Legal requirements to sell design content, artwork and also freelance in India?
There is no requirement to open a company. You can work as freelancer. You need to report income and file returns. If your income is more than exempt limit, pay taxes. Apply for a PAN number if you don't have one yet.
If you want to use the original material then you will, essentially, need to negotiate for it.  You are in ugly, muddy territory.  Don't expect a simple, easy legal solution to exist; civil courts exist partly to help navigate these kinds of quagmires.  A negotiated solution would, on the other hand, clean everything up nicely.  Do you have your copyright ducks in a row?  If the contract does not stipulate otherwise, the creator will still maintain reproduction and moral copyright to the work; i.e., the creator will continue to own the copyrights to the work and you'll be unable to license or sell them to a third party. "I've hired a lawyer to make sure all the T's are crossed.   - I am not charging my employer for the service. I created a ""Free tier"" that fits the scale of my employer, and implemented it that way for them. Larger government bodies are paying for the higher tiers. On multiple levels, i've been sure that nothing conflicts with either our purchasing policy, or any written employee policies.    - I did 100% of the work on my own time and using my own resources. I was extremely careful to ensure this was the case. There is no clause anywhere in my employment agreement that says the company owns anything I do outside of company time. Believe it or not, this is actually less of an issue for a government body because the government doesn't exist to make a profit from services, and because they are getting an expensive service for free, it's actually a significant net benefit for them.  I certainly would be at a significantly higher risk if I was working for a for-profit corporation as they certainly would try to go after me.    - I was also careful in how the software was presented. While I agree there is a level of a obfuscation without a doubt, I've confirmed it certainly not a legal issue for the company, nor is it grounds for a lawsuit, and likely not even grounds for termination (although at this point, I don't really care as I have bigger fish to fry)" Any such amount has to be reported by Skrill and the Bank to RBI. As long as your earnings are legitimate and you are paying the taxes you shouldn't be worried. If its for services rendered, you would have a contract and / or invoice ... ie some paper work. It is important to keep the paper work in order. "You can file an LLC yourself in most states, although it might be helpful to use a service if you're not sure what to do to ensure it is correct.  I filed my LLC here in Colorado online with the Secretary of State's office, which provided the fill-in-the-blank forms and made it easy. In the U.S., taxation of an LLC is ""pass-through"", meaning the LLC itself does not have any tax liability.  Taxes are based on what you take out of the LLC as distributions to yourself, so you pay personal income tax on that. There are many good books on how to form and then operate an LLC, and I personally like NoLo (link to their web site) because they cater to novices. As for hiring people in India, I can't speak to that, so hopefully someone else can answer that specific topic. As for what you need to know about how to run it, I'll refer back to the NoLo books and web site." "I would look into the possibility that the promise ""that no taxes will be withheld"" is all about your status as a 'consultant'.  They may be meaning you to be treated like a business they buy services from.  In Canada the distinction is very watery and I presume the same in India. If you agree to become a business, then you must look into how that business income will be taxed." We are leading Commercial Interior Designer &amp; Architect in Mumbai. This service is for commercial people like retailer Owner, Shop or Store Owner, Showroom Owner or Builders, etc. We provides all types of services related to Commercial interior designer and architect field. Commercial sector is currents more focussing on the interior. And to fulfil that dream we are the solution. We provides this services from small scale to large scale commercial sector. Our quality of service is on top in the market. Many builders and commercial sector owners are our clients. "Income generated from online sales is not considered ""passive income"", so you need to be authorized to work in the U.S. Those without work authorization can acquire passive income (through investments, lending, competition/contest earnings, etc.) In order to sell products on eBay (the description you've given leads me to believe that this is operated as a business), you need to be authorized to work in the U.S., and register a business. See:" You're not physically present in the US, you're not a US citizen, you're not a green card holder, and you don't have a business that is registered in the US - US laws do not apply to you. You're not in any way under the US jurisdiction.  Effectively connected income is income effectively connected to your business in the US. You're not in the US, so there's nothing to effectively connect your income to. Quote from the link: You usually are considered to be engaged in a U.S. trade or business   when you perform personal services in the United States. You ask: If I form an LLC or C corp am I liable for this withholding tax? If you form a legal entity in a US jurisdiction - then that entity becomes subjected to that jurisdiction. If you're physically present in the US - then ECI may become an issue, and you also may become a resident based on the length of your stay. In general I'd advise you to do it the other way around in the future:   Know what your plan is and what you need for it *before* reaching out publicly. That way you can respond more quickly and answer questions more easily.   As for the meeting: you basically need to prepare three things.   1. What do you need to know when the meeting is over? 2. What can you offer the client? 3. What is a fair price for your time?  Under 1: What kind of website do they want? Do you have complete freedom, or do you have to work within their existing branding? Can you deliver what they're asking? For example, if they want a CMS to manage their portfolio, can you build that?  Under 2: What's your own portfolio like? What can you use to convince the client you have the capabilities to deliver what they're asking? (Note the difference with 1: that's if you can actually do it, this is if you can convince them of that fact).   Under 3: Determine what you'd find a fair hourly wage, so that during the meeting you can estimate what the total price should be and when you should consider backing out.   Finally you should consider what you'll do if you run into complications. As it's your first client, it's good to give it some thought ahead of time, but it probably won't come up during the meeting.  As for being convincing: if you get #2 right you should be confident that you can actually do what you promise. If your portfolio is limited, you can look up websites yourself for other interior designers before the meeting so that you can go over them with the client. Ask which elements the client does and doesn't like, summarize it in the end and affirm you can deliver something combining those things. I have some more inputs to investigate: India has dual tax avoidance treaty signed with european countries so that NRIs dont pay tax in both countries. Please check if India has some agreement with Swiss Also for freelance job that is delivered from India, u need to make sure where you have to pay taxes as you are still in India so the term NRI will not hold good here. Also, if Swiss company is paying tax there, and you are  a freelancer from India(resident in india) how to tax filing /rate etc has to be investigated. Also, can you apply for tax back from swiss( a portion of tax paid can be refunded eg: in Germany) but I dont know if this is true for Freelancers and also for people out side SWISS. Bip No. When you file your Articles of Organization, simply state that your business will operate under the law. You don't need to give any further specification. "Nope... as mentioned elsewhere, I hired a lawyer, and my employer absolutely does not own any of my work. I've been extremely careful about that. This is much more common as a developer working for a ""for-profit"" entity particularly in the US. I work for a government body and not in the US." Been a freelance motion graphic artist for 18 years and I've never touched any of those sites. It's idiots and amateurs looking for cheap, shitty labor. I don't feel like competing against people in 3rd world countries so I get all my jobs the old fashioned way. I love even _job application technology_ used online these days still don't have an option for self-employment or freelance. Some industries like television or magazines have been almost 100% freelance for a generation. My field, graphic design (and advertising), is probably about 30% freelance. Yet even those firms when posting a job will want to see your experience in neat little boxes that look like past employer A followed by past employer B. "Your own site/business. I’m in freelancing and internet business for 15 years, 20 years IT experience. Currently i use freelance websites for cheap Asian employees, very seldom for EU/USA employees, and if only if local competition is heavily out-pricing qualified staff. Till I went ""limited"" i.e., founded a limited corporation I was jobbing as freelancer and sole proprietor, both with limited success due to the strong Asian competition i myself currently hire. The point where freelancing got ""not sustainable"" as primary income was 2006 for me, don’t want to get into detail but every freelancer who was active back then knows what I mean, it was like whole India got internet. If you have absolutely no references, do it for the references a limited time and see the fee you pay as service for you to get references, then start your own web identity, either as freelancer or as corporation. Make sure you take your very satisfied customers with you. Every ""very satisfied"" customer in your contact list means 10 new customers which mean 2 new customers which mean 0.2 new customers and so on. Honestly, this info is solely based on experience of this niche fro ma European citizen perspective, if you’re based anywhere else the situation might be totally different."