What a Private Limited Company Actually Costs in Tamil Nadu in 2026

Four of the top five search results quote you Rs. 999. None of them are lying, exactly. They are quoting one line of a bill that has six lines. Here is the whole bill.

Four of the top five search results for this question quote you Rs. 999.

None of them are lying, exactly. They are quoting one line of a bill that has six lines. The other five lines appear after you have paid the first one.

This article is the whole bill.

The short answer

Registering a Private Limited company in Tamil Nadu with two directors and Rs. 1 lakh authorised capital costs between Rs. 4,631 and Rs. 7,631 in hard costs before anyone does any professional work for you.

That figure is not a fee we charge. It is money that leaves your hands regardless of who you hire, or whether you hire anybody at all and do it yourself.

Add professional fees on top and the realistic all-in number is Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 25,000 depending on who you use.

We charge Rs. 7,999, all inclusive, and we will show you exactly where that goes.

The itemised cost

Standard case: two directors, Rs. 1 lakh authorised capital, registered office in Tamil Nadu.

Look at where the money actually goes. The government charges you almost nothing. The MCA waived the incorporation filing fee for small companies, DIN comes free, PAN and TAN together cost Rs. 131.

The two real costs are stamp duty, which is a state tax, and Digital Signature Certificates, which are bought from a private certifying authority and have nothing to do with the government at all.

Which is why an advertised price of Rs. 999 cannot be complete. Rs. 999 does not cover two DSCs. It does not cover stamp duty. It covers a fraction of one line.

The Rs. 999 arithmetic

If a firm advertises Rs. 999 plus government fees, your actual outgoing is:

Rs. 999 professional fee, plus Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000 for DSCs, plus Rs. 1,500 stamp duty, plus Rs. 131 PAN and TAN, plus Rs. 1,000 name reservation if it is charged separately.

Real total: Rs. 6,630 to Rs. 8,630.

Discovered after you have committed.

Our Rs. 7,999 sits inside that range. The difference is that it is the number you see at the start, and there is no second number.

We are not claiming to be cheaper. We are claiming to be finished. Those are different things and only one of them is worth advertising.

The thing nobody tells you about stamp duty

Stamp duty on the MOA and AOA is charged by the state where your registered office sits, not where you live or work. The rates are wildly different.

At Rs. 1 lakh authorised capital, the difference between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka is a few hundred rupees. Nobody should move states over that.

But watch what happens as capital rises. Tamil Nadu charges a percentage. Karnataka charges a flat fee. At Rs. 10 lakh authorised capital you are paying roughly Rs. 10,000 in Tamil Nadu and still Rs. 500 in Karnataka.

This matters if you are choosing your authorised capital carelessly. Many founders declare Rs. 10 lakh or Rs. 25 lakh authorised capital because it sounds more impressive. In Tamil Nadu that decision costs you real money on day one, for no benefit whatsoever.

Authorised capital is simply the ceiling on shares you are allowed to issue. It is not money you must put in the bank. There is no minimum. You can start at Rs. 1 lakh and raise it later with a Form SH-7 filing when you actually need the headroom.

Start low. Raise it when an investor requires it. That advice costs us nothing today and saves you thousands.

What goes wrong

Name rejection. The MCA rejects names for resemblance to existing companies or trademarks, for restricted words, and for object clauses that do not match the proposed name. Each rejection costs another Rs. 1,000 if filed through RUN separately, and stamp duty already paid is not refundable.

Wrong object clause. The MOA sets out what your company is permitted to do. Draft it too narrowly and you need an alteration, with fees and a board process, the first time you expand. Draft it as generic boilerplate and banks and investors will query it.

Missing INC-20A. This is the one that actually destroys companies. Within 180 days of incorporation you must file a Declaration of Commencement of Business. Miss it and your company cannot legally commence business, and it faces strike-off proceedings. It is the single most common post-incorporation default in India, and it happens because the firm that registered the company took its fee and disappeared.

Not appointing an auditor. Within 30 days of incorporation the board must appoint a statutory auditor and file ADT-1. Also routinely missed.

When you should not register a Private Limited company

This is the section our competitors will not write.

Do not register a Pvt Ltd if you are testing an idea. A Private Limited company carries annual compliance costing roughly Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 50,000 a year in filings, audit and professional fees, whether or not you earn a single rupee. If you do not yet know that the business works, that is money set on fire.

Register as an MSME under Udyam instead. It is free, it takes a day, it gives you a business identity, and it makes you eligible for priority sector lending and government schemes. Get GST when you cross the threshold. Come back to us for a Pvt Ltd when someone asks to see a cap table.

Do not register a Pvt Ltd if you are a solo consultant with no funding plans. An LLP or even a One Person Company gives you limited liability with lighter compliance. A Pvt Ltd exists mainly to hold outside shareholders. If nobody else is holding shares, you are paying for a structure you are not using.

Do not register a Pvt Ltd purely because it sounds credible. Clients care about GST registration and a bank account in the business name far more than they care about your suffix.

The honest test is this: is there a reasonable chance someone will buy equity in this business within 24 months? If yes, register a Pvt Ltd now, because converting later is more expensive and more disruptive than starting correctly. If no, wait.

What happens after incorporation

The certificate is the start of the obligations, not the end of them.

Budget roughly Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 50,000 a year for this depending on transaction volume. A firm that quotes you Rs. 999 to register and never mentions this is not being economical with the truth. It is being economical with information you needed before you decided.

What changed recently

• SPICe+ filing fee is nil for authorised capital up to Rs. 15 lakh. This was not always the case and much older content still quotes a fee.
• DIN is now allotted inside SPICe+ at no separate charge for up to three directors.
• PAN and TAN are auto-allotted through the same form.

Net effect: incorporation got substantially cheaper on the government side. Most of what you pay now is stamp duty, DSCs and professional fees.

Figures verified as at August 2026 against the MCA fee schedule and Tamil Nadu stamp duty rates. Stamp duty is subject to state notification and can change.

What we charge, and what it covers

Rs. 7,999, all inclusive. Two directors, up to Rs. 1 lakh authorised capital.

That covers name reservation, both DSCs, MOA and AOA drafting, SPICe+ filing, stamp duty, PAN and TAN, and the incorporation certificate. There is no second invoice.

Additional directors are Rs. 1,999 each, because each needs a DSC. Higher authorised capital is charged at actual stamp duty, because that is a state tax we pass through at cost rather than marking up.

If your case is unusual, a foreign director, an unconventional object clause, a name likely to be contested, tell us before you pay. We would rather quote you correctly than surprise you later.

Not sure a Private Limited company is right for you yet? Talk to a qualified CA, CS or CFO for 30 minutes for Rs. 249. If the honest answer is that you should not incorporate this year, we will tell you that, and the fee is credited against anything you do book with us within 30 days.