Accounting, GST, Income Tax, TDS, PF/ESI, and ROC filings each run on their own clock. Miss one and the cost is rarely the filing fee — it's the penalty, the interest, and sometimes a director's own DIN. Here's the full calendar, in plain language.
Every business — proprietorship, partnership, LLP, or company — carries a set of recurring statutory obligations that exist independent of profit, revenue, or how busy the year has been. Some apply to everyone. Some apply only once you're registered under GST, or once you have employees on payroll, or once you've incorporated a company or LLP. The trouble is these clocks run on different cycles — monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, annually — and it's rarely one person's job to track all of them at once.
This note lays out the full picture: what's due, how often, and what actually happens if it slips. Where useful, we've added a worked example from the kind of engagement we run for clients day to day.
Not every business faces every stream from day one. A proprietorship with no GST registration and no employees only deals with accounting and income tax. The moment turnover crosses the GST threshold, or the first employee joins payroll, or a company/LLP is incorporated, new clocks start running automatically — often without anyone explicitly "switching them on."
STREAM 1
Accounting & Books
Applies to everyone, always. Books, vouchers, bank reconciliation, fixed asset records — the raw material every other filing is built from.
STREAM 2
GST
Applies once registered under GST. Monthly/quarterly returns, annual reconciliation, and ledger management.
STREAM 3
Income Tax
Applies to everyone. Advance tax, annual return filing, tax audit where applicable.
STREAM 4
TDS / TCS
Applies once you deduct or collect tax at source — on salaries, contractor payments, rent above threshold, etc.
STREAM 5
PF / ESI
Applies once employee count and wage thresholds are crossed. Monthly contributions and returns.
STREAM 6
ROC (Company / LLP)
Applies only to incorporated entities — Private Limited Companies and LLPs. Annual filings tied to the Companies Act / LLP Act.
1. Accounting & books of account — the foundation
Nothing downstream works if this layer is weak. These aren't "filings" with a due date so much as a continuous discipline — but a few do carry statutory deadlines.
Basis for every other reconciliation — GST, TDS, tax audit
Fixed asset register & depreciation schedule
Continuous, closed annually
All entities
Feeds Balance Sheet and Income Tax depreciation claim
Books of account retention
Minimum 6–8 years
All entities
Mandatory under Income Tax Act & Companies Act; needed for any scrutiny or audit
Statutory audit (where applicable)
Annual
Companies; others crossing turnover thresholds
Independent verification of financial statements
2. GST compliance calendar
GST runs on the tightest, most unforgiving clock of all six streams — most of it monthly, with real cash consequences (late fee and interest on delayed tax payment, not just a filing penalty).
GST — recurring returns and reconciliations
Filing
Frequency
Typical due date
What it covers
GSTR-1 (outward supplies)
Monthly / Quarterly (QRMP)
11th of next month (monthly)
Sales register, invoice-level detail
GSTR-3B (summary return + tax payment)
Monthly / Quarterly
20th of next month
Tax liability, ITC claim, net payment
GSTR-2A / 2B reconciliation
Monthly
Before filing 3B
Matching purchase-side ITC to vendor filings
CMP-08 (composition dealers)
Quarterly
18th of month after quarter
Quarterly tax payment for composition scheme
GSTR-9 (annual return)
Annual
31st December following FY
Consolidated annual GST position
GSTR-9C (reconciliation statement)
Annual, above turnover threshold
31st December following FY
Reconciliation between books and returns
E-invoicing / E-way bill compliance
Transaction-wise
Real-time
Applicable above prescribed turnover / for goods movement
What actually happens if you miss GSTR-3B: late fee accrues per day of delay, interest runs on any unpaid tax, and — the part most people don't expect — a missed 3B blocks the next period's GSTR-1 filing until it's cleared, which snowballs the delay.
3. Income Tax calendar
Income Tax — advance tax, returns and audit
Requirement
Due date
Applies to
Advance tax — 1st instalment (15%)
15 June
All taxpayers with tax liability above ₹10,000
Advance tax — 2nd instalment (45%)
15 September
Same as above
Advance tax — 3rd instalment (75%)
15 December
Same as above
Advance tax — 4th instalment (100%)
15 March
Same as above
Tax Audit Report (Form 3CA/3CB-3CD)
30 September
Entities crossing turnover / professional receipt thresholds
Income Tax Return — non-audit cases
31 July
Individuals, firms not requiring audit
Income Tax Return — audit cases
31 October
Companies, LLPs and others requiring audit
Transfer Pricing Report (Form 3CEB), if applicable
31 October
Entities with specified domestic / international transactions
4. TDS / TCS calendar
The moment you pay a salary above the exemption limit, a contractor above ₹30,000, or rent above the threshold, you're a "deductor" — and that comes with its own monthly and quarterly clock.
TDS / TCS — deduction, deposit and returns
Requirement
Frequency
Due date
TDS deposit (challan payment)
Monthly
7th of next month (30 April for March)
TDS return (Form 24Q / 26Q / 27Q)
Quarterly
31 Jul / 31 Oct / 31 Jan / 31 May
TDS certificate — Form 16 (salary)
Annual
15 June following FY
TDS certificate — Form 16A (non-salary)
Quarterly
Within 15 days of return filing
TCS return (Form 27EQ), if applicable
Quarterly
Same cycle as TDS returns
5. PF & ESI calendar
Once headcount and wage thresholds are crossed, PF and ESI registration becomes mandatory — and both run on a strict monthly cycle with no quarterly relief.
Easy to miss: PF/ESI deposit deadlines don't move for weekends or holidays the way some other filings do — treat the 15th as a hard date, not a target.
6. ROC compliance — where it gets entity-specific
This is the stream that only applies once you've incorporated — a Private Limited Company or an LLP. It's also the one most likely to be forgotten precisely because there's no immediate cash outflow tied to it, until the penalties and disqualification risk catch up.
Private Limited Company
DIR-3 KYC — annual, every director, due 30 September
AOC-4 — financial statements, due within 30 days of AGM
MGT-7 / MGT-7A — annual return, due within 60 days of AGM
DPT-3 — return of deposits, due 30 June (even if nil)
Board meetings — minimum 4 per year, gap not exceeding 120 days
AGM — within 6 months of financial year-end (first AGM: 9 months)
Auditor appointment — within 30 days of incorporation, ratified periodically
LLP
DIR-3 KYC — annual, every Designated Partner with a DIN, due 30 September
Form 8 — Statement of Account & Solvency, due 30 October
Form 11 — Annual Return, due 30 May
LLP Agreement changes — Form 3, within 30 days of any change
Partner changes — Form 4, within 30 days of any change
No mandatory statutory audit unless turnover / contribution thresholds are crossed
No AGM requirement — simpler governance layer than a company
The one that quietly derails other matters: a DIN deactivated over a missed DIR-3 KYC on one company blocks that person from being appointed as a director or designated partner anywhere else — including a brand-new LLP that has nothing to do with the dormant company. It's often discovered mid-transaction, when there's no time left to reactivate cleanly. A pattern of ROC defaults can also trigger disqualification under Section 164(2) of the Companies Act, which follows the director across every entity they're associated with.
The compliance year, laid out
Put all six streams on one calendar and a pattern emerges: April–June and September–December are the heaviest windows, largely because Income Tax, GST-annual, and ROC deadlines cluster there.
Illustrative — actual dates shift slightly year to year and by entity type; treat this as a shape of the year, not a substitute for entity-specific dates.
Illustrative example — how this plays out for a real business
Case Illustration
A Private Limited Company, first full year post-incorporation
A manufacturing company incorporated in June, GST-registered from day one, crosses the PF/ESI employee threshold by month four. Here is what its compliance calendar actually looked like — the kind of tracker we build for clients at onboarding.
Jun
Incorporation. Auditor appointed within 30 days. GST registration applied for. PF/ESI registration kept on standby pending headcount.
Jul
First GSTR-3B filed for the part-month of operations. TDS deducted on the first contractor payment — first TDS deposit due 7 Aug.
Sep
Headcount crosses the ESI/PF threshold — registration completed same month to avoid a retrospective compliance gap. Advance tax instalment 2 due.
Oct
First quarterly TDS return (26Q) filed. Monthly GST and PF/ESI cycle now fully running in parallel.
Dec
Advance tax instalment 3. Books closed for the first three quarters and reviewed against the GST 2A/2B reconciliation to catch ITC mismatches early rather than at year-end.
Mar
Year-end close begins: fixed asset register updated, TDS reconciled against Form 26AS, advance tax instalment 4 paid to avoid interest under Sections 234B/234C.
Sep (Yr 2)
AGM held; DIR-3 KYC completed for all directors before the 30 September deadline. Statutory audit finalised.
Oct (Yr 2)
AOC-4 filed within 30 days of the AGM. Tax audit report and ITR filed by 31 October.
Nov (Yr 2)
MGT-7A filed within 60 days of the AGM, closing out the first full ROC compliance cycle.
The pattern worth noticing: nothing here was urgent in isolation. What made it manageable was that every date was on a single tracker from month one — built around this company's actual incorporation date and AGM date, not a generic template.
What non-compliance actually costs
Consequences by stream — illustrative, not exhaustive
Stream
Typical consequence of delay
GST
Late fee per day + interest on unpaid tax + blocks next period's filing
TDS
Interest on late deposit + late filing fee per day + disallowance of expense in Income Tax if uncorrected
PF / ESI
Damages and interest on delayed deposit; potential prosecution on repeated default
Income Tax
Interest under Sections 234A/B/C + late filing fee + loss of certain carry-forward benefits
ROC (Company/LLP)
Additional filing fee per day of delay + director DIN deactivation + Section 164(2) disqualification risk
Building the calendar that actually works
The single highest-leverage habit isn't a smarter checklist — it's building the calendar once, at onboarding or incorporation, tied to the entity's actual dates (financial year-end, AGM date, registration date), and reviewing it every quarter rather than once a year.
Map every applicable stream at onboarding — don't assume; check GST registration status, employee count, and entity type explicitly.
Anchor ROC and Income Tax dates to the entity's actual AGM and incorporation date, not a generic template.
Reconcile GST 2A/2B monthly, not just before the annual return — mismatches compound quietly.
Check director DIN status before any new appointment, not after.
Review the full calendar quarterly, and update it the moment headcount, turnover, or entity structure changes.
Treat the compliance calendar as infrastructure for the entity, not paperwork for the accountant. Built once and maintained quarterly, it rarely needs attention. Neglected, it tends to surface at the worst possible moment — mid-fundraise, mid-acquisition, or mid-loan-application.
MP
Written by
CA Mrinmoy Pathak
Chartered Accountant and principal of Mrinmoy & Co., writing on tax, compliance and business finance
for founders and MSMEs across Northeast India. More about the practice →
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