Not wrong when it was written — overtaken. India changed its foreign investment rules, its PAN forms, its tax Act and its treaty practice inside two years, and most published guidance has not caught up. Acting on the old version costs money, and it is usually the adviser who sounds most certain who is furthest behind.
Here is what actually applies now, what we handle, and — set out plainly — what we would send you to somebody else for.
Every line on the left is advice that was correct once and is repeated today by firms, blogs and assistants. Each one is now wrong, and each is a real cost if you act on it.
Every one of these is dated and sourced on the page it links to. If your current adviser disagrees with any of them, that is worth a conversation before you act.
Structure, ownership, what it costs and how long it takes. Start with whether your sector is even open to you.
Residential status decides everything else. Work that out first, then rent, property, shares and what you may still hold.
A notice, a filing missed, money stuck at a bank, or tax withheld you think is wrong. These are usually fixable and usually time-bound.
Money crosses two taxing points on the way out, and most people model only one. See the full waterfall in rupees.
Salary and statutory cost are identical either way, so the real question is narrower than the vendors make it. Find your break-even headcount.
A foreign founder cannot easily tell an Indian firm that is genuinely competent in an area from one that will take the work anyway. We would rather be the firm that tells you where its expertise stops — it costs us a few enquiries and it means the work we do take, we can actually deliver.
39 guides and 387 answered questions, kept current against the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the 2026 rules. Free, no sign-up, no email gate.
A few lines is enough to start. We will come back with the route, the sequence and a fee — and we will tell you plainly if something you are planning will not work, or if you need somebody other than us.
In most sectors, yes, under the automatic route with no prior government approval — only reporting to the Reserve Bank afterwards. A short list of activities is closed to foreign investment and some sectors are capped. A separate rule applies where the ownership chain runs back to a country sharing a land border with India, and that rule was relaxed in 2026 so that a small, non-controlling indirect interest no longer forces the approval route. The sector and the ownership chain are the first two things to settle, because they decide the structure.
Five to eight weeks from a standing start is realistic for a subsidiary that can trade. Incorporation itself is about five to ten working days once documents are in hand; the two things that take the time are getting your documents apostilled in your own country, which is one to four weeks, and opening the bank account, which is three to twelve weeks depending on how complex the ownership is. Note also that a company may not begin business until the subscription money is paid in and a declaration is filed, which catches people who start invoicing on the day the certificate arrives.
You do not need an Indian partner in most sectors — you can own the company outright. You do need at least one director who is resident in India, meaning someone who stayed here 182 days or more in the financial year. That is a residence test, not a citizenship test, and the person need not hold any shares. What you almost certainly do not need is an independent director: private companies are exempt from that requirement entirely, and so is a wholly owned subsidiary even when it is a public company above the thresholds.
Dividends, service fees, royalties, interest, a share buyback, or the sale of your shares — six routes, each with a different tax cost and a different paper trail. There is no ceiling on the amount. What matters is that Indian tax is paid, the treaty rate is actually claimed with a residency certificate and the right form on file before the remittance, and each transfer goes out with the prescribed declaration. The calculator on this site prices the dividend route end to end.
With your residential status, because everything else follows from it — whether India taxes your worldwide income or only your Indian income, and whether you must disclose foreign assets. It is a day count applied after the year ends, but there are five tests stacked on each other and one threshold that is very widely misstated. If you have recently returned to India, the RNOR window is worth understanding before it closes rather than after.
It depends on the work and we quote before starting, not after. There is no charge for the first conversation or for telling you which route applies to you — including when the answer is that you do not need us yet, or that you need a lawyer instead. Where we do quote, it is a fixed fee for defined work rather than an hourly rate, so you know the number before you commit.
We are a tax, GST and corporate compliance advisory firm, and chartered accountants review our work. Where something requires certification by a chartered accountant in practice — a statutory audit, a tax audit, Form 15CB, an Annual Activity Certificate — that is carried out and signed by an independent chartered accountant, and we coordinate it. We are clear about this because the distinction is a real one and you are entitled to know who is signing what.
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