Section 220
Section 220: foreign company said to be resident in India
Section 220 applies to a foreign company that is treated as resident in India for the first time in a tax year - typically because its place of effective management shifts to India. Rather than applying the Act's ordinary rules without modification, the section lets the Central Government notify special, relaxed rules for how such a company computes its income for that transition.
What Section 220 provides
Where a foreign company becomes resident in India in a tax year, having not been resident in earlier years, the Central Government may notify conditions under which the Act's provisions relating to computation of total income, treatment of unabsorbed depreciation, set off or carry forward and set off of losses, collection and recovery, and special anti-avoidance provisions will apply with exceptions, modifications and adaptations for that tax year.
Once a determination that the foreign company is resident in India has been made in assessment proceedings for a tax year, the modified treatment also extends to any later tax year that ends on or before the date that assessment is completed.
Withdrawal of relief on non-compliance
If a benefit, exemption or relief was claimed and granted under the notified modifications, and the company later fails to comply with any condition in that notification, the benefit is deemed to have been wrongly allowed. The Assessing Officer may then recompute the company's total income for that tax year as if the modifications had never applied, and make the necessary amendment, using the amendment machinery of Section 287, with that section's four-year limitation period reckoned from the end of the tax year in which the non-compliance occurred.
Parliamentary oversight
Every notification issued under this section must be laid before each House of Parliament.
Frequently asked questions
Who does Section 220 apply to?
A foreign company that becomes resident in India in a tax year for the first time - typically because its place of effective management has shifted to India - and was not resident in any earlier tax year.
Does Section 220 itself set out the relaxed rules?
No. The section only authorises the Central Government to notify the exceptions, modifications and adaptations; the actual conditions and relief are contained in the notification, not in the bare text of Section 220.
What happens if the company stops meeting the notified conditions?
The Assessing Officer can treat the earlier relief as wrongly allowed and recompute the company's total income for that tax year as if the modified rules never applied.
Want this applied to your actual filing, not just explained?
Discuss your company's India residency status with our tax teamLast updated 9 September 2026