Pay your India team without guessing at the rules.
Whether you already have an Indian entity or you're hiring before you set one up, the obligations start with the first payment — provident fund, state insurance, professional tax and tax deducted at source. We run the payroll and carry the filing calendar.
Applicability of each registration depends on headcount, wage levels and state. We confirm your position in writing before the first cycle. Position as on 03 Aug 2026.
Two starting points, two different answers.
The right structure depends on how long the India team will exist, how many people are in it, and whether the work creates a taxable presence.
Run payroll properly from month one
A subsidiary, branch or LLP already registered, and now people to pay.
- Statutory registrations completed where applicable
- Salary structures designed against the labour codes
- Monthly processing, payslips and bank file
- PF, ESIC, professional tax and salary TDS deposited and reported
- Full and final settlements, registers and records maintained
Understand the options before you commit
Hiring in India ahead of an entity is common — and the choices carry very different tax and compliance consequences.
- Entity routes compared — subsidiary, branch, liaison office
- Contractor engagements and where they stop being safe
- Permanent establishment exposure explained plainly
- Timeline and sequence for setting the entity up
- What has to be in place before the first salary is paid
Setting up the entity itself is covered on company registration. Coordination across everything India-side sits with the Global Desk.
More moving parts than most home countries.
Retirement contributions
Employer and employee contributions with monthly deposit and electronic return filing, plus member onboarding and exits.
ESIC
Applicable by wage level and headcount in notified areas, with monthly contributions and employee registration.
State-level, not national
Levied by state, with its own registration, slab structure and return calendar. Multi-state teams mean multiple registrations.
Deducted monthly, reported quarterly
Tax deducted from salary, deposited monthly and reported in the quarterly statement, with annual certificates issued to employees.
Wage structure matters
How CTC is split between basic and allowances drives statutory cost. Getting the structure wrong is expensive to unwind later.
Full and final settlement
Notice, leave encashment, gratuity where applicable and final tax working — with the records to support each.
Rates, wage ceilings and applicability thresholds change and vary by state. We confirm the current position for your specific headcount and locations rather than quoting a general figure here.
The expensive mistakes are structural, not clerical.
Paying India-based staff as contractors when the relationship looks like employment; running payroll from a home-country system that doesn't handle Indian statutory deductions; deciding the wage structure by copying a template rather than by design; assuming a small team means no registrations. Each of these is cheap to fix in month one and expensive to unwind two years later, usually when an employee leaves, a lender asks, or an inspection lands.
Four steps to a clean monthly cycle.
Position review
Headcount, locations, wage levels and entity status mapped to which registrations actually apply — in writing, before anything is filed.
Registrations & structure
Statutory registrations completed where required, and salary structures designed rather than copied — so the statutory cost is a decision, not a surprise.
Monthly processing
Inputs collected, payroll processed, payslips issued, bank file prepared, and every statutory deduction deposited within its own deadline.
Reporting & records
Quarterly statements filed, annual certificates issued, registers maintained, and a monthly pack your home-country finance team can consolidate from.
Want your HR team to understand this rather than outsource all of it? The TaxKitab Academy runs practical payroll and labour-code training.
What overseas employers ask.
Can we hire in India without setting up an entity?
People do, usually through contractor arrangements — but the risk is that the relationship is treated as employment, or that the activity creates a taxable presence for the parent. It's a decision to take deliberately, with the exposure understood, rather than by default.
Which registrations will we actually need?
It depends on headcount, wage levels and the states you're hiring in. Professional tax in particular is state-specific, so a distributed team can mean several registrations. We map it before you commit.
Can we run India payroll from our existing system?
Only if it handles Indian statutory deductions, state-level professional tax and the required registers. Most home-country systems don't, which is why the deductions end up being calculated outside the system and reconciled badly.
How does the wage structure affect cost?
Significantly. How CTC is split between basic pay and allowances drives statutory contributions. Designing it upfront is far less painful than restructuring after employees have signed.
What do we get each month?
Payslips, a bank payment file, statutory challans and a payroll register — plus a summary your home-country finance team can consolidate from directly.
Before you hire in India.
UK Company with an India Subsidiary: The Compliance Load
What the parent takes on once the subsidiary exists.
Salary Structure Design and the CTC Split
How the components drive statutory cost.
New Labour Codes: What Changed for Employers
The wage definition and what it does to your payroll.
Domestic payroll is on payroll & HR compliance, quarterly statements on TDS returns, and books for the Indian entity on outsourced accounting.
Tell us about your India team.
Share headcount, locations and whether you have an entity yet. We'll map what applies and confirm scope within a few hours. Prefer to talk now? WhatsApp or call us directly.
Hiring in India?
Tell us how many people, in which states, and whether the entity exists yet. We'll come back with what applies and what it takes to run it properly.