RNOR Status Calculator
Moving back to India? Check whether you are NR, RNOR or ordinary resident for tax, and how many years of RNOR you could have.
Your likely status for 2026-27
RNOR
Resident but not ordinarily resident
Resident this year, but 729 days or less in India across the 7 previous tax years, so RNOR.
Income earned or received in India is taxed. Income earned abroad generally is not, unless it comes from a business controlled in India or a profession set up here.
If you live in India all year from here: about 3 tax years as RNOR
- 2026-27RNOR
- 2027-28RNOR
- 2028-29RNOR
- 2029-30ROR
An estimate under section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (tax years from 2026-27), which keeps the earlier rules. It assumes every year you lived abroad was a non-resident year. Count your days from passport stamps, and confirm your status with your chartered accountant before you file.
How residential status is decided
Your status is worked out separately for each tax year, April to March, from the days you spent in India. You are resident if you were in India for 182 days or more that year, or for 60 days or more that year and 365 days or more in the four years before.
If you are an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin coming on a visit while you live abroad, the 60-day test does not apply, so only the 182-day test counts. It becomes a 120-day test if your income in India, not counting foreign income, is above ₹15 lakh. An Indian citizen with Indian income above ₹15 lakh who is not taxed as a resident anywhere else is deemed resident.
When a resident is RNOR
A resident is “not ordinarily resident” in a year if they were non-resident in 9 of the 10 previous tax years, or spent 729 days or less in India across the previous 7. Deemed residents, and visitors who are resident only through the 120-day test, are RNOR too. Everyone else who is resident is an ordinary resident.
That is why the year you move back matters. Someone who returns after many years abroad usually keeps RNOR status for two or three tax years, then becomes an ordinary resident, taxed in India on income from anywhere in the world.
Why it matters for your money
The RNOR years are a window to organise money you hold abroad: deposits, a 401(k), a UK pension or Gulf gratuity, and foreign shares. Decisions about what to bring to India, and when, are easier to make before worldwide income becomes taxable here. Our returning to India money checklist walks through each step.
RNOR questions
RNOR means resident but not ordinarily resident. It is an in-between tax status, often held for the first few years after an NRI moves back. An RNOR is taxed in India on income earned or received in India, but generally not on income earned abroad.
Often two to three tax years, depending on how long you lived abroad and how many days you spent in India on visits. It ends once you no longer meet either test: non-resident in 9 of the previous 10 tax years, or 729 days or less in India across the previous 7.
Generally not. Income earned and received abroad is outside Indian tax while you are RNOR, unless it comes from a business controlled in India or a profession set up here. Once you become an ordinary resident, your worldwide income is taxed in India.
Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, which applies to tax years starting on or after 1 April 2026. It keeps the same day tests as section 6 of the 1961 Act, and earlier years still count when you look back 4, 7 or 10 years.
Someone who, or either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents, was born in undivided India. Many OCI card holders, including Goans who hold a Portuguese passport, fall in this group.
Tax status and banking status follow different rules. Once you move back to live in India, you are treated as a resident for banking and investing, even while you are RNOR for tax. NRE and NRO accounts need to be changed to resident accounts, and your mutual fund KYC updated from NRI to resident.
Know your status?
Use the RNOR years well.
We help returning NRIs change their accounts and mutual fund KYC to resident, and line up investments in India with their goals. Your chartered accountant handles the tax return; we make sure the investment side is in order.