Income Tax for NRI: Whether NRI has to File Income Tax Return in India or not?

Am I required to file my Income Tax Return in India?

Any individual (Whether NRI or not) whose income exceeds Rs. 250000 has to mandatorily file income tax return in India.

For Example:

Vikas is an NRI who lives and works in United States of America (USA). Few days before, he checked his Form 26AS online and found that a TDS entry of Rs. 20000 is mentioned in his statement. Hence, he needs to make TDS deduction at 30% on interest earned in NRO account.

Income of a person is taxable in India or not depends upon his or her residential status.On the basis of this example, we have to find the residential status of Mr. Vikas.

He is an Indian citizen who lives in US and doing his job – he will be considered as an Indian resident only if he lived in India for at least 182 days or more. Vikas left India on 3rd August 2018 and came back to India on 15th March 2019.

We all know that our financial year in India starts from 1st April 2018 and ends on 31st March 2019. If we calculate the number of days Vikas remained in India, it is less than 182 days and therefore it disqualifies him to be an Indian resident. In order to qualify as an Indian resident, it is mandatory for him to live in India for at least 182 days.

Hence, Vikas is an NRI and the income he has earned in India will only be taxable in India not in United States of America (USA). Therefore, interest earned by any NRI individual in India is taxable

Note - Interest earned by an individual on NRO account is taxable whereas interest earned by an individual on NRE account is exempted from tax.

In order to find out the correct taxable amount, Vikas must add all the income he has earned in India. The interest earned by Vikas is his only income from NRO account of Rs.80000. For FY 2018-19, there is a specified tax exemption limit till 2.5 Lakhs and Vikas total income is less than the exemption limit specified. Hence, there is no need to pay tax but he is eligible for the refund from the income tax department. A refund can only be claimed by an individual by filing an income tax return.