Taxvisory

1. Background Section 6 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (‘the Act’) provides for ascertaining an individual’s residential status based on their stay in India during a financial year. Once a person is classified as a resident, the person’s global income becomes liable to tax in India. On account of the ongoing COVID-19 the pandemic situation, several individuals including NRIs or Foreign nationals who had traveled to India for different reasons have been compelled to stay in India on account of the lockdown announced by various countries including India. In this regard, there were several apprehensions that individuals who are forced to stay in India may exceed the specified days criteria which may lead to change in their non-residential status in India to that of a resident Indian and thereby could trigger taxability of his Global income in India. 2. CBDT Circular To address the concern, the CBDT has issued Circular No 11 2020 dated 8 May 2020 which provides for excluding a sp...

1. Background One of the crucial questions Non-resident Indian ask is whether they are required to file the Income-tax return in India or not.  We have briefly summarized the provisions of India's Tax Regulation for your reference: 2. Regulatory requirement While the answer may differ from facts to facts, generally, they are required to file the Income-tax return as Indian Tax Authorities wish to analyze whether they have shown their returned income correctly or not and whether they have used any means to evade taxes or not.  Hence, filing the tax return by Non-resident Indian is mandatory as required under Sec 139(1) of the Income-tax Act. 3. Exemption However, a specified category of taxpayers has been given a specific exemption from filing the tax return and the same has been discussed below: Sec 115G of the Income-tax Act specifies that it shall not be necessary for Non-resident Indian to furnish return of his income u/s 139(1) if; (a) his total income in...