Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W
The basic day-count rule
Your status is decided by Section 6(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (carried into Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 2025). You are a resident for a year if you are in India for 182 days or more, or for 60 days or more in the year and 365 days or more across the previous four years. For an Indian citizen or PIO visiting India, that 60-day limb is relaxed to 182 days — so you can normally stay up to 181 days a year and stay an NRI.
The ₹15 lakh / 120-day trap
The relaxation shrinks if you earn well in India. If your Indian-source income is more than ₹15 lakh, the 182-day cushion drops to 120 days. Stay 120 days or more (with 365 days over four years) and you become a resident — usually RNOR, not an ordinary resident. A separate ‘deemed resident’ rule can also apply to an Indian citizen with over ₹15 lakh of Indian income who is not liable to tax in any other country. These thresholds can change with the Finance Act — confirm the current position for your facts.
A worked example
Say you are a consultant earning ₹40 lakh of Indian income and you spend 130 days in India this year, having spent over 365 days here in the last four. Because your Indian income is above ₹15 lakh, the 120-day rule bites — so 130 days makes you a resident (RNOR). Counting both your arrival and departure dates, and planning visits around the April–March year, is what keeps you on the right side. Our returning NRI / RNOR planning service can map your day-count.