OIDAR services in India — where does doing it myself start to cost money?
Some of it, yes — and we will say so on the call if that is the honest answer. The parts that are worth paying for are the ones where a missed election, a missed deadline or an unverified threshold costs more than the fee: the supplier registers, charges tax on consumer sales and files periodic returns; business customers are generally handled under reverse charge instead.
What if I have already filed and got it wrong?
That is a common starting point. We re-derive the position, identify whether an amendment or a disclosure route is the right vehicle, and tell you which one preserves the relief that is still available. The order matters more than the speed.
How long will it take?
It depends on the documents rather than on us. Once the pack is complete most filings turn around inside a fortnight; anything that needs a certificate from a tax authority runs on that authority's timetable, which we tell you at the start rather than at the end.
Do I need to register in India to sell software subscriptions there?
If you supply digital services to Indian consumers from outside India, the OIDAR regime is where to start. It taxes a foreign supplier on sales to Indian consumers, and the definition is drawn broadly enough to cover most automated digital delivery — which is exactly what a self-serve subscription is. Where it applies, the supplier registers, charges tax on consumer sales and files periodic returns. Sales to Indian businesses are generally handled differently, under reverse charge. So the registration question is really two questions: does the service fall inside the definition, and who are your customers?
What actually counts as an OIDAR service?
The definition targets services delivered over a network with minimal human intervention — delivery that is essentially automated. That sweeps in far more than the obvious cases, and suppliers who think of themselves as selling something quite different often find their product inside it. The harder questions sit at the margins, where a person is involved in delivery: a service is not automated merely because it is ordered through a website, and it is not manual merely because someone answers support tickets. Classification of the service, and of the customer, is the whole determination, so document the conclusion rather than assuming it.
My Indian customers are businesses. Do I still have to charge tax?
Generally not in the same way. Business customers are usually handled under reverse charge, which puts the accounting obligation on the Indian recipient rather than on you. That makes customer classification the load-bearing fact: a supplier selling only to registered businesses is in a very different position from one selling to consumers, and most suppliers have some of both. What you need is a reliable way of establishing which category a customer falls into at the time of sale, and a record of it. Getting that wrong in the consumer direction leaves you owing tax you never collected.
How do I tell a business customer from a consumer in India?
By what you collect at checkout and what you then do with it. In practice that means capturing the customer's tax registration details where they have them, having a rule for what happens when they do not, and applying that rule consistently. It also means deciding what evidence you keep, because the classification has to be defensible later rather than only at the moment of sale. Many suppliers already hold the data in their billing system and have never used it to split the ledger. That split is usually the first piece of work, because the rest of the analysis rests on it.
What does an OIDAR registration actually oblige me to do?
Three things, continuously: charge tax on the sales that fall within the regime, file the periodic returns when they are due, and keep records that let each return be traced back to the underlying transactions. The obligation is ongoing rather than a single event, so the practical question is who inside your business will run it each period, and from which report. Suppliers who register without settling that end up filing late, or filing from figures nobody can reconstruct afterwards. We prefer to set the process up alongside the registration for that reason.
I have sold into India for years without registering. What now?
Start by establishing whether the regime actually applied, and from when — which means classifying the service and splitting the customer base between consumers and businesses for the periods concerned. The exposure on consumer sales is a different thing from the position on business sales handled under reverse charge, so the figure is rarely as large as total Indian revenue suggests. Once the position is quantified on evidence, the options can be weighed properly. Doing it in that order, rather than registering first and working it out afterwards, tends to produce a smaller and better-supported outcome.
What is a DTAA?
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement — India's name for a tax treaty. It does the same work as any treaty: allocates taxing rights between India and the other country, caps Indian withholding on payments abroad, and sets out whether relief comes by exemption or by credit. To use one you generally need a tax residency certificate from the other country, Form 10F, and a PAN in the deductor's records. See DTAA relief between India and Canada.
How is foreign tax credit claimed in India?
By furnishing Form 67 with proof of the foreign tax — the certificate or statement from the other country's authority or payer — and by relieving the income under the specific DTAA article rather than generally. The credit is limited to the Indian tax on that income, and it is computed source by source rather than in one pool. The deadline for furnishing Form 67 has been amended more than once, so we confirm it for the year rather than assume. See foreign tax credit in India.
