Article · 15 min read

Startup Compliance Guide: What Every Founder Should Know

Razorpay Rize Free Beginner India

Where the ClearTax piece is the hiring checklist, this Razorpay Rize guide gives you the whole compliance surface your first hire sits inside: it states the PF threshold (20+ employees earning below Rs 15,000/month), the ESI trigger (10+ employees), TDS with quarterly returns, and, crucially for a first employee, the contracts-and-IP section that spells out NDAs plus IP assignment clauses so the work belongs to the company. It connects the employment paperwork to the MCA, tax, and cap-table obligations a founder is juggling at the same time.

  • PF is mandatory at 20+ employees earning below Rs 15,000/month; ESI kicks in at 10+ employees, so know exactly which threshold you are near before you promise anyone a start date
  • NDAs and IP assignment clauses are called out as core startup compliance, this is how you keep an early hire's work from leaving with them
  • Payroll TDS and EPFO/ESI filings are recurring obligations, not one-time registrations, so set the cadence up front
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The question it answers

  1. What paperwork and compliance do I need in place before my first employee's start date in India?

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