You build. You invest. You grow.

Before you act

entity form · who owns what

At incorporation

registrations, in order · GST registration, where it applies · bank and payments · first filings

First months

books from the first transaction · founder pay · the first hire

Every month and quarter

GST returns · withholding and its returns · payroll · advance tax

At year end

closing the books, and the audit where it applies · annual filings · the entity’s return and the founders’ own

Through the year

advance tax · withholding already deducted

Before the year ends

regime choice · deductions

Before filing

statements · capital gains · foreign assets, if any

At filing

which return · residential status

After filing

corrections and notices

Before you apply

whether you need to register, and as what · who holds it: you, a firm or a company

The application

the application, through BSE · GST registration, or a declaration

Once registered

terms, consent and fees, from the first client · fee records and accounts

Every year

the compliance audit and the half-yearly reports · certification kept current · the income-tax return

Before you act

what you hold · how long you have held it

At sale

holding period · cost records · capital gains

Through the year

dividends and interest · tax withheld on them · F&O, if it is a business · advance tax

When there are losses

set-off and carry-forward · the records behind them

At filing

the broker statements, reconciled in the return

Before you act

sale, buyback or transfer · who the buyer is

At the deal

valuation · the price against it · transfer paperwork

While you hold

cost records · holding period · a listing ahead

At sale

capital gains · the company’s own filings

At filing

the transaction in the return

Before you act

residential status · what the route allows

At transfer

remittance · tax collected on the transfer

While you hold

foreign asset reporting · dividends and interest · currency

At sale

capital gains · currency conversion · relief for tax paid abroad · treaty position

At filing

the holdings and the relief, in the return

Before you act

award type · vesting status · residential status

At exercise and allotment

the exercise, and the allotment that follows · valuation · employer withholding · which year the allotment falls in

While you hold

cost record · a parent company abroad · reporting, if abroad

At sale

the sale, as its own event · holding period · capital gains · remittance, if abroad

At filing

reconciling all of it in the return · treaty position, if tax was paid abroad

Before you act

residential status · where the income arises

At the move

which accounts · what stays in India · what moves

Every year

Indian income · withholding on it · capital gains, if you sell here · treaty position

When money moves

repatriation · reporting · relief for tax paid twice

At filing

which return · foreign asset reporting, if it applies · reconciled in the return

Before you act

timing · ownership · where each side lives · the agreed price

At the deal

the sale itself · the buyer’s withholding · cost and improvements · holding period · capital gains

After the sale

reinvestment · advance tax, if the gain is large · where the money goes next

Every year

rent · the loan · the joint split

At filing

both sides’ reporting, in the return

Before you act

ownership · nominations and the will

At transfer

who receives what · valuation · registrations

Afterwards

the original cost records · cost carried forward · holding period · capital gains, when an heir sells

Every year

who reports the income

At filing

each person’s return · each person’s residential status · heirs abroad, if any

Entity form

Company, LLP or partnership: the form you choose sets the compliance calendar, whether an audit applies from the start, what founders can be paid and how investors can come in.

Incorporation

Incorporation is a sequence of registrations and first filings, each with its own documents and timing, and some steps only open once an earlier one is done. Getting the order right avoids repeating steps.

Bank & payments

The bank account, the payment gateway and the invoicing set-up are where the books begin. They need to match the entity’s registrations.

Founder pay

How founders are paid, salary, fees or drawings, follows from the entity form and brings payroll and withholding with it.

Registrations & filings

Every entity has a calendar of registrations and filings from day one, some with the registrar, some with the tax department, some with the state. Board records and statutory registers run alongside them, and the annual filings close each year. Missing early ones is expensive to fix later.

GST

Whether GST registration is needed, and from when, depends on what is sold, to whom, from where and how much, so it is settled at the start. Once registered, the returns run on their own cycle, monthly or quarterly depending on size, and are reconciled against the books.

Books

Books kept from the first transaction and closed every month make every later filing straightforward, and give the founders numbers to run the business on: cash, receivables, payables and margin. Reconstructing them at year end costs more than keeping them.

Payroll

The first hire brings payroll, withholding on salaries and, once the headcount crosses the thresholds, the registrations that go with employing people. From then on, each month’s payroll brings the statutory contributions and the records that support them.

Withholding (TDS)

Paying salaries, rent, contractors or professionals brings a duty to withhold and deposit, and to report what was withheld on a cycle of its own, with statements for the people paid. It starts earlier than most founders expect.

Advance tax

A business pays its tax in instalments through the year, estimated from the monthly numbers; how many instalments depends on how the business is taxed. The estimate is revisited each quarter.

Income-tax return

The entity’s own income-tax return, and the founders’ personal ones, are prepared from the same closed books. Both have their own deadlines, and for a company the audit comes first.

Regime choice

The choice between the two regimes is best made on your own figures for the year, since it changes which deductions can be claimed. One of them applies unless you choose otherwise, and how freely you can switch depends on whether you have business income.

Deductions

What you are actually eligible to claim depends on the regime and on what you paid or invested during the year. The proof is gathered before filing, not after.

Corrections & notices

A return already filed can be corrected within a window, and a longer route exists after that at a price. A notice from the department needs a response within its own time. Both start from what was originally reported.

Withholding (TDS)

Tax already withheld by employers, banks, tenants or buyers shows up in your tax credit statement. Matching it against your own records is where most returns start.

Advance tax

Income not covered by withholding, gains, rent or freelance work, may need advance tax paid in instalments through the year. Who has to pay it depends on the amount and, for some people, on age and the kind of income.

Capital gains

Every sale of shares, units or property during the year comes into the return with its own working. The statements are gathered first.

Foreign asset reporting

If you were resident for the year and hold assets outside India, they are reported in the return whether or not they produced income.

Residency

Residential status for the year decides which return applies and which income is reported. It is settled before anything is filled in.

Income-tax return

The return itself: which form applies, what it must show, and the reconciliation between your records, the withholding and the department’s own view.

Eligibility & certification

Whether a registration is needed turns on what you give clients and whether you are paid or otherwise benefit: stock-specific calls, price targets, model portfolios or research call for research analyst registration, and personalised advice on securities for investment adviser registration. Each asks for a qualification, a current NISM certification for you and for everyone who deals with clients, and a fit and proper standing. A part-time registration exists for people with another profession, with its own conditions and a limit on clients, and certifications are renewed before they lapse.

Application

The application goes first to BSE, which SEBI has recognised to administer and supervise research analysts and investment advisers: it checks the papers and recommends the case to SEBI, which grants the registration. Proofs of identity, qualification and certification go with it, with a description of the services and, for advisers, the process for profiling clients’ risk. Fees are paid to both, and a deposit is kept under lien to BSE before the registration and the enlistment issue.

Ongoing compliance

A registration brings duties from the first client: the prescribed terms and the client’s consent before any service or fee, limits on what individual clients may be charged, records of every recommendation and its reasoning, disclosures of conflicts, a website with the Investor Charter, a grievance process, and BSE’s approval before any advertisement. Reports go to BSE every half year, and a compliance audit each year examines it all; its findings are published and the report goes to clients.

Registrations & filings

The registration can be held by an individual, a partnership, an LLP or a company, and the form matters: each carries its own conditions, and a firm or a company keeps its own registrations and filings running alongside the SEBI ones.

Books

Fees received, refunds for unexpired periods and the accounts behind them feed the compliance audit, the GST returns and the income-tax return, so they are kept from the first client.

GST

The application asks for the GST registration, or a declaration where there is none. Fees for research or advice are a service, so the GST position is settled before the first invoice.

Income-tax return

Income from research or advice is reported in the income-tax return of whoever holds the registration, the individual or the firm, from the same books.

Losses & carry-forward

Losses on some holdings can be set against gains on others, within limits that depend on the kind of loss, and what cannot be used this year may be carried forward for a number of years. Both depend on the loss being recorded in a return filed in time.

Dividends & interest

Dividends and interest arrive through the year, often with tax withheld at source once they pass a threshold. They are reported for the year they are received and reconciled against that withholding.

F&O as a business

Income from futures and options is looked at as business income rather than a capital gain, which changes the records expected, the advance tax pattern, whether an audit requirement arises and how the return is prepared.

Capital gains

Each sale of shares or units raises a capital gains question. What was bought when, and what it cost, decides how the gain is worked out, and the rules have changed for sales after a certain date.

Holding period

How long each tranche has been held is one of the first things that changes how its sale is treated. Broker statements carry the dates, though the starting date is not necessarily the one shown.

Cost records

The cost of each holding, including corporate actions and reinvested distributions, is what a gain is measured against. It is worth reconciling before a sale, not after.

Withholding (TDS)

Tax withheld on dividends and interest shows up in your tax credit statement. Matching it against what was actually received is a routine part of the return.

Advance tax

Gains and income realised during the year may need advance tax paid in instalments. Large sales part-way through the year are where this usually comes up.

Income-tax return

Broker statements, dividend records, withholding and any carried-forward losses all meet in the return. Reconciling them is most of the work.

Buyback vs sale

A sale to another investor, a buyback by the company and a transfer within the family are different transactions, each looked at differently, and how a buyback is treated depends on when it takes place: the rule has changed more than once recently, and under the version now in force it also depends on who the shareholder is to the company. Which route is on the table shapes everything that follows.

Transfer paperwork

Transferring private shares involves paperwork on the company’s side as well as yours: the transfer instrument, the register and the filings that record the change.

A listing ahead

If the company is heading for a listing, the timing of any sale relative to it, and the holding period by then, are worth thinking through before agreeing anything. Whether the shares are listed on the day of sale changes how the sale is treated.

Valuation

Transactions in private shares are often expected to be supported by a valuation, on the buyer’s side as well as the seller’s. Whether yours needs one, on what basis, and who would carry it out, is settled before the price is agreed.

Capital gains

A sale raises a capital gains question. The holding period and the cost you can show are what it turns on, and the price is tested against the valuation.

Holding period

How long the shares have been held, tranche by tranche, changes how a sale is treated. Early allotments and later top-ups often have different dates.

Cost records

What the shares cost you, including anything paid in later rounds, is the number a gain is measured against. Allotment letters and bank records establish it.

Registrations & filings

A transfer or buyback leaves the company with registrations and filings of its own to make. Those need to line up with what you report.

Income-tax return

The transaction, the gain and any valuation are reported in the return for the year it completes. That is where the records get tested.

Remittance (LRS)

Money sent abroad to invest goes through a remittance route with limits, declarations and reporting of its own. It is the first record of the investment.

Tax collected on transfer

Tax is often collected on the transfer itself, at the bank, before the money leaves. Whether it is, and how much, depends on the purpose and on how much has been sent in the year. It appears in your tax credit statement and is reconciled in the return.

Currency conversion

Overseas gains and income are brought into rupees on a defined basis, not a convenient one. Which rate, and on which date, is part of the working.

Relief for tax paid abroad

Where tax has already been taken abroad, on a dividend or on a sale, relief may be available in India. It depends on documents from the foreign side existing in time, and on the treaty position.

Foreign asset reporting

If you are resident for the year, overseas shares, accounts and other assets are reported in the Indian return for each year they are held, whether or not anything has been sold.

Capital gains

Selling an overseas holding raises a capital gains question in India, worked out in rupees from the cost and the holding period. How it is treated depends on the kind of asset.

Treaty position

The treaty between India and the country where the income arises decides how withholding there and relief here fit together.

Residency

Residential status decides whether overseas income and assets come into the Indian return at all. It is settled before the rest is worked out.

Income-tax return

The holdings, the income, the foreign tax and the relief are all reported in the return. The schedules have to agree with each other.

Vesting

Vesting is when an option becomes yours to exercise, on the schedule in the grant. It brings no shares, no tax event and no holding period by itself: those follow the exercise, and the allotment or transfer of the shares that comes after it. What vesting sets is the window in which that decision is yours.

Exercise

Exercise is when you take up the option. The shares are allotted or transferred to you afterwards, not always on the same day or in the same year, and the two dates do different work. The value of the shares against what you paid is measured on the day you exercise, and the cost you carry into a later sale is fixed on that value. The year the benefit is reported in, the employer’s withholding and the day the holding period runs from all follow the allotment or transfer. For employees of some start-ups the withholding can be deferred, which changes the timing without changing the question.

Sale

A sale is a separate event from receiving the shares, with its own holding period, its own gain and its own reporting. It is where the cost established at exercise is finally used.

Foreign parent

When the shares are in a parent company abroad, two more things come in: how the foreign holding is reported here, and whether tax already taken abroad affects the position in India.

Residency

Residential status is settled before anything else. Where you were resident in the years the options vested and were exercised, the shares were allotted and the shares were sold changes which income India looks at.

Valuation

The value of the shares on the day you exercise, not the day they are allotted, is the number the employer’s withholding and your later cost both rest on. For listed shares it is read from that day’s prices. For unlisted shares it comes from a merchant banker’s report, which the rules allow to be dated earlier than the exercise, within a limit, so the report and its date are worth keeping.

Withholding (TDS)

The employer withholds on the benefit through payroll in the year the shares are allotted or transferred, and reports it for that year. Finding it in the employer’s statement and in your tax credit statement, against the right year, is one of the first reconciliations. For employees of some start-ups the withholding can wait until the earliest of a fixed period after that year, a sale of the shares or leaving the employer; the conditions are worth knowing before relying on it.

Cost records

What the shares are treated as having cost you is the value used for the benefit, measured on the day you exercised rather than the day the shares were allotted, and it is carried until you sell. Keeping the grant, the exercise confirmation, the allotment record, the valuation and the payment records together avoids reconstructing it later.

Holding period

How long you have held the shares is counted from the day they were allotted or transferred to you, not from grant, vesting or exercise, and it is one of the first things that changes how a sale is treated. The period that matters depends on whether the shares are listed.

Capital gains

Selling the shares raises a capital gains question of its own, separate from what happened at exercise. The cost and the holding period feed straight into it.

Foreign asset reporting

Shares held in a company outside India can bring a reporting requirement in the return, whether or not anything has been sold. Whether it reaches you depends on your residential status for the year.

Treaty position

If tax was withheld abroad on the same award, the treaty position between the two countries decides how that interacts with the Indian side.

Income-tax return

The allotment, the years you hold and the sale each leave something to reconcile in the return, often across more than one year. This is where it all has to add up.

Residency

Residential status is worked out year by year from time spent in India and a few other tests. It decides which income India looks at, and it is the first thing settled.

Indian income

Income that arises in India, rent, interest, dividends or gains, stays reportable here while you live abroad. What is withheld on it is often the starting point.

NRE / NRO accounts

Which accounts you hold, and how they are designated, follows your status under the exchange-control rules, which is a different test from the tax one. It affects what can be deposited, what can be moved out and how the income on them is looked at.

Repatriation

Moving money out of India follows a route with limits, paperwork and reporting of its own, and the bank usually wants the tax position confirmed first, sometimes by a certificate.

Which return

Which return applies, and what it has to show, follows from your residential status and the kinds of income involved.

Withholding (TDS)

Payers in India often withhold on payments to someone living abroad, at rates that can differ from a resident’s. Reconciling that withholding, and claiming what is due back, is a regular part of the return.

Treaty position

Where the same income is looked at by both countries, the treaty between them decides how the two positions interact. The documents it needs have to exist in time.

Foreign asset reporting

Depending on residential status for the year, foreign assets and accounts may need to be reported in the Indian return.

Capital gains

Selling Indian shares or property while living abroad raises a capital gains question here, with withholding by the buyer often involved.

Income-tax return

Indian income, withholding, treaty relief and any foreign asset reporting come together in the return. Which return, and what it shows, is decided by status.

Timing

When each step of a sale falls, agreement, payment and registration, changes which year the transaction lands in and how long the property counts as held.

Ownership & joint holding

Whose name the property is in, and in what shares, decides who reports the sale or the rent. Joint holdings are split the way the ownership is, not the way the money moved.

Sale

The sale is the event most of the questions attach to: the buyer’s withholding, the cost you can show, the holding period and the gain.

Rent

A let property has annual reporting of its own: the rent, the loan interest and the joint split. Depending on the rent, the tenant may have to withhold as well. Each is worth getting right rather than approximated.

Withholding (TDS)

Buyers commonly withhold part of the price and deposit it against the seller’s name. Whether they must, and how much, depends on the price and on whether the seller lives in India. Checking that it was done, and that it appears in your tax credit statement, is a routine step.

Cost records

What you paid, plus improvements since, is what a gain is measured against. The dates matter as much as the amounts, and for older property so does how the cost is allowed to be counted.

Holding period

How long you have held the property, counted from the right date, changes how a sale is treated.

Capital gains

A sale raises a capital gains question. Cost, improvements, holding period, when the property was bought and the reinvestment choice all feed into it.

Reinvestment

Putting the proceeds into another property or an approved route can change the position, with conditions attached and clocks that start on the sale date. It is a decision to take before the sale, not after.

Residency

If the seller or the buyer lives outside India, the withholding and the reporting work differently. Residential status is settled first.

Income-tax return

The sale, the rent and the buyer’s withholding are all reported in the return. Both sides’ reporting has to agree.

Advance tax

A large gain part-way through the year may need advance tax paid in instalments rather than at filing time.

Nominations & wills

How an asset is owned, who is nominated and what a will says need to be read together. A nomination and a will can point in different directions, and for many kinds of asset a nomination on its own does not settle who the asset finally belongs to.

Cost carried forward

An inherited asset carries a cost history with it. What the original holder paid, and when, is what the heir’s eventual sale will be measured against.

Who reports the income

Until an estate is settled, and after, someone has to report the income the assets produce. Who that is, and for which period, is worth settling early.

Heirs abroad

Heirs outside India bring a second country into the same estate: their residential status, the reporting there and the route for moving assets or money.

Cost records

The cost that passes with an inherited asset is the number most easily got wrong. It comes from the original acquisition, not from the date of inheritance.

Valuation

Some transfers, and some later sales, are expected to be supported by a valuation at the relevant date, for instance where an old asset’s cost has to be established. Whether one is needed is settled before the paperwork.

Holding period

The holding period of an inherited asset may take in the time the previous owner held it. It changes how an eventual sale is treated.

Capital gains

A sale by the heir raises a capital gains question, measured against the carried cost and the combined holding period.

Residency

The residential status of the person who died and of each heir affects what is reported, and where.

Registrations & filings

Transmission of shares, property and accounts involves registrations and filings with companies, depositories, registries and banks. Each has its own documents.

Income-tax return

The estate’s income, each heir’s share and any sale are reported in the returns of the people concerned, including the last return of the person who died. Who files what is decided first.

Residency

Residential status for the year, worked out from time spent in India and a few other tests. It decides which income India looks at, and it is settled before anything else.

Capital gains

The question that arises whenever an asset is sold: what it cost, how long it was held, and what the sale leaves to report. How it is answered depends on the kind of asset and on when it was sold.

Withholding (TDS)

Tax withheld at source: taken out of a payment by whoever makes it, an employer, a bank, a buyer or a tenant, deposited against the recipient’s name and reconciled in the return. A business that pays salaries, rent or fees has to withhold in its turn.

Valuation

An independent view of what an asset is worth on a given date. Some transactions are expected to be supported by one, and who may give it depends on what the valuation is for.

Income-tax return

The income-tax return: where the year’s income, withholding, gains and reporting are brought together and reconciled, and where the records behind them get tested.

Foreign asset reporting

The reporting of assets and accounts held outside India in the return. Whether it applies depends on residential status for the year, and it can apply whether or not the assets produced income.

GST

The tax on the goods and services a business supplies, with registration, invoicing and returns on their own cycle. Whether registration is needed depends on what is supplied, to whom, from where and how much.

Books

The books of account: the record that every filing, return and management number draws on.

Holding period

How long an asset has been held, counted from the right starting date. One of the first things that changes how a sale is treated, and the period that matters depends on the kind of asset.

Treaty position

The position under the tax treaty between India and another country, which decides how the two countries’ claims on the same income interact. It rests on residential status and on the documents existing in time.

Cost records

What an asset is treated as having cost, with the records that establish it. The number a gain is measured against.

What becomes relevant, in the order it usually does. The specifics belong in a conversation, not on a map.

What becomes relevant, in order. The specifics are for a conversation.