The 182-Day Rule for NRI Tax Status: What Finfluencers Get Wrong (ITA 2025 Update)

Someone in your NRI WhatsApp group has forwarded this advice. Maybe multiple times. "Stay under 182 days in India and you won't pay tax there." It is not wrong — it is dangerously incomplete. The 182-day rule is one limb of a multi-part residential status test under Section 6 of the Income Tax Act.