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I am a senior citizen, aged 62 years, from Chennai, but currently employed out of India. I am a bonafide NRI as on date and will be so during the financial year ending March 2022. Currently, I don’t have any fixed income from any source within India except for insignificant interest from NRO savings accounts, and dividends from shares. I am an NRI in a country (UAE) where there is no income tax. My net NRO capital gains for the FY ending March 31, 2022, will be less than ₹2.5 lakh. I don’t have any other source of Income in India. Are such people required to file ITR? I have not filed my ITR since 2007, in which year I became an NRI, as my capital gains for these years have been lesser than ₹ 2.5 lakh each year. Will there be any penalty for not having formally filed ITR? How to check with IT department about this?
S Nagarajan
Please be advised that every individual has to file the return of income if his total income (including income of any other person in respect of which he is assessable) exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to tax i.e., exceeds the exemption limit, currently ₹3 lakh for resident senior citizens (individual above 60 but below 80 years of age). Further, an NRI, with income below the exemption limit, may still be required to file the return of income, if such taxpayer:
• has deposited an amount (or aggregate of amount) exceeding ₹1 crore in one or more current accounts maintained with a banking company or a co-operative bank.
• has incurred more than ₹ 2 lakh on travel to a foreign country, either for himself or for any other person.
• has incurred an expenditure exceeding ₹1 lakh on electricity consumption.
I understand that you qualify as non-resident in India as per the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Hence, in case your taxable income is below the threshold limit i.e., ₹3 lakh and if the conditions mentioned above are not applicable to you (for FY 2021-22), you would not be mandatorily required to file ITR.
Further in case your taxable income in the previous year was less than the basic exemption limit for FY and any other exceptions as may be prescribed for relevant FYs are not applicable, there would be no requirement to the ITR mandatorily. Hence, no penalty can be levied.
The writer is a practising chartered accountant
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