NRI Section 6 Residential Status: 182, 120 and 60-Day Tests

Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 retains the 182-day and 60-day-plus-365-day tests, but Indian citizens leaving for employment, visiting citizens or PIOs with income above ₹15 lakh and deemed residents require special branches.

Use the FEMA Residential Status Checker to apply these points to your figures.

Legal or Computational Framework

What the search phrase hides

The phrase NRI residential status section 6 IT act compresses several legal questions into one line. The outcome cannot be trusted until the page identifies the relevant person, transaction, period, source document and statutory exception. A high-quality calculator should therefore show why an amount was accepted or rejected instead of displaying a black-box answer.

For the connected rule or filing step, see Can an NRI Buy Residential or Commercial Property in India?.

Governing framework

Residence is annual and fact-specific. A visitor with relevant Indian income not exceeding ₹15 lakh generally gets the 182-day substitution; above ₹15 lakh, 120 days plus 365 prior days can create residence. Deemed residence applies to specified Indian citizens not liable to tax elsewhere. NOR then limits foreign-income scope.

Tax Year 2026–27 means income earned from 1 April 2026 under the Income-tax Act, 2025. AY 2026–27 relates to FY 2025–26 and remains under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Computation architecture

Step-by-step method

1. Count exact India days.
2. identify departure or visit status.
3. compute relevant income excluding prescribed foreign-source income.
4. test basic conditions.
5. apply 182 or 120-day substitutions.
6. test deemed residence.

Worked example

A PIO visits for 118 days with 500 preceding-four-year days and Indian income of ₹22 lakh: the 120-day limb is not met. At 125 days, it may be met, leading to NOR rather than ordinary NRI status.

The example is intentionally presented as a calculation trail. The final result must be recomputed when a date, residence test, holding period, asset classification, employee category, notification, treaty or source document changes.

Residence, source and treaty are three separate gates

A person or company can be non-resident yet have taxable Indian-source income. Conversely, a later transfer of foreign savings to India need not create taxable income. The correct sequence is residence first, domestic source second and treaty restriction third. Withholding is a collection mechanism after that analysis, not a substitute for it.

Cross-border evidence standard

Travel calendars, first-receipt bank records, contracts, tax-residence certificates, Form 10F, foreign tax certificates and beneficial-ownership evidence should reconcile with the return. Where the question involves PE, POEM, service days or an agent's authority, a narrative memo is more reliable than a single calculator field.

Edge cases that change the answer

• A person can be NRI under tax law and resident under FEMA or vice versa: analyse the governing provision and preserve the supporting evidence.
• Crew voyage period uses prescribed documentation: analyse the governing provision and preserve the supporting evidence.
• Citizenship and PIO status must be evidenced: analyse the governing provision and preserve the supporting evidence.
• Not liable to tax elsewhere is not the same as paying zero tax: analyse the governing provision and preserve the supporting evidence.
• The preceding-year lookback crosses the 1961/2025 Act transition without resetting: analyse the governing provision and preserve the supporting evidence.

Cross-check before filing, paying or claiming

1. Confirm that the legal year and transaction date match the rate or rule used.
2. Reconcile gross consideration, gross income or gross benefit—not merely the net bank receipt.
3. Distinguish a deduction or exemption from TDS, TCS, withholding or an employer provision.
4. Keep the original source document and a calculation worksheet.
5. Review interactions with losses, special rates, surcharge, cess, treaty relief or GST.
6. Record the official source and its effective date in the calculation output.

Calculator design standard

The Finin2min calculator linked below should retain the user's original input, display the legally accepted amount, identify the formula and rate, and state the reason for every cap or rejection. Rate-sensitive output should show the applicable tax year or effective date. Where facts cannot be automated—such as treaty PE, beneficial ownership, continuity of service or property valuation—the tool should flag professional review rather than make an unsupported assumption.

What Generic Pages Miss

Practical Documentation Checklist

• Passport or immigration report
• Crew or overseas-employment evidence
• Citizenship or PIO proof
• Indian-income threshold calculation
• Foreign tax-residence or liability certificate
• Historical residence and day schedule

For the complete rules on this topic, see the core guide: RNOR Status for Returning NRIs.

See the broader FEMA, NRI & International Tax knowledge hub for related rules and calculators on this topic.

Finin2min Summary