India

No. Hart David Carson does not practice Indian law and does not maintain an office in India. Our role is facilitation and partner-network coordination: we frame the cross-border objective, introduce vetted, locally admitted Indian counsel, chartered accountants and company secretaries, and manage the workstream from the client side. All Indian-law advice, FEMA filings and registry submissions are delivered by locally admitted professionals.

Most form a private limited company under the Companies Act 2013, registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; a limited liability partnership is the alternative. Liaison, branch and project offices suit defined activities, and GIFT City offers an International Financial Services Centre regime. In practice, the sector decides the timetable: an automatic-route sector can be capitalized once the entity exists, while a government-route sector needs approval before the money moves. Local counsel determine the route under the consolidated FDI policy.

Inbound capital and the repatriation of dividends and capital are governed by the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), administered by the Reserve Bank of India, together with the consolidated FDI policy. Remittances require documentation and, in many cases, tax clearance, and certain sectors require prior government approval. FEMA-sensitive steps should be sequenced carefully with locally admitted counsel before capital moves.

Yes, with the right registration. A domestic fund is a SEBI-regulated Category I, II or III Alternative Investment Fund, and listed-market access requires Foreign Portfolio Investor registration. GIFT City is India's International Financial Services Centre, regulated by the IFSCA, with its own fund and financial-services regime and targeted tax incentives for qualifying activities. In practice, the choice turns on the investor base and running cost. We introduce SEBI- and IFSCA-experienced counsel and administrators; the licensing and filings are theirs.

Corporate tax runs around 22% to 25%, with concessional rates for qualifying new manufacturing, and capital gains and dividend taxation apply alongside GST and withholding. An extensive treaty network mitigates cross-border friction, subject to the General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR). India implements the CRS and FATCA, and GIFT City offers targeted incentives. In practice, GAAR means the holding jurisdiction needs real substance, so model treaty positioning and GAAR exposure with local tax advisers before the structure is fixed.

Hart David Carson LLP helps structure the inbound or holding layer, assemble and coordinate a vetted bench of Indian counsel, chartered accountants, company secretaries and banking relationships, and manage the cross-border process from the client side, including the FEMA-sensitive and approval-driven steps. Engagements with central and state authorities are documentation-intensive and process-led; we keep that workstream organized while the substantive Indian-law work stays with local professionals.