स्टार्टअप के लिए कर और अनुपालन
स्टार्टअप का अनुपालन उसी दिन शुरू हो जाता है जिस दिन वह निगमित होता है, कमाई के दिन नहीं: तीस दिन में पहला लेखा-परीक्षक, 180 दिन में INC-20A जिसके बिना कारोबार वैध रूप से शुरू नहीं हो सकता, और वार्षिक फाइलिंग जिनका जुर्माना ₹100 प्रतिदिन प्रति फॉर्म बिना किसी ऊपरी सीमा के चलता है।
यह पेज आपके लिए है यदि
- You have just incorporated, or are about to
- You are raising an angel or seed round and have heard of angel tax
- You want to know whether the Startup India tax holiday actually applies to you
- You are issuing ESOPs and need to know how they are taxed
- Your co-founders' equity is still a conversation rather than a cap table
- You have a company that has not filed for a year or two
क्या अलग है
जो केवल आप पर लागू होता है
The compliance clock starts at incorporation, not at revenue
The first auditor is appointed within thirty days. INC-20A, the declaration of commencement of business, is due within 180 days and carries ₹50,000 on the company plus ₹1,000 a day on each officer if missed. A pre-revenue company with no bank balance still owes all of it.
Angel tax exemption has to be in place before the round
Section 56(2)(viib) taxes share premium above fair market value as income of the company. A DPIIT-recognised startup can claim exemption by filing Form 2 — but the declaration has to exist before the investment, not after an assessment questions the valuation. This is the single most consequential piece of paperwork in a seed round.
Recognition and the tax holiday are two different applications
DPIIT recognition is free, quick and unlocks the angel tax exemption and self-certification. The three-year tax holiday under section 80-IAC is a separate application to an Inter-Ministerial Board with a much lower approval rate. Being told you are “a recognised startup” does not mean the holiday was granted.
ESOPs are taxed twice, at two different moments
At exercise, the difference between fair market value and the exercise price is a perquisite taxed as salary, with TDS the company must deduct. At sale, the gain over fair market value is a capital gain. Eligible startups may defer the perquisite TDS under section 192(1C), which matters a great deal to an employee exercising options in a company with no liquidity.
Three years of non-filing disqualifies every director
Not just from this company — from every board they sit on, for five years, under section 164(2). For a founder who has incorporated more than one entity, letting a dead experiment lapse can take the live company down with it.
हम कैसे काम करते हैं
आपके मामले में यह कैसे चलता है
We set the first-year calendar the week you incorporate
The first auditor within thirty days, INC-20A within 180, the AGM, AOC-4 and MGT-7, and director KYC every September. None of it depends on revenue, and the penalty on the annual filings is ₹100 a day per form with no ceiling.
Founders do not miss these because they are careless. They miss them because nothing appears to depend on them until the year the company needs a clean filing history for a round or a bank.
We put the angel tax exemption in place before the round, not after
Section 56(2)(viib) taxes share premium above fair market value as the company's income. A DPIIT-recognised startup declares the exemption in Form 2 — and the declaration has to exist before the investment lands, because afterwards it is an argument about valuation rather than a filing.
We get DPIIT recognition done first, since it is free and quick, and we are straight about the section 80-IAC tax holiday being a separate application with a much lower approval rate.
We keep books an investor's diligence can read
Monthly bookkeeping, a cap table that matches the PAS-3 filings, and statutory registers that agree with the MCA record. Diligence does not usually find fraud; it finds a company that cannot evidence its own history, and that costs valuation and time.
The cheapest version of this is doing it monthly from the start. The expensive version is reconstructing three years during a term sheet.
जो अक्सर ग़लत होता है
- Missing INC-20A and being unable to commence business lawfully
- Raising a round before the angel tax exemption declaration is in place
- Assuming DPIIT recognition brought the section 80-IAC tax holiday with it
- Incorporating a private limited company when no funding will be raised, and paying for audit and governance nobody needs
- Letting a dormant earlier company lapse, and disqualifying the founder across the live one
- Issuing ESOPs without a valuation, which makes the perquisite calculation unprovable