Company registration in Kolkata and across India

The structure decides your liability, your tax position and your annual compliance cost for as long as the business exists. A private limited company under the Companies Act 2013 protects personal assets, is the structure institutional investors expect, and can issue employee stock options, but it carries the heaviest annual filing burden.

An LLP under the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2008 gives liability protection with lighter compliance and suits professional practices and closely held businesses that do not plan to raise equity.

A One Person Company suits a single founder who wants limited liability, and a registered partnership or proprietorship suits small local trading operations where simplicity outweighs protection. We set out the real cost of each before you file.

Company incorporation runs through the integrated SPICe+ form on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal. Part A reserves the name and Part B handles incorporation itself, filed with the memorandum and articles of association in eMoA and eAoA form, and with the AGILE-PRO-S form alongside.

That single filing does a lot of work: it allots Director Identification Numbers where needed, issues the certificate of incorporation with the Corporate Identity Number, obtains PAN and TAN, registers for EPFO and ESIC, opens the process for a bank account and can include GST registration and professional tax registration where applicable.

Every proposed director needs a valid digital signature certificate, and name selection has to comply with the naming rules, which is where most applications are first rejected.

You will need PAN and Aadhaar for each director or partner, identity and address proof, passport photographs, proof of the registered office address such as a recent utility bill, and a no objection letter from the property owner where the premises are not owned by the company.

Where complete documents are supplied and the name is clear, incorporation typically completes within one to two weeks. Delays come from name rejections, mismatched address proof, expired documents and digital signature problems.

Name rejection is the most avoidable of these. Names that are too similar to an existing company or a registered trade mark, or that use restricted words without approval, are refused, so we run both an MCA and a trade mark search before applying.

Incorporation is the start of a compliance cycle, not the end of a task. A company must open its bank account, file the declaration of commencement of business within the prescribed period, appoint its first auditor within thirty days of incorporation, and maintain statutory registers and minute books from day one.

Annual obligations then follow: financial statements and the annual return filed with the Registrar of Companies, director KYC each year, board and general meetings with proper records, and income tax and GST returns.

We register newly incorporated businesses for Udyam where eligible, and check DPIIT Startup India recognition, which offers self-certification on certain labour and environmental laws and intellectual property filing benefits for eligible entities.