Return to India Planner

"Should I move back this year or wait?" is one of the highest-stakes questions an NRI faces. This planner converts your foreign corpus into Indian rupees at your target move year, applies realistic Indian inflation to the lifestyle you want, and compares the corpus you'll have against the corpus you'll need.

Because the two economies move at different speeds — Indian equities historically deliver ~11–12% nominal, US equities ~7–8%, and the INR has depreciated ~2–3% a year against the USD — the ₹ value of your corpus at move year is not simply "today's corpus × today's FX rate". The projection here handles both sides.

Most returning NRIs qualify for RNOR (Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident) status for 2–3 financial years after moving back. During RNOR, foreign income stays tax-free in India — you can withdraw your 401(k) or IRA, sell RSUs, close US brokerage accounts, and remit the proceeds without paying Indian tax on the gain.

Two levers to extend the RNOR window:

• Delay your move to the second half of a financial year (say, October 2026 instead of April 2026). You spend fewer than 182 days in India in FY 2026-27, staying NRI for another full year — the RNOR clock only starts in FY 2027-28.
• Liquidate foreign holdings while RNOR. Even a modestly optimised sequence — 401(k) rollover + brokerage sell-down staggered across 2 RNOR years — can save 20–30% on lifetime tax vs. doing it after becoming ROR.

Use our Residential Status Calculator to verify your projected status year-by-year.

The Trinity Study 4% rule was built on 20th-century US data. In India, real (inflation-adjusted) equity returns have historically been higher, but so has inflation. Most Indian FIRE researchers now use a range of 3.5–4.5% depending on portfolio equity share and horizon. This planner uses a conservative 4% — if you have ₹5 crore, that translates to ₹1.67 lakh/month indefinitely.

If your desired lifestyle is closer to ₹3 lakh/month in today's rupees and you're moving in 5–7 years, you likely need ₹10–12 crore at move year to sustain it comfortably through 30+ years of retirement in India — closer to 3.5% withdrawal to survive sequence-of-returns risk in the early years.

• Not converting NRE FDs before losing NRI status. NRE interest is tax-free only while you are NRI. Once ROR, the same interest becomes fully taxable in India.
• Keeping US mutual funds after moving back. Indian tax on US-held foreign MFs is treated as slab-rate income (like debt), not LTCG — often 30%+.
• Missing Schedule FA disclosure. ROR taxpayers must disclose every foreign account, brokerage, insurance, and property in Schedule FA of their ITR. Non-disclosure attracts a ₹10 lakh penalty per account under the Black Money Act.
• Not planning around US exit tax (green card holders). If you have been a US Long-Term Resident (green card for 8+ of last 15 years), giving up green card can trigger Section 877A expatriation tax. Consult a US tax advisor.