Dear All,

We are a group of people publishing number of academic journals from India. And the research papers are contributed from authors across the world. Our Aim is to provide researchers and scholars a platform to publish their research papers and help in academics.

We get the revenue from authors towards publication fee and hard copy shipment to them. Our monthly revenue is more than 1 Lac and operating by the help of a website. Currently all the payments are deposited into the owner’s current A/c. We don’t have any fixed office rather we people communicate by the help of email to the authors. These are some of the questions that we need legal help.

1) Is it possible to register it as a non-profit organization like Trust/Society/25C Company?

2) Do we need to follow any special procedure (Like Import-export code/ export clearance etc.) while sending journals to abroad to the authors and universities? (Currently we are sending journals by the courier companies.)

3) Is there any special rule since we are accepting payments from abroad in dollars? What Foreign currency Exchange act has to do with it?

4) After making a Trust what are the provisions for accepting payment from abroad?

5) Do we need to report our earnings to any regulatory authority in current scenario or after making it a Trust?

6) If we make it a Trust, then can people who are trustees join any other Govt. or Pvt. Company after declaring about their membership? The same question if we make it a partnership firm or a company??

7) In the current scenario, does the owner (receiving payment from abroad) need to file any Income tax or report his earning to any authority in India?

8) How should we choose any legal firm or lawyer for advice to our organization? And on what basis they charge their fees??

I will be grateful if anyone can reply to the above queries pertaining to Indian Law.

Thank You…