[ad_1]
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday ordered the income tax department to make an exception for non-resident Indians who are trapped in India due to Covid-19 and the suspension of international flights.
Indians living abroad are not treated as residents for tax purposes by the income tax department, provided they spend less than 120 days in India.
But there were many NRIs that had to extend their stay in India due to the Covid-19 blockade, some breached the 120-day limit, and many others face the possibility of doing so in the coming days.
A finance ministry official said the minister had received many representations from people who had to extend their stay due to the suspension of international flights, worried that they would have to file tax returns as Indian residents. To help those people, the official said Sitharaman had allowed them to discount the extended stay to determine their state of residence.
The finance ministry said that since it was unclear when the NRIs could fly, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had issued orders that this extended stay in India not be counted in determining its residential status for the 2020-21 financial year. The exact dates to be excluded will be issued after international flights are resumed.
The exception applies to people who came to India before March 22 and were unable to leave the country on or before March 31, 2020. It will also benefit NRIs that had been quarantined in India after March 1 because of Covid-19. This discounted calculation of dates will be extended to NRIs, whether they have left the country on an evacuation flight or are still in the country.
.
[ad_2]
