Before you start

PAN
A day count kept against April-to-March, not the calendar year
Records of foreign income and any foreign tax paid
A tax residency certificate from your home country if you intend to claim treaty relief

Step-by-step

1
Get the PAN before payroll starts
Your employer must report tax deducted at source against a PAN. Without one, withholding jumps to a penal rate that you can only recover by filing a return the following year.
OnlineWho: YouWeek 1
2
Count your days against April to March
India's financial year runs 1 April to 31 March. Arrivals from calendar-year countries consistently miscount and reach the wrong residency conclusion. Arrive after early October and you will usually fall short of 182 days for that year entirely.
OnlineWho: You
3
Work out whether you are RNOR
You are RNOR if you were a non-resident in nine of the preceding ten years, or present in India for 729 days or fewer over the preceding seven. Almost every fresh arrival qualifies. While RNOR, foreign-source income is generally outside Indian tax.
OnlineWho: You, with an adviser in year one
4
Model both regimes before letting the default apply
The new regime has lower rates and almost no deductions and applies unless you elect otherwise. The old regime allows house rent allowance, section 80C investments and home-loan interest. Ahmedabad now sits in the 50%-of-salary band for the HRA exemption alongside Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune — but only from the 2026-27 year onward, so a return for an earlier year is still computed at 40%.
Via employerWho: You
5
Arrange treaty documents before you need them
Claiming relief under a double taxation avoidance agreement generally requires a tax residency certificate from your home authority plus Form 10F. Obtaining one retrospectively, from abroad, after you have severed the relationship, is considerably harder.
OnlineWho: You
6
File the return by the deadline using Form 16
Your employer issues Form 16 summarising salary and tax deducted. Reconcile it against your Annual Information Statement on the e-filing portal, file, and e-verify. Tax deducted at source is not a substitute for filing.
OnlineWho: YouBy 31 July following the financial year

Documents you’ll need

PAN
Form 16 from your employer
Passport with entry and exit stamps for the day count
Annual Information Statement and Form 26AS
Tax residency certificate and Form 10F for treaty claims

Things most newcomers don’t know

Gujarat does deduct professional tax from your salary, and the exemption floor is low.

Gujarat raised its professional tax exemption threshold to a monthly salary of ₹12,000 in 2022, so lower earners pay nothing — but above that the standard ₹200 a month is deducted by the employer and remitted to the Commercial Tax Department, capped at ₹2,500 a year. Any relocating professional will be above the floor. The amounts are trivial; the broader point is that state payroll levies differ across India — Rajasthan and Goa charge nothing at all — so a colleague's net-pay comparison between two Indian cities is rarely like-for-like.

Source: Gujarat Commercial Tax Department — professional tax

Ahmedabad became a 50% house rent allowance city in 2026, and most advice online has not caught up.

For over two decades the old regime's HRA exemption was capped at 50% of salary in only four cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai — and at 40% everywhere else, Ahmedabad included. The Income-tax Rules 2026, notified by the CBDT on 20 March 2026 alongside the new Income-tax Act 2025, added Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune to that list from the 2026-27 year. Combined with rents here being a fraction of Mumbai's, this materially strengthens the case for electing the old regime — but only if you actually elect it, and only from 2026-27. Run your own numbers.

Source: Income-tax Rules 2026 — CBDT notification of 20 March 2026

RNOR is a two-to-three year window on your foreign income and it is not announced.

While Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident, income arising outside India — foreign salary, overseas rent, foreign interest and gains — is generally outside Indian tax; only Indian-source income is caught. Once you tip into Ordinarily Resident, worldwide income becomes taxable and foreign asset reporting kicks in. Nobody tells you the date. Realising a foreign gain inside the window rather than just outside it can be worth a great deal.

Source: Income Tax Department — residential status

The April-to-March year changes the arithmetic of when you move.

Residency is counted per financial year. Someone arriving in November cannot reach 182 days by 31 March and so remains non-resident for that year, with only Indian-source income taxed. Someone arriving in July crosses the line comfortably. Where a move date is flexible, this is one of the few genuinely large levers available, and it is invisible to anyone thinking in calendar years.

Source: Income Tax Department — residential status

Common mistakes to avoid

Counting days against a calendar year instead of April to March.
Letting the new regime apply by default without modelling the old one.
Using the old 40% house rent allowance rate for Ahmedabad, which changed to 50% from the 2026-27 year.
Filing without a PAN, or taking the penal no-PAN withholding rate for months.
Leaving your home country without obtaining a tax residency certificate.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.