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. Surat sits in the 40% band for the HRA exemption — the Income-tax Rules 2026 promoted Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune to 50%, and Surat was not on that list. With rents here low anyway, the default regime usually wins, but run both.
Via employerWho: You
5
Expect a Gujarat professional tax line on the payslip
Gujarat levies a professional tax on salaried employees above a monthly salary of ₹12,000 — ₹200 a month, capped at ₹2,500 a year, deducted by the employer and remitted to the Commercial Tax Department. Any relocating professional will be above the floor. The amount is trivial; recognising the line stops you querying it as an error.
Via employerWho: You
6
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

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

Ahmedabad got the 50% house rent allowance rate in 2026 and Surat did not.

The Income-tax Rules 2026 added Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune to the four long-standing 50% metros from the 2026-27 year. Surat — India's eighth-largest urban area and the same state as Ahmedabad — was not added and remains a 40% city. A colleague transferring within Gujarat therefore cannot reuse an Ahmedabad payroll assumption, and a good deal of published Gujarat tax commentary now says '50%' without qualifying which city it means.

Source: Income Tax Department — house rent allowance

Gujarat's professional tax has a low exemption floor, and other states have none at all.

Gujarat raised the exemption threshold to a monthly salary of ₹12,000, above which ₹200 a month is deducted, capped at ₹2,500 a year. Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh levy nothing whatsoever. The money is trivial, but it means a net-pay comparison between two Indian cities is rarely like-for-like, which matters when weighing an internal transfer.

Source: Gujarat Commercial Tax Department — professional tax

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 the 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.
Assuming Surat got Ahmedabad's 50% house rent allowance rate in 2026 — it did not.
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.