Why India Matters

India produces one of the world's largest outbound flows of private wealth, roughly 3,500–5,000 millionaires a year in the Henley Private Wealth Migration counts for 2023 to 2025, and a far larger flow of professionals and business owners below that line. They go to the UAE first and fastest, then the US, the UK (less compelling since the non-dom reform), Canada, Australia and Singapore, and increasingly Portugal and Spain through investment routes and Panama for Americas exposure with dollar-based structuring.

What makes India a specialist source country is not the tax rate but the plumbing. The Liberalised Remittance Scheme caps what a resident can move abroad at USD 250,000 a year, taxes it at source above INR 10 lakh, and does not apply at all to a non-resident, who is instead capped at USD 1 million a year out of Indian-source funds. The rupee is not convertible, FEMA classifies people by intention rather than day-count, and Indian citizenship cannot be held alongside any other. Every Indian exit is a multi-year sequencing problem in which the residency date, the account reclassification, the property and the structure have to be ordered correctly, and every return is a two-to-three-year window in which foreign assets can be reorganised before India taxes worldwide income and demands their disclosure.

India also matters because the new Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force this April, replacing the 1961 Act. The tests and rates are the same; the section numbers, the "tax year" vocabulary and the forms are new, and advisers still citing Section 6 or Section 9 of the old Act are citing a repealed statute.

Visa and Residency Routes

Inbound routes are limited and FTR uses them mainly for returning families. Overseas Citizen of India status is available to former citizens, their descendants to the great-grandchild generation and foreign spouses after two years of marriage, excluding anyone who has ever held Pakistani or Bangladeshi citizenship; it is a lifelong multiple-entry visa with residence and economic rights, not citizenship, and it carries no vote, needs permission for agricultural land and for research, journalism and missionary work, and can be cancelled. It is the instrument through which India tolerates the loss of citizenship it otherwise imposes on anyone who naturalises abroad. An employment visa requires a sponsoring employer and a salary of at least USD 25,000; a business visa allows visits, not residence; X visas cover dependants. The permanent residency scheme for investors at INR 10 crore of foreign direct investment over 18 months exists on paper and is rarely used. There is no golden visa, retirement visa or nomad visa; the e-visa is a tourist instrument. Anyone staying more than 180 days registers with the FRRO within 14 days of arrival. Citizenship by naturalisation takes 12 years and renunciation of every other citizenship.

The outbound routes are where FTR spends its time. The UAE takes the largest share: golden visa on AED 2 million of property or a business, no personal income tax, a three-hour flight, and a treaty with India that works. The US through EB-5 for capital and through education, employment and family channels for most; Canada and Australia through skilled and provincial routes covered in those profiles; Singapore for business owners with real operations; Portugal through the investment fund route now that the property route is closed; Panama through the Friendly Nations Visa, for which Indian nationals do not qualify, and the Qualified Investor route, for which they do. FTR's usual sequence for an Indian business-owner family is UAE residency first, because it is fast and treaty-backed, with a Panamanian structuring layer added once non-resident status is established.

Tax Peculiarities and Traps

Residency and the 120-day rule. The basic test is 182 days, or 60 days in the year plus 365 in the prior four. Citizens and persons of Indian origin visiting India get 182 days in place of 60, unless their Indian income exceeds INR 15 lakh, in which case the threshold drops to 120 days and they are resident, though only as RNOR. A Dubai-based NRI with Indian rental and dividend income who spends four months a year with family in Mumbai is caught.

Deemed residency. An Indian citizen with Indian-source income above INR 15 lakh who is not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence is deemed Indian resident. The rule was aimed at stateless high earners and its bite is limited because it confers only RNOR status, so foreign income stays outside Indian tax; but it forces the client to hold a genuine, documentable tax residency somewhere, and the UAE's tax residency certificate is the usual answer. The tax board has confirmed that bona fide employment abroad is not caught.

The RNOR window. A returning NRI who was non-resident in nine of the prior ten years, or in India 729 days or fewer over the prior seven, is RNOR, taxed on Indian-source income and foreign business controlled from India only, for two or three years. That window is when foreign portfolios are restructured, foreign companies are dealt with and pre-return gains are realised, because once ordinary residency begins, worldwide income is taxed at up to 39% and every foreign asset goes in Schedule FA.

Black Money Act and Schedule FA. An ordinarily resident individual must disclose every foreign asset and account in the annual return. Undisclosed foreign income and assets are taxed at 30% under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act 2015 with a penalty of three times the tax and prosecution up to seven years; since October 2024 the penalty is waived for non-reporting of foreign assets other than real estate aggregating under INR 20 lakh. This is the statute that ended the era of the quiet Swiss account for Indian residents and it is enforced.

LRS and TCS. The USD 250,000 cap is per person per financial year and covers investment, property, gifts and family maintenance; each adult in a family has their own limit, which is how families move USD 1 million a year without a structure. Tax collected at source at 20% applies above INR 10 lakh in a year for most purposes, creditable against the remitter's tax and refundable, but it is cash out the door and a compliance trail. LRS is unavailable for margin trading and remittances to FATF non-cooperative jurisdictions. Once the client is non-resident, LRS no longer applies; their Indian-source funds move through NRO at USD 1 million a year with chartered-accountant certification.

Capital gains for non-residents. A non-resident selling Indian property is subject to withholding under Section 195 on the gross sale price, not the gain, at 12.5% plus surcharge and cess, unless a lower-deduction certificate is obtained first; buyers routinely over-withhold and refunds take a year or more. Non-residents do not get the 20%-with-indexation choice on pre-July 2024 property. Non-residents cannot buy agricultural land, plantations or farmhouses.

Indirect transfers. Section 9's indirect-transfer rule taxes the sale of a foreign entity that derives substantial value from Indian assets, so a Panamanian or Singaporean holding company over Indian real estate or shares does not take the gain outside Indian tax.

FEMA residency is different. FEMA classifies a person as resident or non-resident by intention and purpose of stay, not by the tax code's day-count; the two frequently diverge in the year of departure, and the bank account regime follows FEMA. Resident accounts must be redesignated NRO on becoming non-resident under FEMA, and failing to do so is a compounding offence.

The Structural Layer

For an Indian tax resident, FTR's default of a Panamanian Private Interest Foundation over a Panamanian SA with a modest director's salary paid in India does not fit and FTR does not build it. India has no CFC rules, and a foreign company managed from India is deemed Indian resident under the place-of-effective-management test only above INR 50 crore of turnover, so the SA itself is not the problem. The problems are FEMA and disclosure: the SA can be acquired only within the LRS limit as an overseas direct investment with its own filings, the Overseas Investment Rules of 2022 bar investment in foreign entities in financial services and scrutinise any structure that invests back into India, a resident funding a foreign foundation of which they are a beneficiary sits in a grey area the Reserve Bank has not blessed, foreign dividends are taxed at slab rates with no participation exemption, and the whole thing is disclosed in Schedule FA every year under Black Money Act penalties. There is no deferral, no privacy and no tax saving; there is only cost.

The default fits once the client is non-resident, and fits well. A UAE-resident Indian business owner holds the operating company where its substance is, usually a UAE free zone or mainland entity, or the Indian company through a Singapore or UAE holding that uses the India treaty for dividend withholding; the Panamanian SA holds the non-Indian investment layer; and the foundation above it does the succession work that Indian law cannot, because India has no estate tax but also no simple way to pass a multi-jurisdiction estate without probate in each. Indian assets stay under NRO and are repatriated at USD 1 million a year. The indirect-transfer rule means Indian operating assets should not be parked under the Panamanian layer expecting an untaxed exit; they are sold in India and the proceeds move up.

For the returning family the sequence reverses inside the RNOR window: distribute from the SA, realise gains, decide whether the foundation survives ordinary residency, and prepare the Schedule FA disclosure that will describe whatever is left. A structure that cannot be described in Schedule FA should not exist by the time the window closes.

Info-Sharing Reality (CRS and FATCA)

India was an early CRS adopter, first exchanging in 2017, and its Central Board of Direct Taxes runs one of the most aggressive data-matching programmes in the world. Indian banks report non-resident account holders to the tax authority for exchange with the UAE, the UK, Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Panama and the rest of the network; NRIs holding NRE and NRO accounts are visible to their country of residence. In the other direction, an Indian resident's Dubai, Singapore or Swiss account is reported to Delhi, matched against Schedule FA, and the mismatch letters go out under the Black Money Act. Under the FATCA Model 1 IGA, US persons in India, and the large population of US-citizen returnees, are reported to the IRS.

For an NRI the picture is simpler than people fear: Indian-source income is taxed in India through withholding and the annual return, and foreign income is nobody's business but the country of residence. For a resident, or a returnee whose RNOR window has closed, there is no undisclosed foreign account that stays undisclosed. Nothing about the UAE, Singapore or Panama is private from India.

Banking Reality

State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra dominate; Standard Chartered, HSBC and DBS serve the internationally minded, and Citi's retail book passed to Axis in 2023. Accounts need a PAN, identity and address proof and, for residents, Aadhaar in practice; opening takes days in person. Non-residents hold NRE accounts (foreign funds, fully repatriable, interest tax-free), NRO accounts (Indian-source funds, repatriable to USD 1 million a year after tax) and FCNR foreign-currency deposits, and they can be opened from abroad through the bank's overseas branches or on a visit. Minimum balances run INR 10,000 to 1 lakh. Private banking starts around INR 5 crore at the Indian banks and USD 1 million at the foreign ones, and the wealthier families bank in Singapore, Dubai and London as well.

Frictions: the rupee is not convertible, every outbound transfer above small amounts needs a purpose code and often a chartered accountant's certificate, foreign-currency cash is restricted, and a resident account that should have become NRO is a FEMA breach. India is on no FATF grey or black list, has full SWIFT and correspondent access, and UPI makes domestic payments faster than anywhere in the West. For foreigners on employment visas, opening a resident account is straightforward with the visa and FRRO registration.

Cost of Doing Business

A private limited company costs USD 500–1,500 to form and USD 2,000–5,000 a year to run, including the statutory audit that applies to every company, ROC filings, GST returns and withholding-tax compliance. That is comparable to a Panamanian SA at USD 1,500–2,500 setup and USD 1,000–1,800 a year, and well under Singapore at USD 4,500–7,500 and USD 4,000–8,000, but the comparison understates India: professional time on GST, TDS and FEMA compliance is the real cost, corporate tax is 25.17% effective against Singapore's 17% and Panama's territorial nil on foreign income, and profits leave only through dividends, which are taxed again in the shareholder's hands at slab rates with no participation exemption.

Cost of Living

Monthly, Mumbai; Delhi and Bengaluru 15%–30% lower on rent, Hyderabad and Pune lower still.

Lean, single or couple: INR 1–1.5 lakh (USD 1,050–1,570): one-bedroom in Bandra, Powai or a comparable suburb INR 40,000–70,000, groceries INR 15,000–25,000, private health insurance INR 2,000–4,000, app-hailed transport and the odd driver.

Comfortable, family of four: INR 4–7 lakh (USD 4,200–7,300): three-bedroom in Bandra, Worli or Lower Parel INR 2–3.5 lakh, international school INR 8–25 lakh a year each, family health cover INR 5,000–10,000, a car with driver INR 40,000–60,000, domestic help and a cook.

HNW: INR 15 lakh and up (USD 15,700 plus): a sea-facing apartment in South Mumbai or a Delhi farmhouse, two drivers, staff, the Dhirubhai Ambani or American School Bombay at the top of the fee range, and the security and generator budget that goes with it.

Cultural and Practical Considerations

India is the most rewarding and the most exhausting country in FTR's set for a foreigner to live in, and the two are the same fact. The metros are loud, dense, polluted and improvisational; nothing happens on time except the payment system, and anyone who needs order, quiet and predictability will not last a year in Mumbai or Delhi regardless of the business case. Returning NRIs cope because they know the rules; foreign spouses and executives frequently do not.

Air, heat and health. Delhi's winter air quality routinely exceeds 300 on the AQI and reaches 500 for days at a time, which is a health decision for children, the elderly and anyone with a respiratory condition; Mumbai is better and Bengaluru better again. Summer heat waves now reach 45°C across the north, the monsoon floods Mumbai every year, and the private hospitals, Apollo, Fortis, Lilavati and their peers, are excellent and cheap by Western standards. Public healthcare is not for FTR's clients.

Women. Full legal equality in property, business and contract, and women run companies, practices and households alone without legal impediment. Personal safety is the constraint: harassment in public space is common, Delhi is worse than Mumbai and Bengaluru, and a woman living alone arranges transport, housing and hours around it. Family law runs by religion: Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Parsi personal laws govern marriage, divorce and inheritance, the Special Marriage Act covers interfaith and civil marriages, and Uttarakhand's uniform civil code is the first state to override the split. Cross-border divorce involving Indian property is slow and the courts favour the party who stayed.

LGBT residents. Consensual same-sex relations were decriminalised in 2018 and there is no criminal exposure; the Supreme Court declined to recognise same-sex marriage in October 2023, so no partnership or spousal visa rights exist. Metros are tolerant in professional circles and hostile in families; risk is social, not legal.

Language and bureaucracy. English is the language of business, banking, courts and the tax authority, and a professional can live entirely in it in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru; daily life outside the metros needs Hindi or the state language. Bureaucracy is a study in contrasts: Aadhaar, UPI, e-filing and passport services are among the best digital public systems anywhere, while the FRRO, the municipal offices and above all the courts, with a backlog measured in tens of millions of cases, run on patience and relationships. Contracts are enforced eventually.

Diet, religion and social norms. Beef is banned or restricted in most states, alcohol is prohibited in Gujarat and Bihar and expensive elsewhere, and dress is conservative outside the metros and in religious sites. Vegetarian-only apartment buildings are common in Mumbai and Gujarat and will not lease to meat-eaters or, in some cases, to Muslims or single people; this is illegal and routine.

Integration, schooling and politics. Foreigners integrate through work and rarely beyond; the expat community is small and the Indian professional world is welcoming but family-centred. International schools are excellent and priced accordingly. Politics is stable, majoritarian and increasingly intolerant of foreign criticism: OCI cards have been cancelled for journalists and academics over speech, communal tension flares locally, and a resident feels it through the news rather than the street.

For Retirees

Returning NRIs use the RNOR window above and India's private healthcare at a fraction of Western cost; foreign retirees have no visa route.

For Digital Nomads and Remote Professionals

No visa, and an Indian resident freelancer paid abroad is inside LRS, TCS and Schedule FA; the route out is UAE residency in Visa and Residency Routes.

For Online Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

The Structural Layer applies: become non-resident first, then build; an Indian-resident founder holding a foreign company has FEMA filings, slab-rate dividends and disclosure, not deferral.

For Multinational Business Owners

Keep the Indian operating company in India under a treaty holding, sell Indian assets in India because of the indirect-transfer rule, and move the personal residency to the UAE or Singapore before the holding layer.

For High Net Worth (HNW) Families and Investors

Indian families buy second residency, not second citizenship, because a second passport costs the Indian one; the UAE, Portugal and Malta are the seats, OCI keeps the door to India open, and the Panamanian foundation does the cross-border succession work Indian probate cannot.

Common Traps

Building an offshore structure while still Indian resident and expecting it to save tax or stay private; it does neither and Schedule FA describes it every year. Leaving without redesignating accounts, obtaining a tax residency certificate abroad and documenting the departure, then spending 120 days a year in India with rental income. Assuming a foreign holding company takes an Indian asset sale outside Indian tax. Wasting the RNOR window on return. Naturalising abroad without understanding that Indian citizenship ends automatically and the Indian passport must be surrendered. Trying to move serious wealth out in a single year under LRS; the limit is per person per year and the plan is measured in years or in a change of residency. And coming to India for tax reasons, which nobody does, or for quiet, which nobody should.

Next Steps

If you are Indian resident and planning to leave within two years, or an NRI planning to return, book a scoping call before the financial year in which the move happens. The residency date, the account regime, the LRS calendar and the RNOR window all key off it, and the Income-tax Act 2025 has changed the forms if not the rules.

Important note: General information. Not personal tax, legal, or financial advice. Speak to a qualified adviser at FTR or elsewhere before acting.