At a glance
- The test
- Day conditions in section 6: 182 days or more in the tax year, or 60 days (120 for some visitors) in the year plus 365 days or more in the four years before.
- Period
- Tax year, 1 April to 31 March. The Income-tax Act 2025 applies from 1 April 2026; the 1961 Act applied before.
- What counts as a day
- The Act does not say how to count a day. Atrium counts any part of a day in India, including arrival and departure days.
The rule
Income-tax Act 2025, section 6(2), and section 6(1) of the 1961 Act before it, use the same day tests. An individual is resident in India in a tax year if in India for 182 days or more in that year, or for 60 days or more in that year and 365 days or more in the four years before.
Citizens who leave India in the tax year as crew of an Indian ship, or for employment outside India: the 60-day alternative does not apply, so only the 182-day condition remains (s.6(3)).
Citizens or persons of Indian origin who come on a visit to India: the 60-day alternative does not apply (s.6(4)). If their total income, other than foreign-source income, exceeds fifteen lakh rupees, it applies with 120 days instead of 60 (s.6(5)).
Separately, section 6(7) deems a citizen resident if the citizen is not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence, and total income other than foreign-source income exceeds fifteen lakh rupees. This does not depend on days. It does not apply if section 6(2) to (6) already applies.
Whether someone is not ordinarily resident has its own tests (s.6(13)), for example 729 days or fewer in the seven tax years before. Atrium does not calculate them.
How Atrium counts it
Atrium counts a day in India when any part of an Indian Standard Time date is spent there. Arrival and departure days both count, and so does transit. The Act is silent on all three points, so Atrium uses one cautious method and offers no switch.
Atrium shows days left to the nearest condition: 182 days, or 60 or 120 days once your four earlier tax years reach 365 days. For earlier years it uses days from your trips or totals you enter. If those years are incomplete it shows only the 182-day condition.
Your answers pick the conditions: citizen or person of Indian origin, visiting or leaving for work or as ship crew, and income above or below fifteen lakh rupees. If you are unsure, Atrium compares every condition that could apply and reminds you at the earliest.
Atrium deducts no days. Ship-crew voyage rules, official exclusions and involuntary stays, as in the Suresh Nanda case below, are left to your adviser.
The deemed rule in section 6(7) is not a day count. Atrium shows your days and notes that a condition not decided by days may apply when you say you are a citizen with income above fifteen lakh rupees.
What catches people out
- The 365 days over four years can build up without any year reaching 182. A visitor with 100 days a year has 400 days over four years, and then the 60-day condition applies.
- For a citizen or person of Indian origin visiting with income above fifteen lakh rupees (excluding foreign-source income), the second condition is 120 days, not 60.
- The Act says 182 days or more, so the 182nd day reaches the condition.
- If the four earlier years are missing from your records, Atrium cannot compute the 60 or 120-day condition. Enter the totals for those years.
- An adviser who counts only one of arrival and departure will get a total lower by one day for each stay.
Cases
CIT v Suresh Nanda: a stay India's courts treated as involuntary
High Court of Delhi · 2015 · ITA 715/2014 and connected appeals, 2015:DHC:4804-DB (27 May 2015) Source
For assessment years 2007-08 and 2008-09, the tax officer treated Mr Nanda as resident because he had been in India for more than 182 days. He stayed because his passport was impounded and he could not leave. The tribunal held his presence was under legal compulsion and not counted. The High Court dismissed the Revenue's appeals. It said presence against a person's will should not ordinarily count against them, and looked for intention to stay in India for the period.
Courts can look at why days were spent, but the decision rests on its facts and was not a general rule. Atrium counts every recorded day, so raise any involuntary stay with your adviser.
Sources
- Income-tax Act, 2025, section 6, CBDT
- Income-tax Act, 1961, section 6 (as amended to Finance (No. 2) Act 2024), CBDT
- CIT (C)-I v Suresh Nanda, Delhi High Court, 27 May 2015
Based on the sources above, last reviewed on 2026-10-04. Educational content, not tax advice. Atrium counts days; whether those days make you resident is for you and your adviser to decide.