What is australian subsidiary of an indian company?
Pty Ltd subsidiary or registered foreign branch — including the two things that actually set the timeline: the resident-director requirement and the foreign director’s director ID.
An Indian company opening in Australia has two genuinely different ASIC pathways, not one process with variations. The first is a subsidiary: a new Australian Pty Ltd, owned wholly or partly by the Indian parent, that is its own legal entity from day one — its own ACN, its own liability, its own balance sheet. The second is a branch: the Indian company registers itself with ASIC as a foreign company carrying on business in Australia, under its own name and charter, with no new Australian entity created at all. Both routes end with the business legally able to trade, invoice, hire and hold a bank account in Australia — but they get there through different forms, different ongoing obligations, and, most importantly, different people who have to exist before either one can be lodged.
The subsidiary route runs through ASIC Form 201, the same form any Pty Ltd uses, with one constraint that catches almost every foreign founder off guard: under s201A of the Corporations Act, the company must have at least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia. Not a director who visits, not a director who plans to relocate — someone who is genuinely resident in Australia at the time the company is incorporated. If the Indian parent's leadership is entirely based in India, that director has to come from somewhere: a local hire, a co-founder already in Australia, or a paid resident-director arrangement. This is a hard legal precondition, not a formality to tidy up after incorporation, and it is the single most common reason a subsidiary filing stalls.
Who does what
CapEasy prepares and coordinates; lodgment runs through an ASIC registered agent, and tax registrations and advice through your registered tax agent.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Australian subsidiary of an Indian company, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your registered BAS or tax agent | Everything that carries a licence in Australia — rendered exactly as written: work out what goes on your bas, or advise you on it — under tasa 2009 that requires registration we do not hold. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Australian subsidiary of an Indian company in Australia
The resident-director rule (s201A) applies to the subsidiary, not the branch — and there is no workaround
Corporations Act s201A requires at least one director of an Australian proprietary company to ordinarily reside in Australia. This applies to a subsidiary because a subsidiary is a new Australian company like any other; it does not apply to a registered foreign company under Form 402, because a branch has no separate Australian company for the rule to attach to. Founders sometimes ask whether a director who visits Australia frequently, or who plans to move within a few months, satisfies the requirement — ASIC's own guidance treats 'ordinarily resident' as a genuine residency test, not a travel-frequency one, so the safer reading is that the director actually lives in Australia at the time of incorporation.
A registered branch needs a local agent instead, and that person carries the compliance obligation personally
Part 5B.2 of the Corporations Act requires a registered foreign company to have a local agent — a natural person residing in Australia who is personally answerable for the foreign company's Australian compliance obligations, including lodging required documents with ASIC on time. This is not a nominal contact; it is a role with real legal exposure, which is why it is priced and staffed as a service rather than a box to tick.
Every director needs a director ID before appointment — and a non-resident director's path takes weeks, not minutes
ABRS requires every director — of a subsidiary or of a registered foreign company — to hold a director ID before they are appointed, and the individual has to apply for it themselves; it cannot be lodged on their behalf by a third party. An Australia-resident applicant typically gets one instantly online via myGovID. A director resident in India, without an existing Australian digital identity credential, goes through the paper application route, which runs 28–56 business days. That window has to be built into the plan from the first conversation, because it is frequently the longest single item on the critical path — longer than the ASIC lodgment itself.
The two routes carry different annual review fees, and defaulting to the wrong one understates the real ongoing cost
ASIC charges a standard $342/yr annual review fee for an ordinary Pty Ltd subsidiary. A registered foreign company under Form 402 pays a materially higher $1,583/yr annual review fee instead — nearly five times the subsidiary figure. The two routes also carry the same $636 registration fee (from 1 July 2026) at the front end, so the cost difference between subsidiary and branch shows up entirely in the ongoing annual review, not the initial filing.
What your registered BAS or tax agent receives from us
- A completed intake pack — entity choice (subsidiary vs branch) with the reasoning behind it, proposed name/ACN or ARBN availability check, director and shareholder details, registered-office or local-agent address, and share structure.
- The Director ID (ABRS) application pack prepared for each director, flagging which directors can apply online instantly and which need the paper non-resident path, with the 28–56 business day window built into the project timeline.
- A prepared Form 201 (subsidiary) or Form 402 (branch) document set, checked against ASIC's current requirements before it goes to your ASIC registered agent for lodgment.
- For the branch route: the four Form 402 supporting documents assembled — certified charter/constitution, certified translation if required, director list, and memorandum of powers for any local board.
- A facts brief for your registered tax agent covering the new entity, ready to support the ABN, TFN and GST registration and any structuring advice they provide.
- A resident-director or local-agent sourcing brief, where the Indian parent does not already have a qualifying Australia-resident individual, handed to a qualified, insured candidate for that role — never filled by CapEasy itself.
