The registration itself is straightforward. What goes wrong is the verification: an authorised signatory who cannot complete Aadhaar authentication, an address the officer wants to see, and a file that then sits for weeks. Choosing the signatory correctly at the start removes most of it.
This is the one that decides your timeline. A signatory who holds Aadhaar can authenticate and the application generally proceeds quickly. A foreign director without Aadhaar cannot, and the file routes to physical verification instead. Appointing an India-resident signatory at the outset is usually the whole fix.
A virtual office or co-working desk is acceptable in principle and used widely, but it draws scrutiny — the officer wants to see a place where the business can be found. The documentation matters: a no-objection letter from the owner, a recent utility bill or property tax receipt, and an agreement in the company's name.
Where authentication is not completed or the officer considers it necessary, the premises are visited. Have signage up, the agreement and utility bill on hand, and somebody present who can answer. An empty locked room at the registered address is how applications get rejected.
An increasing number of states require the signatory to attend a designated centre in person for biometric verification. It cannot be delegated to a consultant on your behalf, which is another reason the signatory should be someone who is actually in India.
Exports are zero-rated, but registration is still required once you cross the threshold. File a letter of undertaking so you can export without paying the tax and reclaiming it, and renew it each financial year.
Registering for the first time.
Queried, delayed or rejected.
Needing registration in several states at once.
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💬 Get my quote →Yes in principle, and a great many businesses do it, but expect more scrutiny than a conventional lease attracts. The application needs an agreement in the company's name, a no-objection letter from the owner of the premises, and a recent utility bill or property tax receipt for the address. The risk is not that a shared address is prohibited — it is that the officer visits, finds nothing identifiable, and rejects. Make sure the provider will display your company name and accept post and visitors in your name before you use them.
Neither is prohibited. A residential address is acceptable where you genuinely operate from it, supported by ownership or rent documents and a no-objection letter. Refusals in practice come from a mismatch rather than from the type of address — the documents name one person and the application another, the utility bill is years old, the premises cannot be located, or nobody is there on verification. Fix the documentation and the address type rarely matters.
Not automatically, but it becomes far more likely where Aadhaar authentication of the authorised signatory has not been completed — which is the usual position when the signatory is a foreign director. The officer may also order it where anything about the application invites a closer look. The practical consequence is a longer timeline, because a file awaiting a site visit moves at the pace of the officer's schedule rather than the portal's.
That the premises exist, that they match the address on the application, and that the business plausibly operates from there. In practice the officer looks for signage with the company name, the rent agreement or ownership document, a utility bill, and someone who can answer questions about the business. Photographs are taken. The commonest reason for an adverse report is simply that nobody was present and nothing identified the company — which is avoidable with a little preparation.
No. Where biometric authentication applies, the authorised signatory must attend the designated centre personally — a consultant or representative cannot do it for them. This is the single strongest argument for appointing an India-resident authorised signatory rather than naming a foreign director who would have to travel. The requirement has been rolled out state by state, so whether it applies depends on where you are registering.
Four things, in this order. Appoint an India-resident authorised signatory who holds Aadhaar, so authentication can be completed. Get the address documentation right before filing — agreement in the company name, owner's no-objection letter, recent utility bill. Make the premises identifiable, with signage and someone reachable. And file complete: incorporation documents, board resolution appointing the signatory, bank details and photographs, rather than filing thin and responding to queries. Applications prepared this way generally clear in days; those that are not can take weeks.
Yes. GST registration is state-specific, so a business with premises in three states needs three registrations, each with its own returns, its own compliance and potentially its own verification. There is no single national registration. This surprises foreign groups more than almost anything else in Indian indirect tax, and it should be factored into the operating model before offices are opened rather than after.
The slab structure was rationalised with effect from 22 September 2025. The 12% and 28% rates were removed, leaving 0%, 5% and 18% as the working slabs, with a 40% rate for luxury and sin goods. Most items that were at 12% moved down to 5% and most that were at 28% moved to 18%. For a business the practical consequence is operational rather than strategic: invoicing, item masters, HSN mapping and pricing all needed updating, and any contract quoting a tax-inclusive price needed checking.
Yes, and quickly, because an invoice charging a withdrawn rate is wrong from the effective date. Item masters and HSN mappings in the accounting or billing system need revising, credit notes may be needed for transactions straddling the change, and contracts that fixed a tax-inclusive price need reviewing to see who absorbs the difference. It is a short piece of work done properly at the time and a messy reconciliation if it is left.
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