What legal and financial housekeeping do I need done in the first 30 days after I quit?
The short answer
Do not let the first weeks of freedom become a paperwork landmine: within 30 days, decide your entity (a private limited company is the default if you intend to raise, an LLP or proprietorship if you are bootstrapping services), and register for GST only once you must. Sort your relieving letter, ESOP exercise, and any full-and-final dues from the old job in writing, open a separate business bank account so personal and company money never mix, and put a plain founder agreement or vesting schedule in place with any co-founder before a rupee of revenue arrives. Boring paperwork done early is what stops a real fight later.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 3 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeBeginner
Why we picked it
This is the government's own checklist, so it settles the entity question straight: Pvt Ltd if you plan to raise (investors cannot hold shares in an LLP), LLP or OPC if you are bootstrapping services. It walks the same first-weeks moves the answer names (MCA incorporation, DPIIT recognition to unlock tax and IP benefits, GST once you cross the threshold, sector licenses) from the source that defines them, not a reseller's blog.
Why we picked it
The single clearest explanation of the two documents Indian founders confuse: the founders' agreement (equity, vesting, roles, IP, departure, signed at or before incorporation) versus the shareholders' agreement (investor voting rights, drag/tag, reserved matters, signed at your raise). It nails the timing rule that trips people up: sign before shares are issued, because you cannot bolt vesting onto already-issued shares without every founder consenting. It is blunt that IP a founder built before incorporation belongs to that founder personally until a formal IP Assignment moves it to the company, which is exactly what breaks a diligence during your first term sheet.
Founders' agreement governs the co-founder relationship; the shareholders' agreement layers in investor protections later, they are not the same document
Sign at or before incorporation and always before shares are issued, or vesting cannot be applied retroactively
Pre-incorporation IP stays with the individual founder until a formal IP Assignment Agreement transfers it to the company
Why we picked it
Once you have negotiated the pool size, this is the guide that stops the pool from becoming a tax trap for the very employees it rewards. It walks the full Indian lifecycle (no tax at grant or vesting, perquisite tax at exercise on the FMV-minus-exercise-price spread, capital gains at sale) and explains the DPIIT deferral that lets recognised startups push the exercise-stage perquisite tax out (48 months pre-April 2026, 60 months under the new regime), plus the Category I merchant banker FMV valuation you actually need.
ESOPs are taxed twice in India: as a salary perquisite at exercise (on the FMV minus exercise price spread) and again as capital gains at sale, with FMV at exercise becoming the cost base.
A low exercise price widens the taxable spread at exercise, so the exercise price is a deliberate design lever, not an afterthought.
DPIIT-recognised startups can defer the exercise-stage perquisite tax (up to 48 or 60 months depending on the regime), which is the single biggest lever for making the pool actually valuable to employees.
