Costing and Taxation · Ch 4 — Residential Status and Incidence of Tax (Individual)
Basic Conditions for Determining Residential Status of an Individual [Section 6(1)]
Basic Conditions for Determining Residential Status of an Individual [Section 6(1)]
Every individual's residential-status computation starts with two basic conditions under Section 6(1). If EITHER of the two is satisfied, the individual is a Resident for that previous year (further sub-classified in Section 3 below); if NEITHER is satisfied, the individual is a Non-Resident (NR).
Basic Condition (a)
The individual is in India for 182 days or more during the relevant previous year.
Basic Condition (b)
The individual is in India for 60 days or more during the relevant previous year, AND for 365 days or more in total during the four previous years immediately preceding the relevant previous year.
Both parts of condition (b) — the 60-day part AND the 365-day part — must be satisfied together; satisfying only one of the two does not meet condition (b) at all.
Exceptions that widen the 60-day threshold to 182 days
For two specific categories of individuals, the law itself widens condition (b)'s 60-day requirement to 182 days — in effect making condition (b) collapse into the same 182-day test as condition (a), so only a genuinely long stay can bring them into Resident status that year:
Exception 1 — Indian citizen leaving India for employment / as a ship's crew member
An Indian citizen who leaves India during the previous year for the purposes of employment outside India, or as a member of the crew of an Indian ship.
Exception 2 — Indian citizen or Person of Indian Origin (PIO) visiting India
An Indian citizen, or a person of Indian origin, who, being outside India, comes on a visit to India during the previous year.
An honest scope note on a more advanced provision …