Selling your founder shares is a capital gains event, and the details matter a lot. Broadly, your gain is the sale price minus your cost (what you paid, or the value already taxed if the shares came from ESOPs), and it is taxed as long or short term capital gains depending on how long you held. Shares in an unlisted company follow different holding period and rate rules than listed ones, and a secondary can interact with the ESOP perquisite tax you may already have paid. This is exactly the situation to model with a CA before you sign, because the structure and timing can change the number meaningfully.
3 resources, 3 India-specific, 3 link-checked.
The India-specific piece: perquisite tax at exercise, capital gains at sale, and the startup deferral, with worked examples in rupees.
From ClearTax by ClearTax
Open cleartax.in →The India reference on short vs long term capital gains, holding periods, and rates for equity, funds, and property, so you know the tax before you sell.
From ClearTax by ClearTax
Open cleartax.in →Zerodha Varsity free module on how investment income is taxed in India: capital gains, holding periods, and turnover, in plain language.
From Zerodha Varsity by Zerodha Varsity
Open zerodha.com →
