Sub-section (1) makes this section the sole source of residential status for the Act. Sub-section (2) gives an individual two tests: 182 days or more in India in the tax year, or 60 days or more in the year coupled with 365 days or more across the four preceding years. Sub-sections (3) and (4) switch the second test off — for an Indian citizen leaving India as crew of an Indian ship or for employment outside India, and for an Indian citizen or person of Indian origin outside India who comes on a visit. Sub-section (5) qualifies the visit relaxation: where such a person's total income other than income from foreign sources exceeds fifteen lakh rupees, sub-section (2)(b) applies with "sixty days" read as "one hundred and twenty days". Sub-section (6) leaves day-counting for an Indian citizen who is crew of a foreign-bound ship leaving India to be prescribed.
Sub-section (7) deems an Indian citizen resident, regardless of sub-sections (2) to (6), if he is not liable to tax in any other country or territory by domicile, residence or similar criteria and his total income other than income from foreign sources exceeds fifteen lakh rupees; sub-section (8) disapplies it to anyone already resident under those sub-sections.
Sub-sections (9) to (11) cover everyone else. A Hindu undivided family, firm or other association of persons, and under sub-section (11) every other person, is resident unless control and management of its affairs is situated wholly outside India during that tax year. A company is resident if it is an Indian company or its place of effective management is in India, defined in sub-section (10)(b). Sub-section (12) makes residence indivisible — resident for one source means resident for every other source that year.
Sub-section (13) defines not ordinarily resident in three limbs: an individual, or a HUF whose manager, non-resident in nine out of the ten preceding tax years or in India 729 days or less across the seven preceding tax years; a citizen or person of Indian origin over the fifteen lakh rupee income mark who was in India 120 days or more but less than 182 days; and a citizen deemed resident under sub-section (7). Sub-section (14) defines "income from foreign sources" as income accruing or arising outside India, excluding income from a business controlled in or a profession set up in India, and not deemed to accrue or arise in India.
Why it is there
Residence decides how much of a person's worldwide income India can reach, so the Act fixes it in one place and refuses to let it vary source by source. The day counts give a bright line, and the relaxations in sub-sections (3) and (4) keep seafarers and visiting non-residents out of the short 60-day limb. Sub-section (7) closes the opposite gap — the Indian citizen with substantial Indian income who is tax-resident nowhere at all.
Who it applies to
An individual counting days of presence in India
An Indian citizen leaving India as crew of an Indian ship, or for employment outside India
An Indian citizen or person of Indian origin visiting India from abroad
An Indian citizen not liable to tax in any other country or territory
A Hindu undivided family, firm or other association of persons
A company whose place of effective management is in issue
Any other person, such as a trust, whose control and management may be outside India
The figures, and what each one turns on
Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.
What
Figure
The condition on it
Where
Basic presence test
182 days or more
Total period in India in that tax year
Sub-section (2)(a)
Second presence test, current-year limb
60 days or more
Cumulative presence in the tax year; only bites with the four-year limb
Sub-section (2)(b)
Second presence test, look-back limb
365 days or more
Cumulative presence in the four years preceding the tax year
Sub-section (2)(b)
Income threshold hardening the visitor relaxation
Fifteen lakh rupees
Total income other than income from foreign sources, for a visiting citizen or person of Indian origin
Sub-section (5)
Substituted day count for such a visitor
120 days in place of 60 days
Only where sub-section (5) is crossed; the 365-day look-back still applies
Sub-section (5)
Income threshold for deemed residence
Fifteen lakh rupees
For an Indian citizen not liable to tax anywhere else
Sub-section (7)(c)
Not ordinarily resident, non-residence limb
Non-resident in nine out of the ten preceding tax years
The individual, or the manager of the HUF
Sub-section (13)(a)(i)
Not ordinarily resident, day-count limb
729 days or less
Cumulative presence in the seven preceding tax years
Sub-section (13)(a)(ii)
Not ordinarily resident, high-income visitor limb
120 days or more but less than 182 days
Citizen or person of Indian origin over the fifteen lakh rupee mark
Sub-section (13)(b)(ii)
What this means in practice
Work the tests in order and do not stop at sub-section (2). A visiting citizen or person of Indian origin is normally free of the 60-day limb under sub-section (4), but once non-foreign-source income crosses fifteen lakh rupees the limb returns at 120 days — and a stay between 120 and 182 days then makes him resident but not ordinarily resident under sub-section (13)(b), not an ordinary resident. Sub-section (7) is residual, needs both its conditions, and cannot apply to anyone already resident on days. For non-individuals the test is negative and absolute: control and management must be situated wholly outside India for the whole year, so any part of it in India makes the person resident.
An example
Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.
An individual who is a citizen of India lives abroad and visits India for 135 days in a tax year, having been in India 400 days over the four preceding years, with eighteen lakh rupees of income other than from foreign sources. Sub-section (4) would take him out of the 60-day limb, but sub-section (5) reinstates it at 120 days because he crosses fifteen lakh rupees. At 135 days with the 365-day look-back met, he is resident — and sub-section (13)(b) makes him not ordinarily resident, because the stay was 120 days or more but under 182.
Where you meet this section
A taxpayer meets this section at the residential status field of the return of income, which sets up the whole computation, and again in any assessment or reassessment where the Assessing Officer disputes the day count or, for a company, asserts that its place of effective management is in India.
The words themselves
is in India cumulatively for sixty days or more during that year and has been in India cumulatively for three hundred and sixty-five days or more in the four years preceding such tax year.
Section 6(2)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025.
sub-section (2)(b) shall apply as if the words "sixty days" had been substituted with "one hundred and twenty days"
Section 6(5), Income-tax Act, 2025.
is not liable to tax in any other country or territory due to his domicile, residence, or similar criteria
Section 6(7)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025.
What people get wrong
Treating the visitor relaxation in sub-section (4) as unconditional. It is expressly subject to sub-section (5), which restores the second test at 120 days once non-foreign-source income exceeds fifteen lakh rupees.
Applying sub-section (7) to someone already resident on days. Sub-section (8) shuts it off for any individual resident under sub-sections (2) to (6).
Reading deemed residence as needing only the fifteen lakh rupee income. Clause (b) independently requires that the individual is not liable to tax in any other country or territory.
Assuming a company incorporated abroad is outside sub-section (10). Place of effective management is an alternative to being an Indian company, not a subordinate test.
Calling a HUF or firm non-resident because most of its management sits abroad. Sub-sections (9) and (11) require control and management to be wholly outside India for the whole year.
What this replaced
The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.
Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 6. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.
Rule 8 — Computation of period of stay in India for an Indian citizen, being a member of the crew of a foreign bound ship — on reading the rule
A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.
Circular No. 2/2021 — Residential status of certain individuals under income tax act 1961 2021-03-03
Circular No. 586 — 952. Clarification regarding liability to income-tax in India and deduction of tax at source of members of the crew of foreign goi 1990-11-28
Circular No. 411 — 1374. Whether deposits held by a person of Indian origin or citizen in NRE Account during his residence in the foreign country wi 1985-02-25
Circular No. 392 — Section 6 l Exclusion of Assets/debts Outside INDIA 1984-08-24
Circular No. 351 — Section 197A l No Deduction of TAX at Source to BE Made in Certain Cases 1982-11-26
Circular No. 330 — Section 6 l Property Within Disposing Capacity 1982-03-06
Circular No. 210 — 457. Deferred dividends declared in terms of Companies (Temporary Restrictions on Dividends) Amendment Act, 1975 - Whether taxable 1977-02-25
Circular No. 43 — 1159. Whether non-deduction of tax is only in respect of interest credited to Non-resident (External) Account and not to all types 1970-06-20
A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.
Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 6. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.
Mansarovar Commercial P Ltd v CITSupreme CourtHelps departmenttagged s.6(3) My company is registered outside the taxable territory but run from Delhi. Where is it resident?
CIT v Suresh NandaHigh CourtHelps taxpayertagged s.6 My passport was seized and I could not leave India. Do those days count towards the 182 days?
DIT v Manoj Kumar Reddy NareHigh CourtHelps taxpayertagged s.6 I work abroad on deputation and came back to India for a few weeks. Do those days count against me under the 60-day test?
Sumana Bandyopadhyay v DDITHigh CourtHelps taxpayertagged s.6 The AO taxed my foreign salary because it landed in my Indian nre account. Can he do that if I am a non-resident?
ACIT v Nishant KanodiaITATHelps taxpayertagged s.6 I left India to run my own business abroad, not for a job. Do I get the 182-day test?
Ashok Kumar Pandey v ACITITATHelps departmenttagged s.6 I am resident in both India and the US. Which country wins under the treaty tie-breaker?
DCIT v M. MahadevanITATHelps departmenttagged s.6 The Assessing Officer has computed my days in India from immigration records instead of the stamps in my passport. Can he go behind the passport like…
Dy CIT v Kumar Sanjeev RanjanITATHelps taxpayertagged s.6(1)(c) I was resident of both countries for part of the year. Can the treaty put me in the other country for that part only?
Petition No. 7 of 1995, In reITATHelps departmenttagged s.6 I flew out of India in October. Does the day I left count as a day of stay in India for the 182-day test, and does a part-day count?
Pradeep Kumar Joshi v ITOITATHelps taxpayertagged s.6(1) The AO counted 184 days and called me resident. Does the day I landed in India count?
Saket Kanoi v DCITITATHelps taxpayertagged s.6 The officer says my client pays no tax in Dubai, so the India-UAE agreement cannot apply to him. Is that right?
Sameer Malhotra v ACITITATHelps taxpayertagged s.6(1)(a) I moved to Singapore with my family. Can the AO's tie-breaker questionnaire alone make me an Indian resident?
CBDT Circular 2/2021CBDTHelps departmenttagged s.6 I was stranded in India by the covid flight ban in FY 2020-21. Am I resident now?
CBDT Press Release 02.02.2020 on residenceCBDTHelps taxpayertagged s.6(1A) I work in the Gulf and pay no tax there. Does the deemed residence rule tax my foreign salary?
Free calculators on VittSphere ONE for the very provision this page is about. They open in the same window.
Residential status calculator— resident, not ordinarily resident or non-resident, counted on the days actually in India.
What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.
