Enter India

1. Define the India activity

Identify customers, contracting entity, revenue model, premises and staffing. A sales-support presence and a trading or manufacturing business raise different questions.

Map the intended operating flow: who signs the customer contract, performs the work, owns the product or intellectual property, issues the invoice and receives payment. Record which decisions stay overseas and which the India team will make. Include proposed imports, local purchases and services supplied to group companies.

Keep the initial model and later expansion plans distinguishable. A team set up to support overseas sales should not silently become the local contracting business without reassessing the setup assumptions.

2. Map ownership and funding

Record the foreign group, intended investors and proposed instruments. Assess the route and sector conditions before committing funds.

Prepare a group chart showing the proposed investor and ownership chain, with supporting corporate records and the residency information requested for the assessment. Identify the source, recipient, intended use and proposed form of each funding payment. Keep investment funding, customer revenue and intercompany charges as separate flows in the plan.

Use the FDI route and sector guide to organise the eligibility questions. An ownership chart or proposed company name does not, by itself, establish that the planned activity and funding route are permitted.

3. Establish the local operation

Coordinate entity documents, authorised signatories, banking and relevant tax or sector registrations. Align overseas documents with the actual filing requirements.

• Maintain a document tracker identifying the overseas issuer, required version, local recipient and outstanding preparation step.
• Confirm signatory names and authority across the formation, banking and application records before arranging signatures.
• Resolve differences in names, addresses and entity identifiers rather than submitting inconsistent documents to different workstreams.
• Record the premises and operating model used in each application so later changes can be identified.
• Agree who responds to bank or authority queries and how revised documents are approved and retained.

4. Create continuing controls

Keep reporting, intercompany arrangements and local compliance ownership visible after incorporation. Assign responsibility across the overseas and India teams.

Create a responsibility matrix covering books, invoicing, payroll, payments, registration updates and foreign-investment reporting. Name both the preparer and the person who supplies the underlying facts. Align the India reporting timetable with group reporting needs without assuming they are the same obligation.

Reconcile funding receipts and ownership records with the investment reporting workstream. Keep the actual intercompany service descriptions, agreements and invoicing evidence available for the transfer-pricing assessment.

Bring these facts to the first discussion

• Group ownership and residency information
• India activity and staffing plan
• Funding and contracting proposals

Watch the dependency

Using an Indian subsidiary does not by itself settle the tax or regulatory treatment of every intercompany payment. Review the agreements and actual services separately.

Example: the India team expects to provide customer support while the overseas company owns and sells the software. Write down who contracts with the customer, directs the support team and charges for the support work. If the India team later starts negotiating or signing customer contracts, update that activity map and reassess the affected arrangements instead of relying on the original setup description.

How responsibilities are agreed

You confirm business facts and approve decisions. Kosha’s engagement identifies the documents, coordination and filings included, together with any specialist adviser or authority dependency. The service links below explain the relevant workstreams and their limits.