RNOR window planner: your tax status after moving back

Enter the day you move back and a few facts about your years abroad. You'll see your status for each tax year, when India starts taxing your foreign income, and which return dates would move that.

Fact-checked against official sources · 27 Sep 2026Next review May 2027Tax year Returns from TY 2026-27

Your move back

Example: Arjun, back from Singapore after 12 years

The day you move back to IndiaThe day you arrive to live here. Tax years run 1 April to 31 March.

You are An Indian citizen Of Indian origin, not a citizen (most OCI cardholders)

Tax years you've lived abroad

Whole tax years before the year you move back.

Days in India a year on visits

While you lived abroad, on average.

Days in India that tax year, before the move

Visits earlier in the tax year you move back.

Days a year in India after the move

365 if you'll live here full time.

My Indian income is above ₹15 lakh a yearEverything except income from foreign sources: rent, interest, gains and any Indian salary.I was liable to tax where I lived abroadBecause you lived there. Leave it off for a country with no income tax, such as the UAE.

Enter your visit days year by year (optional)

Blank years use your average. A year before you moved abroad counts as a full year in India.

2026-27

2025-26

2024-25

2023-24

2022-23

2021-22

2020-21

2019-20

2018-19

2017-18

Results update as you type.

India taxes your foreign income from

1 April 2030

In 2027-28, the tax year you move back, you're RNOR. You're RNOR for 3 tax years (2027-28 to 2029-30), until 31 March 2030. Foreign income stays outside Indian tax until then.

Non-resident years, of the 10 before the move10

Days in India in 2027-28183

RNOR years from the move3

RNOR ends31 March 2030

Your status, tax year by tax year
Tax year	Days	Status	Foreign income	Why
2026-27abroad	20	NRI	Not taxed	In India 20 days: under 182 days, and no other test makes you resident.
2027-28move back	183	RNOR	Not taxed	In India 183 days: 182 days or more, so resident. Non-resident in 10 of the previous 10 years, so RNOR.
2028-29in India	365	RNOR	Not taxed	In India 365 days: 182 days or more, so resident. Non-resident in 9 of the previous 10 years, so RNOR.
2029-30in India	365	RNOR	Not taxed	In India 365 days: 182 days or more, so resident. 648 days in India over the previous 7 years (729 days or less), so RNOR.
2030-31in India	365	ROR	Taxed	In India 365 days: 182 days or more, so resident. Non-resident in only 7 of the previous 10 years, and 993 days in India over the previous 7 (more than 729 days), so ordinarily resident.
2031-32in India	365	ROR	Taxed	In India 365 days: 182 days or more, so resident. Non-resident in only 6 of the previous 10 years, and 1,338 days in India over the previous 7 (more than 729 days), so ordinarily resident.

What this means

Non-resident (NRI). Only income that arises in India or is received in India is taxed. Foreign salary, interest and gains earned and received abroad are not.
Resident but not ordinarily resident (RNOR). Income that arises in or is received in India is taxed. Foreign income earned and received abroad is not, unless it comes from a business controlled in, or a profession set up in, India.
Resident and ordinarily resident (ROR). Worldwide income is taxed in India, with credit for tax paid abroad. Foreign assets go in your return.

How your return date changes this

1 April 2027 – 11 July 20272027-28: RNOR; RNOR 2027-28 to 2028-29; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2029.
12 July 2027 – 2 October 2027 your date2027-28: RNOR; RNOR 2027-28 to 2029-30; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2030.
3 October 2027 – 31 March 20282027-28: NRI; RNOR 2028-29 to 2029-30; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2030.
1 April 2028 – 10 July 20282028-29: RNOR; RNOR 2028-29 to 2029-30; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2030.
11 July 2028 – 1 October 20282028-29: RNOR; RNOR 2028-29 to 2030-31; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2031.
2 October 2028 – 31 March 20292028-29: NRI; RNOR 2029-30 to 2030-31; foreign income taxed from 1 April 2031.

Each year is decided by the same tests as our residency status checker. Figures for tax year 2026-27, checked 27 September 2026.

How this is worked out

Your residential status is decided separately for each tax year, 1 April to 31 March. The planner builds your history year by year, then runs the same tests as our residency status checker on every year, from the year before you move to the first year you’re resident and ordinarily resident. It’s one part of moving back to India, where the other guides cover what to do in each year.

The year you move back

The planner treats coming back to live as not a visit, so both day tests apply to you in full 2025 Act s. 6(2)-(5)was s. 6(1). That’s the natural reading of the visit rule, which covers someone who “being outside India, comes on a visit”, but the Act doesn’t say how visits earlier in the same year are treated, and there’s no official guidance. If your return-year days fall between the two tests, ask a CA. You’re resident that year if you spend 182 days or more in India, or 60 days or more with 365 days over the previous 4 years. Frequent visits can make the second test bite, so a move in February can still make you resident. If neither test is met, you’re a non-resident for the whole year.

RNOR, and when it ends

A resident is not ordinarily resident (RNOR) in a year if either of these is true 2025 Act s. 6(13)was s. 6(6):

you were a non-resident in 9 of the previous 10 tax years, or
you spent 729 days or less in India over the previous 7 tax years.

The first test usually covers your first year or two back. The second can carry you one more year, until two full years in India push the total past the limit. The planner shows which test applied each year. While you’re RNOR, India taxes your Indian income, but not income earned abroad unless it comes from a business controlled in, or a profession set up in, India 2025 Act s. 5was s. 5.

Your years abroad

Each year abroad is decided too, because a year when you were resident, even as RNOR, isn’t a non-resident year. That happens if you visit for 182 days or more, or for 120 days or more (with 365 days over the previous 4 years) when your Indian income is above ₹15 lakh. It also happens, however short your visits, if you’re a citizen with Indian income above that threshold who isn’t liable to tax in the country you live in: you’re a deemed resident, and RNOR.

How your return date changes this

Under the result, the planner tries every return date across this tax year and the next, and groups the dates that give the same answer. Two dates matter most: the one that keeps your return-year days below a day test, and the one that keeps two years’ days within 729 days.

What the planner leaves out

Assumptions

Each year abroad is a whole tax year. Years before those count as full years in India, as a resident.
In the year you move, your days are your visits before the move plus every day from the move to 31 March, scaled down if you’ll spend less than the full year here.
After the move you live in India, so no later year counts as a visit, and you’re not liable to tax anywhere else.
Your Indian income is above or below the threshold in every year alike.
The deemed-resident rule applies in any year where you tell the planner you weren’t liable to tax abroad and your Indian income is above the threshold.
The 120-day route to RNOR is applied only to someone made resident by the visitor rule. A literal reading of the Act could also make a returning citizen with high Indian income and 120 to 181 days RNOR; the planner takes the narrower, safer reading.
Your status for FEMA, which decides your bank accounts, is a separate question.

What to do with your result

Write down your RNOR years and the date they end. That’s your window to sell foreign investments, move money home and restructure accounts while foreign income and gains stay outside Indian tax. Our guide to RNOR status covers what to do in those years, and what changes in your return each year.

When to get a chartered accountant

Your return-year days are within a week or two of a threshold.
You plan to sell foreign shares, a home or a pension pot around the move.
You lived in a country with no income tax, or your Indian income is near the threshold.
You aren’t sure how many of your past years were non-resident years.
Your return-year days are between the two day tests, or you visited earlier in the year you moved.
Your Indian income is above the threshold and you’ll spend 120 to 181 days a year here after the move.

Questions

Questions about this calculator

Is it better to move back in April or later in the year?

Usually later. Moving back on 1 April puts a full year in India into the count straight away, so the days test runs out a year sooner. Arriving later in the tax year, or near its end, often adds an RNOR year or a non-resident year. The "How your return date changes this" list shows the exact dates for your figures. Weigh it against your job, school terms and visa dates, not tax alone.

Does RNOR status cover my foreign salary for the months before I moved?

If you're RNOR or NRI for that tax year, yes: foreign income earned and received abroad isn't taxed in India that year. Anything received in India, or arising here, is taxed whatever your status. If the year makes you resident and ordinarily resident, India can tax your worldwide income for the whole tax year, including salary earned abroad before the move, with credit for tax paid abroad. That's why a return after only a few years abroad needs care.

Do I have to do anything to claim RNOR status?

There's no application. You pick your residential status in your Indian return each year, and report only the income that status makes taxable. Keep the proof: passport stamps, travel records and your past returns, since the RNOR tests look back up to 10 years.

Does RNOR status change my bank accounts?

No. Your NRE and FCNR accounts follow FEMA, the foreign-exchange law, which asks whether you've come back to live in India, not how many days you've spent here. Once you return for good, tell your bank: NRE accounts are redesignated, while FCNR deposits can run to maturity. This applies even if you're still RNOR for tax.

What if my income in India is above the threshold?

While you live abroad, a citizen or person of Indian origin with Indian income above ₹15 lakh can become resident on fewer days, as RNOR. That costs non-resident years, which can shorten your RNOR years after the move. Tick the income box and the planner applies it to every year.

Sources

Update log

8 November 2026First published.