The NRI Investor Hub
Indian tax, banking, property and investment rules treat non-residents differently at almost every turn — and differently again the moment you move home. These guides and tools cover what changes, when, and what it costs to get the timing wrong.
Start with your residential status
Nearly every question on this page resolves back to one: what is your residential status in India? It decides whether your foreign income is taxable there, which bank accounts you are permitted to hold, what rate applies when you sell an asset, what is withheld at source, and what you are obliged to disclose.
India is unusual in producing three answers rather than two. Alongside resident and non-resident sits Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident — RNOR — which taxes Indian-source income while leaving most foreign income outside the charge. It is transitional by design, and most people who hold it are recent returners who will lose it on a date that can be worked out years ahead. That deadline is the single most useful thing to know before you move home, because almost every worthwhile decision about foreign income, asset disposals and account structure is easier to take before ordinarily resident status begins than after.
Take the free India residential status testWork out your NRI position in minutes
Free interactive tools for the decisions that turn on timing and status — residence, RNOR expiry, account choice, treaty relief and repatriation.
India Residential Status Test
Work through the statutory day-count rules to see whether you are Resident, RNOR or Non-Resident for a given Indian tax year — and which limb decided it.
Open RNOR timingRNOR Expiry Calculator
Pinpoint the date your Resident-but-Not-Ordinarily-Resident window closes, so you can act on foreign income and disposals before ordinarily-resident status begins.
Open BankingNRE / NRO Account Selector
Answer a few questions to see which Indian account — NRE, NRO or FCNR — fits your income sources, repatriation needs and tax position.
Open Treaty reliefDTAA Article Finder
Find the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement article that applies to your income type and treaty country, and the relief it provides.
Open RepatriationRepatriation Headroom
Estimate how much you can remit abroad from your Indian NRO balances under the USD 1 million per financial year limit.
OpenStatus & Foundations
RNOR, the transition to ordinarily resident, and why FEMA and income-tax residence are two different questions with two different answers.
Banking & Repatriation
NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts, how each is taxed, and what it actually takes to move money out of India.
NRE, NRO and FCNR Accounts: Which Money Belongs Where
The three NRI account types differ on three axes that matter: where the money came from, whether the interest is taxable in India, and how freely the balance can leave the country.
Read guideRepatriation from India: Limits, Forms and the Actual Process
Whether money leaves India easily depends almost entirely on which account it sits in. NRE and FCNR balances are freely repatriable; NRO funds run through an annual ceiling and a documentation chain.
Read guideInvesting in India
Mutual funds, equities and the repatriation routes — including why some NRIs are refused access outright.
Property & Succession
Owning, letting and selling Indian property, the TDS that applies, and how Indian assets pass on death.
How Indian Assets Pass on Death: Succession and Inheritance for NRIs
India abolished estate duty in 1985, so nothing is charged on death. The difficulty is not the tax — it is proving who inherits, moving each asset into their name, and getting the proceeds out under FEMA.
Read guideLetting Indian Property as an NRI: Rental Income and TDS
The tax on Indian rental income is rarely the problem. The deduction at source is, because it is calculated without reference to your deductions and is only recoverable by filing a return.
Read guideSelling Indian Property as an NRI: Capital Gains and TDS
The tax on the gain and the tax withheld at completion are two different numbers, and the gap between them is usually the largest sum in the transaction. Closing that gap is a pre-completion job.
Read guideTax, Registration & Disclosure
PAN, filing obligations, TDS rates by income type, rates by asset class, and the disclosure duties that follow you home.
Foreign Asset Disclosure: The Duty That Catches Returning Residents
The obligation to disclose a foreign asset does not depend on whether its income is taxable in India. That single separation is where most returning residents come unstuck.
Read guidePAN and Return-Filing Obligations for NRIs in India
Holding a PAN and filing an Indian return are separate duties with separate triggers. The gap between what is deducted at source from a non-resident and what is actually due only closes if you file.
Read guideTDS on NRI Income: Why the Rate Changes With the Income Type
Indian withholding on non-resident income is set by the type of income, applies from the first rupee, and carries surcharge and cess that resident deduction does not. Most of the planning happens before the payment is made.
Read guideDouble Tax Treaties
How DTAA relief is claimed, the Tax Residency Certificate it depends on, and the terms of each major treaty.
DTAA Relief and the Tax Residency Certificate: How Treaty Benefit Is Claimed
A double tax treaty only helps if you claim it. Relief comes by exemption or by credit, the two produce different answers, and both depend on a Tax Residency Certificate from the country where you live.
Read guideThe India-Australia Tax Treaty: Residence, Superannuation and Relief
The India-Australia agreement has an unusually short residence tie-breaker, a pension article that hands one country the whole charge, and a relief mechanism on the Australian side that quietly caps what you get back.
Read guideThe India-Canada Tax Treaty: Residence, Pensions and Gains
A short treaty that does less allocating than people expect. It hands pensions entirely to the source country, lets both states tax most capital gains, and leaves the departure-tax mismatch unresolved.
Read guideThe India-Singapore Tax Treaty: Gains, Limitation of Benefits and the TRC
Three protocols and the Multilateral Instrument have rewritten the parts of the India-Singapore treaty people actually use. The capital gains article now turns on a single acquisition date, and the limitation-of-benefits clause is much narrower than its reputation.
Read guideThe India-UAE Tax Treaty: What It Actually Does for Gulf NRIs
The India-UAE treaty is unusual because one side levies no personal income tax. That shapes the residence article, the capital gains article and most of the misunderstandings around them.
Read guideThe India-UK Tax Treaty: Which Country Actually Taxes You
Two countries can both call you resident for the same twelve months. The India-UK Convention does not stop that happening — it decides which claim wins, income by income, and only once you produce the right paperwork.
Read guideThe India-USA Tax Treaty: Which Article Governs Your Income
The India-USA convention does not reduce tax by itself. It allocates each type of income to a specific article, and the article decides which country may charge it and which must give credit.
Read guidePensions
The India-side treatment of UK pensions, QROPS and overseas retirement income.
Returning to India
Sequencing a permanent return: account redesignation, the RNOR clock, PPF and EPF, and moving money back out.
Business Owners
Place of effective management, permanent establishment risk and the rules on owning a foreign company from India.
NRI questions we are asked most
6 questions
Who counts as an NRI?
There are two separate definitions and they do not always agree. Under the Income-tax Act, non-resident status is decided by day counts in India across the current and preceding years. Under FEMA, which governs banking and investment, it turns on your intention and the purpose of your stay abroad. It is entirely possible to be non-resident under one and resident under the other in the same year, which is why the account you may hold and the tax you owe are decided by two different tests.
Link to this questionWhat is RNOR and why does everyone talk about it?
Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident is the intermediate status between non-residence and full residence. It taxes Indian-source income and income from a business controlled in India, but leaves other foreign income outside the Indian charge. For someone returning to India after years abroad it typically applies for a limited run of years before ordinarily resident status begins, and because the qualifying carve-outs are measured over fixed look-back periods, the date it ends is usually predictable well in advance.
Link to this questionWhere should I start?
With your residential status, because almost everything else follows from it. Which accounts you may hold, whether your foreign income is taxable in India, what rate applies to a disposal and what you must disclose all depend on that single answer. The interactive India residential status test works through the statutory rules and tells you which limb decided the outcome, which is the right starting point before reading anything else here.
Link to this questionCan I keep my NRE account after moving back to India?
No, not indefinitely. NRE and NRO accounts are designated for people who are non-resident under FEMA, and on returning to India permanently they must be redesignated as resident accounts. Foreign currency balances can generally be moved into a Resident Foreign Currency account instead, which preserves the currency rather than forcing conversion. The redesignation is your obligation to initiate, not something the bank does automatically, and the tax treatment of interest changes at the same time.
Link to this questionDo I have to file an Indian tax return as an NRI?
It depends on your Indian income rather than your status. Filing is generally required where your India-source income exceeds the basic exemption threshold before deductions, and it is often worth filing voluntarily even below that, because tax deducted at source on interest, rent or a property sale is frequently deducted at a higher rate than your actual liability. Without a return there is no mechanism to reclaim the difference.
Link to this questionIs this financial or tax advice?
No. These guides are general information about how the Indian rules work and are written to help you understand your position and the questions worth asking. They do not take account of your circumstances, they are not a substitute for advice from a qualified Indian tax professional, and Global Investments is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Where the amounts are material, take advice in every jurisdiction with a claim on you.
Link to this questionPlanning a return to India, or managing assets from abroad?
Our advisers work with Non-Resident Indians on RNOR timing, repatriation and cross-border structuring, and coordinate with Indian tax specialists where local filing is involved.
These guides provide general information only and do not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. Global Investments is not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or by the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Indian tax and exchange control rules change frequently and interact with the rules of your country of residence. Where the amounts involved are material, take advice from a qualified adviser in each jurisdiction concerned before acting.