Hyderabad Tax Tribunal recently held that Salary earned from employment in US isn’t taxable in India if employee resides in India for less than 60 days . That  means No Taxes on Salary if actual stay in India was less than 60 days in a year . Facts of the case : 

The assessee was employed  with Indian Company, during his employment he  was sent to USA on Job assignment for 306 days, in terms of article 16 of India – USA DTAA, salary income offered to tax in USA, was to be granted exemption from Indian taxable income of assessee . In view of provisions of sub-section (2) of section 5, per diem paid in USA was not income received or deemed to be received in India; neither did it accrue or arise in India as it was towards working in USA and, therefore, it could not form part of assessee’s taxable income in India Tax tribunal held that :  Section 9 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with article 16 of DTAA between India and USA – Income – Deemed to accrue or arise in India (Dependent personnel services) – The Assessment year 2002-03 – Assessee, a software engineer, was on pay roll of an Indian company – For relevant year, assessee claimed his status as that of a non resident on ground that he was in USA on job assignment for 306 days and, hence, his salary income during relevant year was exempt from tax under article 16(1) . The Tax Tribunal overruled this and held that in terms of article 16(1) of India – USA DTAA, salary income offered to tax in USA, was to be granted exemption from Indian taxable income of assessee. Further, in view of provisions of sub-section (2) of section 5,  per diem paid in USA was not income received or deemed to be received in India; neither did it accrue or arise in India as it was towards working in USA and, therefore, it could not form part of assessee’s taxable income in India. To Conclude - No Taxes on Salary if actual stay in India was less than 60 days in a year . Income tax return filing has started, please feel free to check our ITR filing page for Non Resident Indian (NRI)  here.