International Company Registration
Indian businesses incorporate abroad for three reasons: to invoice overseas customers in their own currency, to hold intellectual property closer to their market, or because a distributor or platform will not contract with an Indian entity. The overseas incorporation is only half the job. The Indian side, an Overseas Direct Investment filing with your bank under FEMA, is the half people forget.
Choosing a jurisdiction
Pick for where your customers and your banking are, not for the headline tax rate. A structure you cannot open a bank account for is worth nothing.
- Selling into the Gulf: a UAE company. Mainland if you need to trade inside the UAE market, a free zone if you are invoicing outside it. Both now allow full foreign ownership.
- Selling to enterprise customers in Asia: Singapore. Full foreign ownership and S$1 minimum capital, but the law requires at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore at all times.
- Raising US venture capital or selling to US companies: a Delaware C-Corporation. Selling services without raising money: an LLC is usually simpler and cheaper.
- Trading in Europe: the UK is the fastest and cheapest to form with no minimum capital, while a German GmbH carries a €25,000 share capital requirement and mandatory notarisation.
- Check the residency rule before you commit. Singapore, Australia and New Zealand each require a locally resident director, and Sweden requires half the board to reside in the EEA. That is an ongoing obligation, not a formality at registration.
- Every one of these needs substance. Regulators and banks both look for a real office, real activity and clean KYC before they will open an account.
International Business Setup Services (16)
Frequently Asked Questions
Official sources
The rules, rates and deadlines described here are set by the government and do change. This is where they are officially published:
- Reserve Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India
Other Service Categories
Setting up abroad?
Free consultation. Tell us what your business does and we'll tell you exactly what applies.