Net Worth Certificate in India

Someone has asked you to prove what you are worth, and a self-declaration will not settle it. It might be a lender, a registrar, a recognition application or a broking regulator, and each reads the same statement against a different question. The request rarely arrives with instructions. The document itself is the easy part; what will be accepted as evidence behind it is not.

That evidence is the work. A flat in a co-operative society is proved differently from a freehold plot, and an unlisted shareholding differently from a demat balance. This page sets out which papers support each figure, and where a statement is most often sent back. Our guide to calculating net worth covers the computation itself, and the ICAI's UDIN portal lets any recipient verify the signature.

• What a consultant reviews before anything is signedMost people who look for a net worth certificate consultant are not looking for advice at all. They have been handed a requirement and want somebody to tell them what it actually means. That conversation is the advisory work, and it happens before any record is opened. We establish who is being certified, what the recipient asked for in their own words, and the date the figure has to speak to. Where a client arrives with a figure already in mind, we say plainly whether the records will support it.
• Valuing property and unlisted holdingsThe two entries that need judgement rather than arithmetic are immovable property and shares in a private company. Neither has a quoted price, so both need a basis, and the basis is what a reader will question. For property we work from the registered instrument, comparable transactions and the state's own guidance value, and where the amount justifies it, a registered valuer's report. For unlisted shares we work from the company's audited accounts on a stated method. Both bases go into the annexure rather than staying in our working papers.
• When a certificate is the wrong documentAdvisory sometimes means telling a client not to buy anything. Where a bank has asked for audited accounts, a certificate adds nothing. Where a tender named a sum, a solvency certificate answers the question and a net worth certificate does not. Where the requirement is a valuation of one asset, a registered valuer is the right professional and a chartered accountant is not. We would rather say that at the first call than issue a document that gets returned.
• What advisory costs you in time rather than moneyThe review adds a conversation before the engagement rather than a stage inside it. In most cases it takes one call and changes nothing. Where it does change something, it changes it early. A client discovers the recipient wants a different document. Or that two properties need a valuation basis nobody expected, or that the assumed date is not the one being asked for. Each of those found afterwards means the certificate is reissued. Found first, it costs a question.

• Where net worth appears in a DPIIT applicationStartup India recognition through the DPIIT portal does not ask for a net worth certificate as a named document in every case. What it asks for is evidence of the entity, its incorporation and its funding position. A certified net worth statement is how founders most often evidence the last of those, when an investor, an incubator or a state scheme asks for it alongside the DPIIT number. The certificate supports the application rather than being the application.
• Founder net worth against entity net worthThis is where most startup files go wrong. The DPIIT recognition attaches to the entity, so where a scheme asks for the startup's position it means the company or LLP, read from its own accounts. Where an incubator or a state subsidy asks for the founder's position it means the individual, including everything they hold outside the business. The two are different documents with different bases, and a founder who supplies one where the other was asked for is sent back. We establish which is wanted before drafting, because for an early-stage company the entity figure is frequently small and the founder figure is not.
• What the certificate is asked to show for a startupFor an early-stage company the useful statement is rarely a large one. What a reader wants is a position they can rely on. Paid-up capital actually received rather than subscribed. Any premium sitting in the securities premium account, losses carried forward stated openly, and founder loans identified as a liability rather than capital. That last point causes more confusion than any other in startup files. A founder loan strengthens cash and weakens net worth at the same time, and a certificate that blurs the two is the one an investor questions in diligence. Recognition itself is free; what it unlocks is what the certificate is usually being prepared for. That distinction is worth settling before the statement is drafted.

Everything below is source material rather than a summary, because each figure in the statement is traced back to the record that governs it. The first list is needed on every engagement; the second applies where you hold those assets.

• PAN of the person being certified, as it appears on the income tax record
• Income tax returns with the computation of income for the last three years
• Bank and savings account statements for every account, for the full period, in PDF
• Registered sale deed or conveyance for each immovable property, with the latest property tax receipt
• Demat holding statement from CDSL or NSDL as at the certificate date
• Fixed deposit receipts, with the bank's balance confirmation where one is available
• Latest statement for every loan, overdraft and credit card, with the sanction letter

Where they apply:

• Share certificates or the register of members for unlisted holdings, with that company's latest audited balance sheet
• Insurance policy documents showing the surrender value, where policies are to be counted

• The fee covers one certificate speaking to one date. A later date is a fresh engagement on updated records, not a re-dating of the first.
• Goods and services tax and any government charge are additional, as the footnote on the table states.
• Where records have to be reconstructed before certification can begin, that work is quoted separately and agreed before it starts.
• City pages carry the same fee as the national service. Certification does not cost more in one city than in another.
• An On quote row means the scope decides the fee. It is not a higher tier waiting to be sold; some engagements simply cannot be priced before the records are seen.

All fees listed are indicative only and do not constitute a binding offer. The final amount depends on the scope of records to be examined.

Get a free consultation — Call +91 94594 56700 or WhatsApp us.

Add your holdings and what you owe against them, and the calculator returns the position a certificate would state. It is an estimate from figures you enter rather than a certified computation, so treat the result as a starting point for the conversation rather than as the number itself.

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Go deeper:

A net worth certificate is not a creature of any single statute. It is a certificate for a special purpose, and what governs it is the professional framework a chartered accountant works within rather than a section that defines the document itself. That framework is what makes the figure worth anything to a reader who has never met you.

The law that matters therefore comes from two directions. The pronouncements below govern how the certificate is prepared and signed, while the property and company statutes govern what the underlying holdings actually are and who owns them.

• ICAI Guidance Note on Reports or Certificates for Special Purposes (Revised 2016)governs certificates issued for a special purpose. The scope, the basis of preparation and any limitation appear on the face of the document, and a written representation is taken from the person certified.
• ICAI Council direction on UDIN, mandatory from 1 February 2019requires a Unique Document Identification Number on every certificate signed by a practising chartered accountant, generated on the ICAI portal so that any recipient can confirm the signatory independently.
• Section 17, Registration Act 1908makes the instrument transferring immovable property compulsorily registrable, which is why title is evidenced from the registered document rather than from a tax receipt or an allotment letter.
• Transfer of Property Act 1882governs when title to immovable property actually passes, which matters where a flat is occupied and paid for but the transfer was never completed in the manner the Act requires.
• Section 88, Companies Act 2013requires a company to maintain a register of members, which is the record an unlisted shareholding is verified against where no depository statement exists.
• SQC 1, on engagement documentation and retentionrequires the working papers behind the certificate to be retained, so the basis for any figure can still be produced long after the engagement has closed.

Official sources: ICAI · ICAI UDIN Portal · Ministry of Corporate Affairs · Income Tax Department

The deadline on a net worth certificate is never statutory. It belongs to the bank, the consulate, the court or the tender committee that asked for one. Establish what date they want the figure to speak to, and whether it has to be legalised, before anything is drafted. Call or WhatsApp +91 94594 56700 and we will confirm both with you.

Most people reach this page holding a requirement somebody else set. The useful next move is not to order a certificate. Go back to whoever asked and settle two things: the form they want, and the date the figure must speak to. Almost every returned certificate failed on one of those rather than on the arithmetic. Send us what the recipient asked for, and we will tell you which of your records the position can actually be built from.