Residendtial status of person sailing on ships

If an individual who satisfies understated both the conditions of section 6 of the Income-tax Act, then he becomes a Non-Resident.

·         He is not in India for 182 days or more during the relevant previous year. (SECTION 6(1)(a)

·         He is not in India for 60 days or more during the previous year and he is not in India for 365 days or more during the 4 years prior to the previous year.(SECTION 6(1)(c)

In the case of an individual being an Indian Citizen and a member of the crew of an Indian ship, the requirement of stay in India of 60 days in condition 2 above is extended to 182 days.

Thus in your case, only Section 6(1) (a) would be applicable if the person is an Indian Citizen.

Further irrespective of whether he was sailing or not, his total no of days outside India needs to be considered. It is not necessary that in order to claim the above relaxation, he needs to be sailing all the time when he is out of India.

The income would be taxed in India since the source of Income is India. However for individuals who are Non Residents as per Section 6, certain relaxations are provided in DTAA. This could be determined on case to case basis.

Well explained by Khushboo.

Well explained Madam.

I referred to a case law

[2011] 15 taxmann.com 36 (Pune)

IN THE ITAT PUNE BENCH 'A'

Madhukar Vinayak Dhavale

v.

                                                       Income-tax Officer (Intl. Taxation)-III, Pune

I the above case only sailing period is considered for calculating NRI days.  Attached is the file for your reference.  Even after this judgement there seems to be ambiguity.