Wisemonk becomes your legal employer in India. Our EOR service handles compliant employment contracts, secure cross-border data handling, and timely INR payroll for talent you hire from France.
France 
India 
The French tax side of hiring in India is the easy part. Cross-border engagements can give rise to employment classification claims and related liabilities in both jurisdictions, sometimes years after the engagement begins.
If someone based in India works under a contractor agreement but the actual relationship has the characteristics of employment, Indian law may treat the relationship as employment, potentially giving rise to statutory employment benefits and termination-related claims. Depending on the facts and applicable tax rules, an arrangement involving work performed from India may also raise permanent-establishment questions for the foreign company. French law may also be relevant where the individual works in, is employed in, or has another sufficient legal connection with France. Any French exposure depends on the applicable law and the facts of the arrangement.French law turns on the lien de subordination: if the worker acts under your direction and control, a labour court can requalify the contract as employment, URSSAF can claim back social-security contributions for the whole period, and the arrangement is treated as travail dissimulé, a criminal offence carrying fines up to 225,000 euros and prison for directors. India applies its own substance test in parallel, with back EPF, ESI and gratuity.
Anyone who habitually concludes contracts or wins business in your name can make Indian authorities treat your French entity as trading in India. Profits attributed to that presence become taxable there, separate from your French corporate tax.
Contractor-created IP does not always pass to you the way employee work does. A French-law agreement signed by an India-resident worker is the first thing an acquirer's counsel tests, and retrofitting it later rarely works.
Under India's Labour Codes, in force since 21 November 2025, the appointment letter is a statutory instrument. Most foreign employers issue an offer letter and assume it covers them. It does not.
Not service levels. Structure: who employs the person, under whose law, on whose paper.
Your team member is a salaried employee of Wisemonk India with EPF, gratuity and statutory benefits, on a contract governed by Indian law. The individual is employed by Wisemonk India under an Indian employment arrangement, with applicable Indian statutory benefits and protections. This does not, by itself, determine whether any separate obligations arise under French law.
Wisemonk India Pvt. Ltd. is the legal employer. Your French company has no fixed place of business and no agent in India, which keeps the permanent establishment question off your books.
The employment contract assigns all work-product IP to your French entity, or a designated affiliate, under Indian and French law in parallel, so the chain of title holds in whichever court is asked.
Every hire gets both the offer letter and the statutory appointment letter, drafted to the Labour Codes, with worker and non-worker status assessed up front because it decides the exit framework later.
Employing your team through Wisemonk in India does not remove your own obligations in France.
If your India team handles personal data about your customers or staff, sharing it with them is a transfer outside the EEA under the GDPR. India does not have an adequacy decision, so the transfer will generally need a safeguard such as Standard Contractual Clauses, supported by a transfer risk assessment.
Our invoice is for services supplied from outside the EU, so as a business customer you will normally account for French VAT (TVA) under the reverse charge, which is usually neutral where VAT can be recovered in full.
If you have a social and economic committee (CSE), moving work to India may require it to be consulted first.
If a team member travels to France to work, visa and work-permit rules may apply. India and France have a social security agreement, so for a short assignment the person may be able to remain in Indian social security with a certificate of coverage.
Your finance team sees a single line item in euros. Everything downstream of it runs inside India, under the entity that legally employs your team.
A SEPA transfer in euros against one consolidated invoice. We invoice from India, so under CGI Article 259-1 the place of supply is France and VAT is reverse-charged by you under Article 196, with no Indian GST, and we convert and remit INR with the FX rate shown before you approve it.
Our own Indian entity, not a local partner, is the legal employer of record for every person on your team.
Provident Fund, ESI, Professional Tax and TDS withheld and deposited with the Indian authorities on your behalf.
Lands in your team member's Indian bank account on the same date every month, with a compliant payslip.
Form 10F and the Tax Residency Certificate filed and refreshed annually so the 1994 India-France DTAA applies and withholding stays at the reduced treaty rate.
See why teams hiring in India choose a specialist over a platform built for 150+ countries. New to EOR? Read our guide to employer of record in India.
| Feature | Wisemonk | Deel / Remote / Rippling / G-P |
|---|---|---|
| India specialist? | Yes. India-only, with our own legal entity | No. India is one of 150+ countries they cover |
| EOR fee (India) | From $99 per employee, per month | $499 to $699 per employee, per month |
| India entity owned? | Fully owned legal entity in India | Varies. Some operate through local partners |
| Setup time | 2 to 7 days | 3 to 7 days, platform-first onboarding |
| Local HR support | Assigned India HRBP for your team | Platform-based support with limited local presence |
| Insurance | Customizable at the individual level. Plans tailored to each employee's needs | Standardized group plans with limited flexibility |
| Equipment procurement | Included, sourced locally. Cost-effective because we know India's vendor landscape | Available as a paid add-on, often at higher mark-ups |
| France payment rail | EUR by SEPA, VAT reverse-charged | Platform wallet or international wire |
| ESOP support for India staff | Supported, with FEMA reporting and TDS at exercise | Frequently declined for India |
| IP assignment | Parallel India-law and French-law assignment at creation | One standard template across all countries |
| Best for | Companies focused on hiring in India from France | Companies hiring across 10+ countries simultaneously |
Enter the role and the salary band. Get the fully loaded monthly cost in EUR, including employer PF, gratuity accrual and the Wisemonk fee, with nothing left to discover at invoice time.
Most global EOR platforms decline India equity outright, and most vendor security reviews stall on the subprocessor question. Both are answered here.
Grants are issued from your French parent, with BSPCE-equivalent structures where FEMA allows, so your cap table does not fork by geography.
At exercise the spread is taxed as a perquisite and withheld through Indian payroll, so your employee is never left to work it out alone. Capital gains at sale are taxed in India under the 1994 India-France DTAA. The RBI Liberalised Remittance Scheme reporting stays ours.
Wisemonk is SOC 2 certified. India is a third country under EU law, so transfers run on appropriate safeguards that meet GDPR Article 46, and employee data in India also sits under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. We hold the processing relationship, with a DPA on your paper.
Machines are enrolled in your MDM and issued against your access policy before day one, and offboarding revokes access on the same day the employment ends.
These are not aspirations. These are operational benchmarks we've maintained across 300+ companies and 2,000+ employees.
Founders, Leaders and HR heads of fast growing startups across US, Europe, SEA and Oceania trust our services to manage their India teams.
The Wisemonk team played a key role in helping us hire for specialized B2B SaaS marketing skills. We were able to build the team within four months, and hire experienced professionals from Tier 1/major B2B SaaS brands. This includes SEO, digital marketing, business development, product marketing, content marketing, and GTM roles. They are a great partner providing integrated services for EOR and recruitment/hiring and I’d recommend them to any B2B SaaS vendor.
Red Hill Technology Solutions has run its India engineering team on Wisemonk for the past year and a half. They handle payroll and benefits end to end, so I can offer my employees good health insurance without having to master the idiosyncrasies of Indian benefits myself. Payroll cutoff reminders arrive every month before I need them, and off-cycle bonus runs have never been a problem. Even equipment purchasing, a real headache for a US company shipping to Indian addresses, is as simple as telling them what I need. Exchange rates are fair and the pricing is transparent.
Deepika Elumalai, our point of contact, ties it all together. Whatever comes up, she pulls in the right people and sees it through. For any US company building a team in India, Wisemonk is an easy recommendation.
Wisemonk is a key partner for EOM-Energy O&M Services, playing an essential role in supporting our operations. Their seamless payment solutions make transactions not only simple and fast but also reliable. The team’s responsiveness, professionalism, and proactive approach give us complete confidence in every interaction. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration, using Wisemonk both for Employer of Record services and for recruitment support, to help us expand our team in India in the short and medium term.
We came across Wisemonk and met with the CEO and staff to explain our situation, and were very impressed with their customer-focused approach to their business. Wisemonk onboarded all of my employees in one or two days. They paid my employees' salaries on the day after my payment cleared. Needless to say, my employees and I were very satisfied with their service then and remain so over a year later. We are an American company, so I was very happy to see that they have a US bank account where I can make ACH payments to minimize bank charges. All salary payments are timely. They worked directly with my employees to enroll them in the health care program and explain any coverage-related issues. The best part is that we get to work with a dedicated person assigned to our company. I would highly recommend Wisemonk and think of them as our Indian HR department.
As the CEO of The Humble Bucks LLC, I had a great experience working with Wisemonk.io. They made our hiring process in India smooth, efficient, and cost-effective. We were assigned a dedicated recruiter who helped us find and hire three EOR employees at a very competitive price.
Beyond hiring, Wisemonk’s support team was extremely helpful in managing important operational logistics. They assisted us with coordinating meeting-related needs, including flight tickets, employee laptops, and other practical requirements, which saved us significant time and effort.
Overall, Wisemonk has been a reliable partner for The Humble Bucks LLC. Their combination of recruiting support, EOR services, and hands-on operational assistance made the entire experience seamless. I would recommend Wisemonk to any company looking to hire and manage employees in India with confidence.
We've been using WiseMonk to support our India team for the past six months, and the experience has been excellent. They've handled everything from payroll and statutory compliance to equipment procurement and benefits enrollment — all with a level of responsiveness and professionalism that makes managing a remote India team from Canada feel seamless. Nileena and the team are always quick to reply and proactive about flagging anything we need to know. We'd happily recommend WiseMonk to other companies looking to hire and manage talent in India.
I'm very Happy that I discovered Wisemonk. They have been a pure pleasure to work with, and their attention to detail is impressive. They helped us understand their pricing model, find top-qualified individuals, interview them, and then onboard them. I gave them criteria for the type of people we sought, and they delivered. The individuals they were able to find have been some of the best engineers I have ever worked with. I recommend Wisemonk to anyone who is in need of staffing assistance.
I highly recommend them. Wisemonk helped us tap into the vibrant and top-notch Indian talent market and hire our first couple of founding engineers in record time. We've been able to accelerate our roadmap and deliver terrific value to our customers thanks to Wisemonk's efforts. They are easy to work with and very transparent about the process. I highly recommend them to any company looking for talent located in India.
Process was professional & very smooth. We've worked with Wisemonk to source developers in India and it's worked incredibly well for us. We are very pleased with the talent of the developers and the Wisemonk process was professional and very smooth. We highly recommend using Wisemonk for talent sourcing!
I am very pleased with the partnership we have with Wisemonk. They are very quick at responding to queries and I have enjoyed working with them and appreciate their support.
Specific to companies headquartered in France. For cross-border basics, see the main page.
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