Employer of Record · India
Kokoro Vision LLP becomes the legal employer for the people you hire in India. You direct the work. We carry the contract, the payroll, the provident fund, the tax deductions and every state filing that follows — so you can start hiring before you ever register a company here.
Kokoro means “heart and mind together.” Compliance, done with both.
First time hearing the term?
You, us, and your hire — a clean triangle.
An Employer of Record is a licensed local company that hires employees on behalf of a business that has no legal entity in that country. The EOR signs the employment contract, runs payroll, deposits the statutory contributions and files the returns; the client company directs the day-to-day work exactly as it would with any of its own staff.
In India, the employer's statutory surface is wide — provident fund, ESI, gratuity, professional tax, TDS on salary, state Shops and Establishments law, POSH, bonus and leave rules that differ by state. An EOR exists so that a foreign company can put someone to work in India in days, with all of that carried by a firm that already holds the registrations.
Use an EOR when: you are hiring your first 1–25 people in India, testing the market before committing to a subsidiary, converting long-standing contractors into employees, or bridging the 8–14 weeks it takes to incorporate your own entity.
Skip the EOR when: your India headcount is already large, India will hold your IP and product development permanently, or a regulator in your industry requires you to employ directly. In those cases we set up the entity instead — and say so upfront.
What we do
Most clients start with a single vertical and add the rest as the team grows. Everything runs off a single agreement and a single monthly invoice.
We hire your chosen candidate on our rolls under an India-law employment agreement, then second them to work for you full time.
Engage independent professionals in India on properly drafted contracts that hold up against misclassification scrutiny.
Already have an Indian entity? Keep it, and hand us the monthly run — inputs to payslips to challans to returns.
Move money into India cleanly. Funds arrive against a documented services agreement, with the FEMA paperwork already done.
Bring us a role brief instead of a résumé. We shortlist, screen and hand you candidates who are ready to sign.
When the India team outgrows EOR, we incorporate the subsidiary and move every employee across without a break in service.
Who this is for
You found the person; you don't want to found a company to pay them. One agreement with us, a cost sheet before you commit, and your hire starts inside a week — while your cap table, board and auditors see nothing but a vendor invoice.
State-correct contracts, leave policies, insurance from day one and a named contact who answers in your working hours. Offer letters go out under a process you approved once, not one you renegotiate per hire.
Salary, statutory contributions, insurance, our fee and the FX margin — each a separate line, every month, with the FIRC handled at our end. Payroll is funded one month ahead, so there is never a scramble and never a float surprise.
PF, ESI, TDS and state filings run in Kokoro Vision's name. IP assigns to you through an enforceable Indian-law chain. Permanent establishment exposure is assessed per role before onboarding — in writing, so your file shows the diligence.
From signature to first salary
Tell us the role, the city, the salary and the start date. We come back with the fully loaded employer cost, the notice and termination terms, and a fixed monthly fee. No cost appears later that wasn't on that sheet.
You sign a services agreement with Kokoro Vision LLP. We sign an India-law employment agreement with your hire — drafted for their state, with your IP assignment, confidentiality and non-solicit terms carried through.
Documents collected and verified, UAN generated or linked, ESI enrolment where the wage limit applies, bank and PAN validated, insurance activated, laptop shipped if you want us to handle it.
You approve inputs by the 25th. Salaries credit on the 1st. Challans and returns go out on their statutory dates, and you get a compliance pack each month showing exactly what was filed and when.
Employer cost calculator
Salary is not the cost. Provident fund, ESI, gratuity and professional tax sit on top of it, and the split between basic and allowances changes the answer. Move the inputs and watch the real number.
Registrations we hold and returns we file
An Employer of Record is only as good as its filings. Here is the full statutory surface we carry on your behalf, in our name, on our registrations.
The other side of the agreement
Retention starts with how employment feels, not just how it's papered.
Security and data protection
Payroll data is the most personal data a company holds. We process PAN, Aadhaar, bank details and salaries — the exact data set an identity thief wants. So the controls are boring and strict: encryption in transit for every transfer, access limited to the named team working your account, no personal data in email threads where a portal or encrypted channel exists, and written data-processing terms with every subprocessor.
Our privacy programme is built for India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, with a named grievance officer, and we sign GDPR-standard data processing addenda for clients hiring from the EU and UK.
What we will not do: display security badges we have not earned. When our SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit is complete, the certificate will be on this page. Until then, ask us anything about our controls and you will get a straight answer in writing.
EOR or your own subsidiary
We will tell you honestly when EOR stops making sense — and then we will set up the entity and move your team into it.
| Kokoro Vision EOR | Your own Indian subsidiary | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first hire | Days | 8–14 weeks after incorporation and registrations |
| Upfront cost | None | Incorporation, registrations, capital infusion, advisors |
| Who employs the person | Kokoro Vision LLP | Your subsidiary |
| Statutory liability | Sits with us | Sits with your directors |
| Board, ROC and audit obligations | None for you | Annual audit, ROC filings, director KYC, resident director |
| Closing down | Serve notice under the agreement | Strike-off or liquidation, often 12 months or longer |
| Best when | 1–25 employees, or testing the market | 25+ employees, or India becomes a product and IP centre |
Why Kokoro Vision
Most Employer of Record platforms are software companies that subcontract Indian compliance to somebody else. We are the somebody else. Kokoro Vision LLP is run out of Gurugram by practitioners who work on Indian payroll, provident fund and income tax every working day.
That changes three things. Questions get answered by the person who prepared the filing, not by a support queue. Salary structures are designed for the employee's tax position rather than copied from a template. And when a notice arrives from the EPFO or the income tax department, it is handled in-house, at no extra cost, because it is our registration and our name on it.
We work with founders in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the UAE, Australia and across the EU who want an India team without an India problem.
Questions we get on the first call
Using an Employer of Record reduces permanent establishment risk but does not eliminate it. The risk turns on what the India-based person actually does — a support or engineering role carries far less exposure than someone habitually concluding contracts or negotiating prices on your behalf. We assess each role against the business connection tests and the relevant tax treaty before onboarding, and tell you plainly if a role looks exposed. This is an assessment, not a guarantee, and we recommend you confirm it with your own tax advisor in your home country.
You do. The employment agreement we sign with your hire contains a present assignment of all work product to Kokoro Vision LLP, and our services agreement with you assigns it onward to you. Confidentiality and invention-assignment clauses are drafted to be enforceable under Indian law, which matters more than importing a US template that an Indian court would read down.
If the candidate is identified and documents are ready, onboarding is typically complete within 48 hours of both agreements being signed. The usual delay is not us — it is the notice period the candidate owes their current employer, which in India is commonly 30 to 90 days.
Indian employment is terminable on notice, but the notice period, the settlement and the documentation have to be right, and the position differs for workmen and for employees covered by state Shops and Establishments Acts. We manage the process, compute the full and final settlement including leave encashment and gratuity where payable, and issue the relieving and experience letters. You give us the commercial decision; we handle the execution.
Yes, and it is often the right move. Long-running contractor relationships where the person works fixed hours under your direction carry misclassification risk. We review the current arrangement, price the employment cost, agree a transition date and onboard them onto our rolls, with continuity of pay and no gap in their income.
You are invoiced monthly in your home currency — USD, GBP, EUR, SGD or AED — against a services agreement. Funds are received as an inward remittance with the FEMA documentation completed at our end, including the FIRC. Salaries are then disbursed in rupees on the 1st. Our fee and the FX margin are both stated on the invoice; nothing is buried in the exchange rate.
All of them. We hire and run payroll across every Indian state and union territory, including remote employees working from smaller towns. Labour law in India is largely state-specific, so the employment agreement, the leave entitlement and the professional tax slab are set to the state the employee actually works from.
No deck. We will ask what the role does and where the person sits, and give you the number and the risks in the same conversation.