"Remote" in a job post can mean three very different arrangements once you reach the contract: ordinary Indian employment that happens to be remote, employment through an intermediary for a foreign company, or a contract where you are paid as an independent business. Each comes with different protections, paperwork and tax responsibilities. Knowing which one you are being offered, and checking a short list of things before you accept, avoids most of the expensive surprises.
Three ways to work remotely from India
| Arrangement | Who employs you | What you typically get |
|---|---|---|
| Remote role with an Indian employer | The company's Indian entity | Indian payroll, payslips, provident fund, tax deducted at source, company benefits |
| Employer of record (EOR) for a foreign company | An EOR that employs you in India on the foreign company's behalf | Indian payroll from the EOR, while you work for the foreign company day to day |
| Independent contractor or freelancer | Nobody; you are a supplier | Payment against invoices, with no provident fund, paid leave or insurance unless the contract adds them |
With an Indian employer, the usual offer-letter checks apply. Also ask whether "remote" is permanent and written into the offer, whether you must live in a particular state or city, and how often you are expected to travel to an office.
Through an employer of record, a foreign company without an Indian entity hires you via a firm that legally employs you in India, runs payroll and handles statutory deductions. Your contract is with the EOR, so check that it names the Indian entity that actually employs you, explains who can end your employment and on what notice, and describes benefits such as health insurance and leave. Equity, if offered, usually comes through a separate agreement with the foreign company; read that one too.
As a contractor, you invoice for your work and are paid as a business. The headline rate can look higher than an equivalent salary, but you carry costs an employer would otherwise cover: health insurance, leave, equipment, retirement savings, and the work of handling your own tax. Compare offers on total value, not on the rate.
Verify the legal entity before anything else
Before you discuss money, find out exactly who would be paying you. The name on the contract should be a registered business you can check. Indian companies and LLPs can be looked up on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website. A foreign company should have a working website on its own domain, people you can find independently, and a registered address you can confirm.
- The recruiter writes from the company's own domain, not a free webmail address.
- You speak on video with at least one person whose role you can verify, ideally your future manager.
- The company named in the contract matches the one in the post and the interviews. If it differs, ask why; "we hire through an EOR" or "this is our subsidiary" is a fine answer, and no answer is not.
What the contract should spell out
- Pay, currency and schedule. Rupees or a foreign currency, how often you are paid, and who bears transfer and conversion charges. With foreign-currency pay, exchange-rate movement is your risk.
- Payment route. Pay should arrive in a bank account in your name, by bank transfer or an established payment service. Keep your bank's records of each foreign payment, since you may need them for tax and compliance. Never accept pay routed through someone else's account.
- Equipment. Who provides the laptop, who owns it, what security software is required, and whether internet and power backup are covered. If you use your own machine, ask what the company will install on it.
- Termination. How either side can end the arrangement, with how much notice, and what is paid at the end. Contractor agreements can allow termination at short notice, which matters if you are leaving a stable job for one.
- Intellectual property. Assigning the work you do for the company to the company is normal. Watch for wording that claims everything you create during the contract, including personal projects on your own time and equipment, and ask for a carve-out listing prior work and side projects.
- Exclusivity. Some contracts forbid all other work; others forbid only competing work. If you already have a full-time job in India, check that contract too: remote work on the side may breach it, and it can surface in background verification.
- Governing law. A foreign client's contract will usually follow its own country's law. Enforcing it from India would be slow and expensive, so your practical protection is frequent invoicing and prompt payment, not the dispute clause.
Agree the time-zone overlap in writing
Working with teams in Europe or the Americas usually means a fixed overlap in your evening or night. Before you accept, agree which hours are core, how many evenings a week, whether on-call is part of the role, and how it is compensated. "Some flexibility for meetings" turns into a standing late call surprisingly quickly.
India does not change its clocks, but the US and most of Europe do, so your overlap shifts by an hour at points in the year. Insist that invites show a time zone: a Tuesday morning meeting on the US West Coast lands on Tuesday night in India. If the overlap means late nights, agree a later start to your day and write that into the arrangement too.
Tax and compliance: what is yours to handle
This is general information, not tax advice. Rules change, and the right answer depends on details only a qualified professional can assess.
- If you live and work in India and are resident here for tax purposes, income from a foreign employer or client is generally taxable in India, even though it is paid from abroad.
- With an Indian employer or an EOR, payroll deducts tax from your salary, and you file your return as you would for any job.
- As a contractor paid by a foreign client, nobody deducts Indian tax for you. You may need to pay advance tax in instalments during the year, keep proper accounts, and in some situations register for GST. Whether and how depends on your income, your expenses and how your work is set up.
- Foreign clients sometimes ask you to complete their own tax forms confirming that you are not resident in their country. Read them carefully, and if a client withholds tax abroad, ask your adviser whether you can claim credit for it in India.
Speak to a chartered accountant before your first invoice, not when your first return is due. The income tax e-filing portal has the current rules, forms and filing service.
Red flags in remote postings
- You are asked to buy a laptop or "work kit" from a vendor they name, with reimbursement promised later.
- You receive a cheque or a transfer and are asked to send part of it back or on to someone else, or to receive payments "for clients" in your account. That can make you part of a money-laundering chain, not just a victim.
- Pay is offered in cryptocurrency, gift cards or through an app you cannot verify.
- The whole process happens in a chat app: no video call, no named interviewer, no technical assessment, and an offer within a day.
- There is a fee for training, certification, onboarding or a "software licence" before you start.
- You are asked for Aadhaar, PAN, bank details or an OTP before there is a verifiable offer.
- The pay is far out of line for simple tasks such as rating products or liking videos.
If money has already left your account, call the national cybercrime helpline on 1930 straight away. The guide to fake job offers and recruitment scams covers how to report and what to keep as evidence.
Interviewing well over video
- Plan for failure modes. Keep a mobile hotspot ready and power backup for the router and laptop; a power cut halfway through a system design question is avoidable. Use headphones with a microphone, put the camera at eye level, and face the light.
- Rehearse the tools. Test screen sharing in the company's video tool, share a single window rather than your whole screen, silence notifications, and enlarge your editor font.
- Narrate more than you would in person. In a shared editor the interviewer cannot see you thinking. Say what you are about to try, ask clarifying questions aloud, and walk through an example input before you code.
- Show how you write. Remote teams depend on written communication, so expect a written exercise or a take-home assignment, and have an example ready of a design note or pull request description you are proud of.
- Ask remote-specific questions. How are decisions recorded? How much overlap does the team expect? How is performance judged? Is there an equipment or internet allowance?
If you are still searching, uHired's remote job pages, such as remote software engineer roles, show current postings with the minimum experience and the skills each one states.
Before you accept: a verification checklist
- You know which of the three arrangements this is.
- The contracting entity is named, and you have checked that it exists.
- You have spoken on video with someone whose role you could verify.
- The contract covers pay, currency, schedule, charges and termination.
- Payment goes to a bank account in your name.
- Equipment, overlap hours and on-call terms are in writing.
- Intellectual property and exclusivity clauses are checked, with a carve-out for prior work.
- Your current employment contract allows this, or you are leaving that job.
- You have spoken to a chartered accountant about tax and compliance.
- Nobody has asked you for money.