How much does it actually cost to incorporate and stay compliant in year one, in India vs Delaware?
Budget for the ongoing cost, not just the one-time filing. An Indian Pvt Ltd is cheap to register (roughly 7,000 to 15,000 in government and professional fees) but the real bill is annual: statutory audit, ROC filings, and a company secretary or CA, easily 30,000 to 60,000+ a year even at zero revenue. A Delaware C-corp is a few hundred dollars to form but adds a registered agent, franchise tax, and US federal and state filings that need an accountant. Know the recurring number before you pick a structure.
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This is the year-one Indian Pvt Ltd number laid out line by line, in rupees, from a working CA firm: statutory audit 10,000 to 25,000, ROC professional fee 5,000 to 10,000 for AOC-4 and MGT-7A, ROC government fees 400 to 800, ITR-6 prep 5,000 to 10,000, and DIR-3 KYC for both directors. It lands the whole point: registration is cheap, but the total annual bill is 24,400 to 52,800 even for a small company at low revenue.
A small Pvt Ltd (turnover up to 2 crore) runs 24,400 to 52,800 a year in total compliance, dominated by the mandatory statutory audit, not the one-time registration
Statutory audit is compulsory for every private limited company from rupee one of revenue, unlike a proprietorship or LLP below thresholds
Even a dormant company pays roughly 16,000 a year to stay compliant (audit, AOC-4, MGT-7A, ITR-6), so an idle entity is not a free entity
The mirror image of the India breakdown, and just as itemized: Delaware filing fee 289 (with 10M authorized shares), registered agent 100, then the recurring bill that founders miss, 400 minimum franchise tax on the Assumed Par Value method, 50 annual report, and 1,500 to 3,000 for the Form 1120 federal return. It correctly warns to use the Assumed Par Value method so you pay 400, not a five or six figure franchise tax bill under the default calculation.
Forming is a few hundred dollars, but true annual upkeep is 2,000 to 4,000 once you add the federal 1120 return prep, which needs an accountant
The 400 minimum franchise tax only holds if you elect the Assumed Par Value method; the default Authorized Shares method on 10M shares can bill you tens of thousands
A registered agent is not optional and recurs every year, a line Indian founders forming remotely almost always forget to budget
The side-by-side an Indian founder actually needs: a compliance matrix and a 5-year cost table for both entities, written from the dual-jurisdiction reality most Indian founders live in. Its sharpest point is counterintuitive: a US entity has fewer entity-level filings, but an Indian resident owner ends up with MORE total obligations because you stack US filings (5472, state report, registered agent) on top of Indian ones (FEMA, Schedule FA, 15CA/15CB).
A US entity looks lighter on paper (300 to 800 a year) but an India-resident owner adds FEMA reporting, Schedule FA, and 15CA/15CB on the Indian side, so the real filing load is US plus India, not US instead of India
India Pvt Ltd carries the heavier standalone burden: 4 mandatory board meetings a year, statutory audit, and ROC filings that a US LLC simply does not require
Pick the structure by where your team, investors, and revenue sit; the recurring compliance stack, not the formation fee, is what you are signing up for
