License And Professional Tax - In Case Of WFH Setup With No Office Premises. [Thread 631694]

Dear members,

We are a Mumbai based Company with about 130 headcount and have branches in three cities Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi. We used to have office premises till recently for these branches but due to demerger of few business lines, each branch has only 1 employee except for Kolkata which has two. Now everyone is working from home(WFH) and we have surrendered the rented office premises. We are not looking at hiring office space as such for these branches.

My question is what should we do with Shops and Establishment License, Trade License and Professional Tax registration? we do not have any office as such.

Prior to the above WFH situation we had our offices in the above cities and hence registration/payments are continuing as per that.

Request your kind guidance on this.

Warm Regards

Dear Colleague,

Based on the given information the following aspect may be validated by you after consulting few more experts :

1. You have to continue your Registered Office location for the said Licenses for the requirements of Companies Act and other

2. In case of other locations / branches if you had permanently surrendered the premises and all are working from home only as well as no plans of reopening in near future you must inform the " Closing down of the Establishment" using the appropriate format and /or drafting suitable letter to the Authorities under Shops and Establishment Act and Professional Tax Act. You may check for the relevant Rules of respective States for the prescribed Forms.

Trade License is issued by whom- Who is the Authority to be understood. In may view the Trade has not stopped and the license needs to be taken in your Registered Office Address. You may have a check on this as the Trade is still continuing.