Legal Compliances for Software Companies in India

Software Companies: –

Software Companies are companies that deal with the maintenance, development and/or publication of software that are either cloud based or maintenance/license (on premise) based. Microsoft, Cisco etc.

There are two types of software company: –

1. Service or Consulting Based Software Company, i.e., TCS, Wipro

2. Product or Development Based Software Company i.e., Amazon, Microsoft.

For Incorporating a Technology based Company/ Software company following procedure is followed: –

1) Registration

a) Under the Companies Act, 2013 a company is required to be registered to conduct business in India. Software companies operate online and thus will have to be registered to be able to sell any software (good or service).

b) It may be Partnership Firm, LLP, Private limited Company, One Person Company (OPC).

2) While incorporating a software company, it has to identify its directors first.

The number of directors should be between 2 and 8 inclusive, but not to be lesser or greater than that.

(The identity proof may be PAN card, Passport, DL or

Voter ‘s ID and the address proof may be DL, Ration Card, EB bill, Passport or Telephone bill.)

3) One has to give a brief description of the business like the type of product, field, target and the type of technology which you’re going to use. You have to mention everything related to that software like how it will be developed and supply to the market, etc.

4) Register your software company under ROC. While registering it is necessary to file an application to the same office where the head office is situated.

5) Obtaining a STPI (Software Technology Parks India) licenses:

The STPI licenses are meant exclusively for new software companies operating in India and provide them with several benefits like zero taxes for 5 years and no export or import duty for hardware and software products. These license holders can also avail office spaces at lower than usual rate.

6) Other common License and Legal Registration For open a Software Company in India: –

a) GST Registration

b) Trademark Registration to Protect Your Brand Name.

c) Copyright Registration on Your Source Codes

d) Patent Registration on Technology

e) Software License Agreements

7) Documents required to Register Finance company: –

a) Director’s/Shareholder’s KYC and income proof

b) Director’s Education/Professional qualification proof, along with proof of the work experience in the field of the  financial services sector.

c) Net-Worth Certificate of the Directors, Shareholders and the Company.

d) Latest Credit Report of the Directors and the Shareholders.

e) MOA & AOA of the NBFC depicting the Financial/ Investment/ Lending business.

f) Company Incorporation Certificate.

g) Obtain a Banker’s Certificate of No Lien supporting Net Owned Funds (NOF) of Rs 5 Cr.

h) Banker’s Report about the Company and its group.

i) A detailed action plan about the Loan Products, Fair Practice Code, Credit and Risk Assessment Policy.

j) Organization’s Structure Plan.

k) Decision-making process for Approval or Rejection of a Loan Application.

l) Board Resolution passed in favor of NBFC formation.

8) In case of NBFCs Capital Requirement is as follows: –

NBFC’s are governed by the (RBI) and require a minimum capital of Rs.2 crore (5 crores in case of microfinance) to start with.

9) Time Period involve to Register a company with RBI: –

Further getting the RBI license is a huge task and takes almost 5 months to gets the complete procedure done.