Q.Ms. Neha Kapoor, an Indian citizen, left India on 20th September 2025 to take up employment in Germany. Before leaving, she had stayed in India for 172 days during the previous year 2025-26. She had also stayed in India for a total of 400 days during the four years immediately preceding 2025-26. Determine her residential status for AY 2026-27.

Leaving India for employment abroad triggers a specific exception that can flip what would otherwise have been a Resident classification.

Her 172-day current-year stay is below both the ordinary 182-day test and the widened 182-day exception threshold that applies to her.

Because Ms. Kapoor is an Indian citizen who left India during the previous year for the purpose of employment outside India, the exception under Section 6(1) applies to her: the 60-day limb of Condition (b) is widened to 182 days for her. This means she can now only become Resident by satisfying Condition (a) directly (182 days or more) — the ordinary 60-day route under Condition (b) is no longer available to her at its normal threshold.

Checking Condition (a): she stayed 172 days in India during the previous year, which is less than 182 days — Condition (a) fails.

Checking the modified Condition (b): her widened threshold requires 182 days in the previous year itself (in addition to the unaffected second limb, 365 days in the preceding four years) — her 172-day stay is also less than this widened 182-day requirement, so modified Condition (b) fails too.

As a useful cross-check: WITHOUT the exception, her 172 days (≥60) combined with her 400 days in the preceding four years (≥365) would ordinarily have satisfied Condition (b) and made her a Resident. It is precisely the employment-abroad exception that removes this route for her, flipping her classification to Non-Resident — exactly the kind of case this exception exists to address (genuine emigrants for employment should not be taxed as Indian residents merely because of a short remaining stay before departure).

Cross-check: applying the UNMODIFIED Condition (b) (60 days + 365 days) would have wrongly classified her as Resident — confirming that recognising the employment-abroad exception is the step that changes the answer.

The most common error is applying the ordinary 60-day threshold and concluding 'Resident' from the 400 prior days alone, without checking whether the citizen-employment exception applies and replaces that 60-day figure with 182 days.