided in India for a total of 730 days or more during the 7 previous years immediately preceding the relevant financial year.

2. Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR)

An individual is classified as Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR) if they satisfy at least one of the basic conditions mentioned for ROR, but do not satisfy both of the additional conditions.

3. Non-Resident (NR)

An individual is a Non-Resident (NR) for a financial year if they do not satisfy any of the basic conditions for being a resident.

4. Special Rules for High-Income Citizens & PIOs (Finance Act, 2020)

If you are an Indian citizen or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and your total income (excluding foreign-source income) exceeds ₹15 lakh in a financial year, additional rules apply on top of the ones above:

• In Basic Condition 2, the 60-day threshold is replaced with 120 days. (If your income is ₹15 lakh or below, Basic Condition 2 does not apply to you at all — only the 182-day Basic Condition 1 matters.)
• Deemed Residency: as an Indian citizen not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence, you are deemed a resident regardless of days spent in India, and automatically classified as RNOR.
• Forced RNOR: if you become a resident only because of the 120-day rule and stayed between 120–181 days, you are classified as RNOR regardless of the additional conditions.

5. Leaving India for Employment

If you're an Indian citizen who leaves India during a financial year to take up employment abroad, or as crew of an Indian ship, Basic Condition 2 is relaxed for that year: the 60-day (or 120-day) threshold is replaced with 182 days, which is never more permissive than Basic Condition 1 itself. In effect, only the 182-day test applies to you for the year you leave. This doesn't apply to Persons of Indian Origin (PIO), and only applies to the specific year you actually left.

Your foreign income, including capital gains, usually isn't taxed in India during RNOR

During the years you're classified RNOR, India only taxes your India-sourced income. Foreign income, including capital gains you realize outside India, is exempt from Indian tax. You still owe Indian tax as usual on anything sourced in India.

RNOR is a "golden window" for returning NRIs to liquidate foreign assets

Because foreign capital gains aren't taxed in India during RNOR, this window is often the cheapest time (from an Indian tax standpoint) to sell foreign investments like stocks or mutual funds. If you'd rather not liquidate everything, another option is to sell and immediately repurchase the same holdings during RNOR, which resets their cost basis to the current price. Once you become a regular resident (ROR), any future gains are calculated from that reset, higher cost basis. That means a smaller taxable gain, and a smaller Indian tax bill, whenever you eventually do sell.

This doesn't mean you're exempt from tax in the other country

RNOR only affects your Indian tax liability. Whether you owe tax elsewhere depends entirely on that country's own residency rules, not on your Indian status. For example, in the US you'd need to check the Substantial Presence Test to figure out if you're a resident or non-resident alien for US tax purposes before you know what you owe there.

United States

If you have US brokerage or bank accounts, contact each institution's customer support after you move to India and ask them to file a Form W-8BEN on your behalf. That tells them to treat you as a non-resident alien, so they apply the correct non-resident withholding rules instead of continuing to treat you as a US resident.

This is general information, not tax advice. Rules change and your situation may differ, so check with a tax professional for your specific case.