BEYOND THE REGISTRAR

What else binds you

A company is registered once and regulated by several authorities for the rest of its life. Everything on this page is someone else’s counter — not the Registrar’s, and not this service’s. It is here because the obligations a founder discovers late are almost never the company-law ones.

WHAT THIS PAGE DOES

Names the obligation, names the authority that actually runs it, and says what triggers it. That is all, deliberately.

WHAT IT DOES NOT DO

Register, apply, file, pay or estimate anything. No figure on this page is computed here, unlike every rupee figure on /compliance and /fees.

HOW MUCH IS KNOWN

5 of 14 entries state a trigger checked against the governing rule and cite it. The rest name the obligation and its authority and say so. Thresholds move by notification — confirm the current one with the authority before you rely on it.

The day you hire someone

These are the obligations most often discovered late, because incorporation does not trigger them — the first employee does. MCA registers the first two of them for you inside SPICe+, through the AGILE-PRO-S form.

Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)

RULE CHECKED

Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, Ministry of Labour and Employment

What triggers it: An establishment employing twenty or more persons. Below that, an employer and its employees may still come in voluntarily, and once in, coverage continues even if the headcount later falls.
Why it matters: Both the employee’s contribution and the employer’s are the employer’s liability to deposit. Arrears attract interest and damages, and the liability is personal to the officers in default.

Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, s.1(3)

Source record for Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation

Employees’ State Insurance (ESI)

RULE CHECKED

Employees’ State Insurance Corporation

What triggers it: Ten or more employees in most States — some States apply it to shops and establishments at twenty — and it covers employees earning up to a monthly wage ceiling. Both the count and the ceiling are set by notification and are revised; confirm the current figures with ESIC before relying on them.
Why it matters: It is medical and cash-benefit cover for the employee, funded by contributions from both sides. An uncovered employee who needed it is the failure that is not recoverable later.

Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, s.1(5) and the State notifications under it

Source record for Employees’ State Insurance Corporation

Shops and establishment registration

NAMED ONLY

The labour department or municipal authority of the State where the premises are

What triggers it: Operating premises. This is State law, so the form, the fee, the renewal cycle and even the name of the registration differ by State — and in several States it is issued by the municipality rather than the labour department.
Why it matters: It is frequently the registration a bank, a landlord or a marketplace asks to see, and the one nobody thinks of because it is not central.

Source record for The labour department or municipal authority of the State where the premises are

Professional tax

NAMED ONLY

The commercial tax or revenue department of the State

What triggers it: Employing people in a State that levies it. Several States and Union Territories do not levy professional tax at all, and among those that do the slabs and the registration duties differ.
Why it matters: Where it applies, the employer both registers and deducts. It is small money and a common source of a first notice.

Source record for The commercial tax or revenue department of the State

Tax, which is a different department entirely

The additional fee computed here is the Companies Act fee for company filings. None of it applies to anything below, and the deadlines below are not on any MCA clock.

GST registration

NAMED ONLY

Goods and Services Tax Network, and the tax administration of your State

What triggers it: Turnover above the registration threshold — which differs for goods and for services, and again for special-category States — or falling into one of the compulsory-registration categories regardless of turnover, such as inter-State supply or supply through an e-commerce operator.
Why it matters: Incorporation does not register you for GST. Compulsory categories catch small businesses that assumed a turnover threshold protected them.

Source record for Goods and Services Tax Network

TAN, and tax deducted at source

NAMED ONLY

Income Tax Department

What triggers it: Being required to deduct tax at source — which for most companies begins with the first salary, rent or professional fee paid.
Why it matters: TDS is deducted from someone else’s money and held. Late deposit and late returns carry their own interest, fee and penalty, none of which is the MCA additional fee.

Source record for Income Tax Department

Corporate income tax return

NAMED ONLY

Income Tax Department

What triggers it: Existing. A company files a return whether or not it traded.
Why it matters: Company-law filing and tax filing are separate systems with separate deadlines and separate penalties. Filing AOC-4 does not file anything with the Income Tax Department.

Source record for Income Tax Department

Standards and certification, which the Ministry does not issue

This group is here because founders ask about it constantly and because the answer is genuinely "not us". Nothing below is granted, administered or recognised by MCA, and nothing below can be obtained through this prototype.

ISO 9001 quality management certification

RULE CHECKED

A certification body accredited by NABCB under the Quality Council of India. ISO itself writes the standard and certifies nobody.

What triggers it: Voluntary. In practice it becomes effectively mandatory when a customer, an exporter’s buyer or a tender condition requires it — which is usually how a company first hears of it.
Why it matters: It is a management-system certification, audited against ISO 9001, not a government licence and not a product approval. Choosing an unaccredited certifier is the common and expensive mistake: check the certifier’s accreditation before paying anyone.

Accreditation scheme operated by NABCB, Quality Council of India

Source record for A certification body accredited by NABCB under the Quality Council of India. ISO itself writes the standard and certifies nobody.

BIS certification and the ISI mark

RULE CHECKED

Bureau of Indian Standards

What triggers it: Making or importing a product covered by a Quality Control Order or by the Compulsory Registration Scheme. For those products it is mandatory, and it is a condition of sale rather than a mark of quality you opt into.
Why it matters: Unlike ISO 9001 this is law for the products it covers, and the list of covered products has grown steadily. It is also the one most often confused with ISO certification.

Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016, and the Quality Control Orders issued under it

Source record for Bureau of Indian Standards

FSSAI licence or registration

NAMED ONLY

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

What triggers it: Any food business — manufacture, storage, transport, distribution or sale. The tier (registration, State licence or Central licence) follows turnover and scale.
Why it matters: It is a condition of operating at all, not a credential, and it is checked.

Source record for Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

Recognitions worth having, which nobody requires

None of these binds you. Each unlocks something specific, and each is free and applied for directly — the paid look-alike portals that appear above them in search results are not the authority.

Udyam registration (MSME)

NAMED ONLY

Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

What triggers it: Classification as a micro, small or medium enterprise on investment and turnover. Registration is free and self-declared on the official portal.
Why it matters: It is the gateway to delayed-payment protection, priority-sector lending and several procurement preferences. It also has a direct company-law consequence: dues owed to a registered micro or small enterprise are what the MSME half-yearly return to the Registrar reports.

Source record for Ministry of Micro

DPIIT startup recognition

NAMED ONLY

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

What triggers it: An entity within the eligible age and turnover limits, working on innovation or a scalable model. Holding and subsidiary companies are excluded.
Why it matters: Self-certification under several labour and environment laws, IP support and procurement relaxations follow from it. The published FAQ reads less restrictively than the guidelines on the holding-company exclusion — the conflict is flagged here rather than resolved by picking a side.

Source record for Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

Importer Exporter Code (IEC)

NAMED ONLY

Directorate General of Foreign Trade

What triggers it: Importing or exporting, with provisions differing for goods, services, technology and exempt categories.
Why it matters: Without it a consignment does not clear. It also needs an annual confirmation to stay live.

Source record for Directorate General of Foreign Trade

Trade mark registration

RULE CHECKED

Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks

What triggers it: Wanting exclusive rights in a brand name or mark, in the classes you actually trade in.
Why it matters: An approved company name is not a trade mark and confers no rights in the brand. The two are examined by different authorities against different tests — which is why every name result here says the trade marks register was not checked.

Trade Marks Act, 1999

Source record for Controller General of Patents

MCA already does part of this, and does it properly

SPICe+ carries a linked form, AGILE-PRO-S, which registers EPF and ESI alongside incorporation and can open a bank account and a profession-tax registration in the same submission. That is a real one-stop and this prototype does not reproduce it — the incorporation flow here ends at a simulated CIN and its first filing obligation. Anyone incorporating for real should complete AGILE-PRO-S at the same time rather than coming back to these counters separately later.