To promote ease of tax compliances, the government may re-introduce simplified tax return forms for NRIs who have no capital gains or business/professional income in India or having income within specified thresholds
Financial year 2020-21 started under the cloud of the corona virus lockdown and almost every sector of the economy has borne the brunt of the pandemic over the last nine months. The Indian government introduced many schemes during this time to help the industry and individuals tide over the slump and provide an impetus to the economy. This included economic packages for various sectors, easing of regulatory compliances and healthcare and social security benefits to economically weaker sections.
Human spirit being inherently resilient, we now sees signs of economic recovery with most sectors bouncing back. Against this backdrop, taxpayers and the public at large are now waiting for the Union budget on 1 February 2021 to lay out the roadmap for an economic revival
Individual taxpayers play an important role in nation-building. As per tax department’s data, over 90% of the tax returns are filed by individual taxpayers, contributing about 40% of the total direct tax revenue. Among individual taxpayers, it is not only the Indian residents, but the non-resident Indians (NRIs) too who play a significant role in terms of foreign remittances, participation in the economic activities and payment of taxes
Although measures introduced in previous budgets in terms of optional tax regime, exemption from filing tax returns in certain cases etc. found favour with the NRIs as well, further steps to ease compliance burden and provide parity with resident taxpayers in certain areas would benefit NRIs.
Review of residency conditions
Many NRIs employed with companies outside India were stuck in India due to the lockdown and were able to travel back to their host countries only when international travel restrictions were lifted. The government in March 2020 issued relaxations for excluding certain India stay days to determine tax residential status for 2019-20.
The finance ministry had stated that a similar relaxation would be announced for 2020-21 as well, so that individuals are not adversely impacted due to unavoidable circumstances for extended period of stay in India. The government should announce the relief measures soon to provide clarity to a large number of globally mobile NRIs vis-à-vis the determination of their residential status and taxability
https://www.livemint.com/budget/expectations/what-nris-expect-from-budget-fy22-11610628942875.html
