What does it actually cost to set up an India subsidiary?

Statutory costs — SPICe+ filing fees, stamp duty on the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and PAN/TAN issuance — are modest and largely fixed, though stamp duty scales with the company's authorised share capital and varies by state.

The larger, more variable cost is professional fees: structuring advice on the right entity type and holding jurisdiction, drafting shareholder/subscriber documents, FEMA compliance for the foreign investment, and post-incorporation registrations (GST, PF/ESI if hiring staff, sector-specific licenses). A simple single-promoter subsidiary costs meaningfully less than a multi-shareholder structure with FDI reporting, treaty considerations, and sector-specific approvals.