REGISTERED OFFICE
Yes, you can use your home. Here is what that actually commits you to.
The Companies Act does not require a commercial address, and it never has. What it requires is an address that can receive a summons, hold your registers and be found by an inspector who did not call ahead. The portal lists this as INC-22 and leaves you to work out the rest.
REGISTERED OFFICE · WHERE, AND WHAT IT COSTS
The one incorporation input you actually choose
Capital, entity type and directors are set by the business. The State your registered office sits in is a decision — and it changes the stamp duty you pay to incorporate, sometimes by thousands of rupees between neighbours. Pick a capital, then sweep the board.
Rs 41 cheapest Rs 15,025 dearest, at Rs 10,00,000 capital
This is a schematic, not a map. Tiles show which States exist and roughly where they sit relative to each other — nothing here depicts a boundary. India’s external boundaries may only be published as the Survey of India draws them, and an approximate outline is the wrong thing for a prototype to guess at. Equal tiles also give Goa, Delhi and Lakshadweep the same target as Rajasthan, which a real map does not.
Karnataka
Rs 1,520payable to government to incorporate, at Rs 10,00,000 authorised capital
| MCA registration feeNil. No MCA registration fee is payable on SPICe+ where nominal share capital is Rs 15,00,000 or less. At Rs 10,00,000 you are inside that ceiling. | Rs 0 |
|---|---|
| Stamp duty on the incorporation form | Rs 20 |
| Stamp duty on the Memorandum | Rs 1,000 |
| Stamp duty on the Articles | Rs 500 |
| Digital signature certificates | Rs 1,000 – Rs 2,500 |
| Professional certification | Rs 3,000 – Rs 15,000 |
The next rupee that changes this total is at Rs 10,00,001 of authorised capital, where it becomes Rs 2,020.
- Widely republished as a flat Rs 500 on both documents. The MCA schedule says Rs 1,000 on the MoA and Rs 500 for every Rs 10,00,000 of authorised capital on the AoA. This engine follows the schedule.
- Section 8 companies pay nil stamp duty on the MoA and AoA in most States and are not computed here.
Your Registrar
- Registrar of Companies, Bangalore'E' Wing, 2nd Floor, Kendriya Sadana, Kormangala, Bangalore-560034, Karnatakaroc.bangalore@mca.gov.in
Computed at render by the same engine /fees runs, rule set mca-fees-2026.08.1. Stamp duty from State-wise stamp duty rules for eForm INC-2 / INC-7 / INC-29, MoA, AoA, SH-7 and FC-1. Registrar jurisdiction from Ministry of Corporate Affairs — Contact Us: Registrar of Companies, retrieved 2026-08-28. What legally counts as a registered office →
6 days of continuing default x Rs 1,000/day = Rs 6,000 for the company. The same amount runs separately against each of the 2 officers in default, so the exposure across everyone is Rs 18,000.
What the address has to be able to do
- It can receive and acknowledge postThe Registrar, the tax department and any litigant serve documents here. An address that cannot sign for a letter is how a company finds out it lost a case it never heard about.
- It can hold the statutory registers, and lockThe register of members, minute books and books of account are kept at the registered office and must be producible on inspection.
- An inspector arriving unannounced would find the company therePhysical verification happens. Penalties under s.12(1) have been imposed where the Registrar visited and found no trace of the company at the address on record.
- The name is displayed outside itSection 12(3) requires the company name painted or affixed outside the office, legibly, and in the local language as well as English. Rarely done, and it is a s.12(8) default like any other.
What you have to produce
- A utility bill for the addressno older than 2 months
Electricity, telephone, gas or water, showing the same address. This is the document most often rejected, because the copy people have is too old.
- Proof that someone owns the place
The title deed, or a notarised copy. It establishes who is entitled to give permission.
- The rent agreement, in the company nameno older than 1 month
With a rent receipt. The receipt has a tighter freshness window than the utility bill, which is the trap: people bring a two-month-old receipt because that is what the bill allows.
- A no-objection certificate from the owner
Written permission to use the premises as the registered office. Needed whenever the company does not own the place — including when the owner is your own parent.
The freshness trap. The utility bill may be two months old. The rent receipt may only be one. People bring both at two months, and the filing is rejected on the receipt.
Moving it later costs four different amounts of effort
Founders pick an address assuming a move is a form. Whether it is depends entirely on which boundary the new address sits across.
Rule set mca-registered-office-2026.08.1 · computed as at 6 Sept 2026. Basis: Companies Act 2013 s.12(1) and s.12(4); penalty under s.12(8), adjudicated under s.454. Confirm on the MCA portal before filing. Open INC-22 on MCA