Enquiry on FAST-DS system generated email

The system-generated email is a non-binding advisory under the FAST-DS scheme triggered by a temporary residential status mismatch caused by an Aadhaar update and trading account reactivation. Since your friend has already corrected their profile back to Non-Resident on the Income Tax portal, they should ensure their Demat/trading accounts and linked bank accounts are fully updated to Non-Resident status to prevent future automated flags.

Agree with updating the Demat, trading and bank KYC, that is the right clean-up. One more thing to keep separate: the status on the portal or in a broker account is only a flag. Your friend's actual residential status for FY 2025-26 depends on his days of stay in India, under section 6 of the Income-tax Act 1961.

1. Count the days he was physically in India in FY 2025-26 and in the preceding years, and check the section 6 tests (182 days, or 60 days plus 365 days in the last 4 years, with the relaxations for citizens who left for employment or visit India). The Aadhaar or broker flag does not change this either way.
2. Keep the proof: passport stamps or immigration records, visa and employment papers, and a note of the date the status was wrongly changed to Resident and when it was reversed.
3. If he really is a non-resident for the year and holds no foreign assets as a resident, the email does not need any disclosure. If he was a resident (or resident but not ordinarily resident) for the year and has any overseas account, property or investment, that is a different matter and he should look at it before the scheme window closes.
4. Check the email against the compliance portal and the AIS/TIS once, and respond there if the portal gives a response option, so the mismatch is recorded with an explanation.

Please verify the scheme's exact conditions and window on the official FAST-DS notification before relying on point 3, I am going from the general residency rules, not the scheme text.

Hi, While checking the Foreign Assets Information (FAI) section on the Income Tax portal now, he found that a UK bank account balance of £31 is reported for CY 2022. He was an Indian resident from 2020 until March 2023. The account was opened while he was non-resident, before 2020, and the small balance comes from money a friend repaid him. The account earned no interest, and he had no other income from it.

A CA advised him to file an ITR-U for FY 2022-23 and show the CY 2022 foreign account balance as zero, as he has no earning and pay no interest.

I have two questions:

1. Can an ITR-U be filed only to report this foreign account for CY 2022, no other interest he is going to pay?
2. Instead of filing an ITR-U that may be rejected, can he respond through the FAI feedback option under compliance portal-->reports for CY 2022, with a note saying: “The reported overseas account is a personal, non-interest-bearing current account maintained during my earlier non-resident period”?

My understanding is that the balance is negligible and falls within the threshold under the proviso to Section 43 of the Black Money Act, which I believe is ₹20 lakh after the 1 October 2024 amendment (previously lower). So he should not face a penalty even if a query arises, and he only needs to clarify the position.

I would appreciate your guidance. Thank you.