EOR from United Kingdom to India.

A UK company can hire full-time employees in India without setting up a legal entity by using an Employer of Record (EOR) like TMS. TMS becomes the legal employer in India, handles payroll, statutory compliance, and benefits, while your team manages day-to-day work — typically live within 48 hours.

Why UK companies hire from India through an EOR

UK companies — particularly in tech, fintech, financial services, and back-office-heavy sectors — are building India teams to solve three problems at once:

• Skills shortage and post-Brexit visa friction. Skilled Worker visa salary thresholds (currently £38,700+ for most roles), sponsor licence costs, and the IR35 contractor crackdown have made onshore UK hiring slow and expensive. Hiring in India removes immigration from the equation entirely.
• Cost arbitrage. A senior engineer or qualified finance professional in Bangalore, Hyderabad, or Pune typically costs 30-50% of an equivalent hire in London, Manchester, or Edinburgh — for comparable skill and output.
• Time-zone overlap. India is 4.5-5.5 hours ahead of UK time. A 9am UK morning starts around 1:30pm in Bangalore — making India teams ideal for live handovers, customer support coverage, and operational extensions of UK teams.

For first 1-25 hires, EOR also avoids the 4-6 months and ₹15-35 lakh first-year cost of setting up a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary.

How EOR UK to India works — the structure

When a UK company hires an Indian employee through TMS, the structure is:

1. TMS is the legal employer of record in India. The employee signs an Indian employment contract with TMS. TMS issues the offer letter, pays salary in INR, deducts statutory taxes, and files all government returns.
2. You retain full operational control. Day-to-day work, performance management, projects, and goals stay with your UK team. Your relationship with TMS is governed by a Master Services Agreement (MSA).
3. No Indian permanent establishment (PE) for your UK entity. Because TMS — not your UK company — is the employer, your UK entity does not create a taxable presence in India by virtue of having staff here. This is the central tax advantage of the EOR model and the reason it is widely used by UK firms hiring in India.
4. Your payment to TMS is a deductible service expense in the UK, invoiced in GBP or INR by agreement.

Roles UK companies typically place on TMS payroll

UK clients on TMS payroll today span both engineering-heavy and back-office-heavy hire profiles:

Engineering and tech: – Software engineers (backend, full-stack, frontend, mobile) – DevOps, SRE, and platform engineering – QA and SDET – Data engineers and ML engineers – Product designers and UX researchers

Finance, accounting and back-office (UK companies place heavier volume here than US clients): – Finance, accounting, FP&A, and management reporting – Accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliation – Tax preparation support (year-end accounts, VAT prep, payroll back-office) – Audit support and internal controls testing

Operations and customer-facing: – Customer support, customer success, technical account managers (using India’s English-speaking pool for UK-hour coverage) – Sales development reps (SDRs) and outbound prospecting targeting UK/EU markets

The TMS 5-step onboarding process

TMS handles end-to-end onboarding so your team focuses on day-one productivity:

1. MSA and scope agreement. A one-time master agreement covers commercial terms, IP assignment, confidentiality, and exit provisions.
2. Candidate sign-on. TMS issues an Indian employment offer letter, completes KYC, and collects mandated documents (PAN, Aadhaar, prior-employer relieving letter, bank details).
3. Statutory enrollment. TMS enrolls the employee in Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), Employees’ State Insurance (ESI, if applicable based on salary band), professional tax in the state of work, and gratuity nomination.
4. Payroll setup and first salary credit. Salary structure is finalized (CTC breakdown across basic, HRA, special allowance, employer-EPF, gratuity provision). First salary credit lands on the standard monthly payroll date.
5. Monthly compliance and reporting. TMS files monthly EPF, ESI, professional tax, TDS, and quarterly statutory returns. You receive a single consolidated invoice and reporting dashboard.

We deploy talent in 48 hours.

EOR vs setting up your own India entity

Setting up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India is the right move at scale. But for the first 1-25 hires, the math overwhelmingly favours EOR.

The real first-year cost of standing up an Indian entity: – Registrations and legal: ₹3-12 lakh — incorporation, FDI/FEMA reporting, PAN, TAN, GST, EPF, ESI, professional tax in each state of operation, RoC filings, legal review. – Operational setup: statutory auditor retainer, payroll software subscription, HRMS, statutory compliance consultant, banking and FX setup. First-year operational cost typically runs ₹15-35 lakh (£14,000-£35,000) for a small entity. – Time to operational: 4-6 months minimum from incorporation to first compliant payroll run. – Ongoing burden: 80-150 hours per month of HR, compliance, and statutory work — usually requiring at least one full-time India HR/compliance hire by month 3.

EOR through TMS replaces all of that with: – A single per-employee monthly fee (quoted on engagement). – Zero setup time — talent deployed in 48 hours. – Zero PE risk for your UK entity. – One-line accounting on your UK books: services expense.

When EOR makes sense: 1-25 employees in India, market-test phase, multi-country expansion where India is one bet among several, or any stage where India headcount is not yet large enough to justify the operational overhead of an entity.

When to consider a transition: Once you have 30+ India employees, an Indian directorial presence on your roadmap, or strategic IP that you want held by an Indian subsidiary. TMS supports the EOR-to-entity transition as a standard service — we coordinate offer letter transfers, EPF account continuity, gratuity tenure preservation, and statutory handover with your new India entity so the employee experience stays seamless.

Frequently asked questions

An illustrative engagement — what hiring a UK fintech’s India team looks like