Circular No. Cirular No. 11/2020

Clarification in respect of residency under section 6 of the income tax act 1961

What this is

Circular No. Cirular No. 11/2020 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 8 May 2020. Its subject is Clarification in respect of residency under section 6 of the income tax act 1961.

This is a clarification. The Board is stating how it reads a provision. That reading binds the department; it does not bind a court, and where the section says otherwise the section wins.

What it does

Discounts days of forced presence in India in the previous year 2019-20 when computing residence under section 6. For an individual who came to India on a visit before 22 March 2020: if he was unable to leave on or before 31 March 2020, the period from 22 March 2020 to 31 March 2020 is left out; if he was quarantined in India on account of COVID-19 on or after 1 March 2020 and either departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31 March 2020 or could not leave by then, the period from the beginning of quarantine to his date of departure or to 31 March 2020, as the case may be, is left out; and if he departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31 March 2020, the period from 22 March 2020 to his date of departure is left out.

Why it was issued

Representations said individuals who had come to India on a visit in the previous year 2019-20, intending to leave before the year ended so as to keep their non-resident or not ordinarily resident status, had to prolong their stay because of the lockdown and the suspension of international flights, and feared this would make them resident.

Who it reaches

Non-residents visiting India who were stranded in March 2020
Individuals quarantined in India on account of COVID-19 from 1 March 2020
Individuals who left on an evacuation flight before 31 March 2020
Advisers computing the day count under section 6 for the previous year 2019-20

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.6	s.6
s.119	s.239

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

F. No. 370142/18/2020-TPL
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
*****
Circular .1-.1. of 2020
New Delhi, May 8, 2020
Clarification in respect of residency under section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961

Section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) contains provisions relating to determination of residency of a person. The status of an individual, as to whether he is resident in India or a non-resident or not ordinarily resident, is dependent, inter-alia, on the period for which the person is in India during a previous year or years preceding the previous year.

2. Various representations have been received stating that there are number of individuals who had come on a visit to India during the previous year 2019-20 for a particular duration and intended to leave India before the end of the previous year for maintaining their status as non-resident or not ordinary resident in India. However, due to declaration of the lockdown and suspension of international flights owing to outbreak of Novel Corona Virus (COVID-19), they are required to prolong their stay in India. Concerns have been expressed that this extra stay in India may make them a resident of India under section 6 of the Act.

3. In order to avoid genuine hardship in such cases, the Board, in exercise of powers conferred under section 119 of the Act, has decided that for the purpose of determining the residential status under section 6 of the Act during the previous year 2019-20 in respect of an individual who has come to India on a visit before 22nd March, 2020 and:
(a) has been unable to leave India on or before 31 sl March, 2020, his period of stay in India from 22nd March, 2020 to 31 sl March, 2020 shall not be taken into account; or
(b) has been quarantined in India on account of Novel Corona Virus (Covid-19) on or after 1 sl March, 2020 and has departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31 sl March, 2020 or has been unable to leave India on or before 31 sl March, 2020, his period of stay from the beginning of his quarantine to his date of departure or 31 sl March, 2020, as the case may be, shall not be taken into account; or
(c) has departed on an evacuation flight on or before 31 sl March, 2020, his period of stay in India from 22'd March, 2020 to his date of departure shalJ not be taken into account.

(Neha Sahay)
Under. Secretary (TPL)-I

Copy to the:
1. PSI OSD to FMI PS/OSD to MoS(F).
2. PS to the Finance Secretary.
3. Chairman and Members, CBDT.
4. Joint Secretaries/ CsIT/ Directors/ Deputy Secretaries/ Under Secretaries, CBDT.
5. C&AG ofIndia (30 copies).
6. JS & Legal Adviser, Ministry of Law & Justice. New Delhi.
7. CIT (M&TP). Official Spokesperson of CBDT.
8. Principal DGIT (Systems) for uploading on official website.

What to watch

The relief is only for the previous year 2019-20 and only for a person who came to India on a visit before 22 March 2020 — someone who arrived on or after that date is outside it.
The three limbs start from different dates: 22 March 2020 in the first and third, but the beginning of quarantine in the second, which can be as early as 1 March 2020.
Days are excluded from the count; the circular does not alter the thresholds in section 6 or the not ordinarily resident tests.
A visit that continued into the previous year 2020-21 needed its own relief, which this circular does not give.

Where you meet it

When residential status for assessment year 2020-21 is disputed and the day count turns on the March 2020 period of a stranded visitor.

An example

Ours, not the Board’s: a worked case built from the rule the instrument sets, to show how it falls out.

A non-resident arrives in India on 5 January 2020 and plans to leave on 25 March 2020, which would have kept his stay in the previous year 2019-20 below the threshold. Flights are suspended and he leaves only in May 2020. For the previous year 2019-20 the days from 22 March to 31 March 2020 are ignored, so his stay is counted only to 21 March 2020 and his status is tested on that count.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 87/2026 [F.No. 300196/75/2024-ITA-I] / SO 3920(E) — Ministry of Finance 16 July 2026
Notification No. 86/2026 [F. No. 300196/75/2024-ITA-I] / SO 3919(E) — [भाग II—खण् ड 3(ii)] भारत का रािपत्र : असाधारण 3 16 July 2026
Notification No. 99/2022 [F. No. 370142/9/2022-TPL Part (2)] / SO 3878(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 17 August 2022
Notification No. 20/2022 [F. No.370142/9/2022-TPL] / S.O. 1494(E) — The Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 30 March 2022
Notification No. 125 /2021 [F. No. 300196/35/2018-ITA-I] / S.O. 4523(E) — Ministry of Finance 29 October 2021
Circular No. 2/2021 — Residential status of certain individuals under income tax act 1961 3 March 2021

← Circular No. 12/2020 · Corrigendum to Circular No. 9/2020 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.