Compliance
Answer a few questions about the entity and 172 statutory obligations shrink to the ones that are actually yours — the dated ones on a calendar, the undated ones in their own list, each with what it costs to miss.
The obligations are the same either way. Only the layout changes.
1 April to 31 March — the frame every Indian return, instalment and annual filing is counted in.
Eight questions, none of which need a document open. Each answer removes obligations that are not yours.
This one does not shorten the list — every state carries the same set here. It is asked so you can tell which state a professional tax, shop-and-establishment or labour welfare fund line belongs to.
ADT-1, AOC-4 and MGT-7 are each counted from the day the meeting is actually held. Enter the date and all three get real due dates; leave it blank and they stay in the undated list.
Twenty-one more attributes. Answer what you know; anything left blank stays on the list.
Asks only what it must and fills the rest with the most common value. Everything it filled in is listed under the result.
Detailed mode opens twenty-one further questions — paid-up capital, borrowings, transfer pricing thresholds, GST filing scheme, pollution category, product certification and the rest.
197 obligations
15 obligations
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
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1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||
5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
Republic Day on 26 January, Independence Day on 15 August and Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October are the three holidays fixed nationwide by statute, and all three fall on the same Gregorian date every year. They are marked here in red, as Sundays are. None of them postpones a statutory deadline: electronic filing and electronic payment both work on a holiday. What stops is anything that needs a bank counter or a wet signature, so a payment landing on one of these days is settled on the working day before it. Saturdays are deliberately left unmarked — Indian offices commonly work them and banks work the second and fourth.
98 obligations
These obligations have no due date on any calendar. Each one begins when something happens — an event, an expiry, a figure crossed — or it runs continuously for as long as the company does. Putting them on the grid would invent deadlines that do not exist. This is a list to look things up in rather than one to read through, so each group stays folded until you open it. Select a group name to open it.
ADT-1, AOC-4 and MGT-7 are each counted from the day the annual general meeting is actually held, not from a fixed date in the calendar. Until that date is entered they have no due date at all, so they are listed here rather than dropped on 30 September. Enter the meeting date and all three move onto the calendar together.
Due Needs the meeting date
Filed for a reappointment of the existing auditor as well as for a first appointment. Reappointment is the case most often assumed to need no filing.
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Due Needs the meeting date
The notice goes out with the financial statements and the auditor's report attached. Because it is counted backwards from the meeting, a close that has not produced signed accounts by this point forces the meeting itself to move.
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Due Needs the meeting date
Cost of missing it: ₹100 per day, no cap. Three consecutive years missed and every director is disqualified for five years (s.164(2)).
The audited financial statements, the board report and the auditor's report are filed with the registry within 30 days of the meeting. Signing the audit report and filing it with the registry are two separate acts, and only the filing acknowledgement proves the second one happened.
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Due Needs the meeting date
Cost of missing it: ₹100 per day, no cap. Three consecutive years missed and every director is disqualified for five years (s.164(2)).
The annual return of shareholding, directors and the changes made during the year. A subsidiary cannot use the abridged MGT-7A and files the full MGT-7.
17 obligations
Having no date does not make them minor. Listed below are the obligations in this list for which the source states a financial penalty. The full description of each is inside the groups further down.
Appoint a whole-time Company Secretary
Cost of missing it: ₹1,000 a day on the officers in default.
Board resolution naming one responsible officer, and its filing
Cost of missing it: Without the filing, every registered director is exposed.
Consent to Establish before building or expanding a plant
Cost of missing it: Without it the construction itself is unlawful.
Determine whether a new product falls under a quality control order
Cost of missing it: A late determination means the consignment is held.
E-way bill before moving goods worth over ₹50,000
Cost of missing it: Goods moving without a valid e-way bill can be detained or seized along with the vehicle. Release needs payment of, or security for, a penalty of 200% of the tax on the goods if the owner comes forward, otherwise the higher of 50% of their value and 200% of the tax. If it is not paid within 15 days of receiving the order, the goods or the vehicle can be sold (CGST Act s.129). A general penalty of ₹10,000 or the tax evaded, whichever is higher, can also be invoked (s.122(1)(xiv)).
Filling a vacancy in the Company Secretary post
Cost of missing it: ₹5 lakh flat on the company if the post is not filled.
Foreigner registration complete
Cost of missing it: Miss the fourteen days and the individual's residence in India is itself in question.
Remittance declaration before an outbound payment abroad
Cost of missing it: The bank will not process the remittance without the declaration's acknowledgement, and the accountant certificate alone needs one to three working days.
Surrender the Registration Certificate; carry the no-objection certificate
Cost of missing it: Without it the individual can be stopped at the airport.
BIS licence renewal
Cost of missing it: On expiry, customs clearance and sale stop.
CDSCO cosmetics import registration renewal
Cost of missing it: On expiry, imports stop.
CDSCO medical device retention fee
Cost of missing it: Unpaid, the licence is treated as cancelled.
Consent to Operate renewal — red category
Cost of missing it: Operating after the consent expires is operating without consent.
Factory Licence and Fire NOC renewal
Cost of missing it: On expiry, a stop-work order.
Renew each director's digital signature certificate (DSC)
Cost of missing it: On expiry, every filing stops that day.
e-Invoicing: an IRN for every B2B and export invoice
Cost of missing it: Without an IRN the document is not treated as an invoice (CGST Rule 48(5)). The buyer holds no tax invoice to claim input tax credit on (CGST Act s.16(2)(a)), and the supply can attract a penalty of ₹10,000 or the tax evaded, whichever is higher (s.122(1)(i)). Where AATO is ₹10 crore or more, past the 30-day window the IRP will not issue an IRN at all.
Board records that support the non-executive director defence
Cost of missing it: The s.149(12) protection works only where notices, attendance and questions are on record.
The clock starts on the day the thing happens — shares issued, a director appointed, a charge created, an auditor resigning. Most carry a fixed number of days counted from that day, and the day itself counts.
Starts when Immediately on opening premises or a supply point in another state. GST registration is per state, so each new location adds one.
Premises or a supply point in another state needs its own GST registration in that state.
Starts when Before departure, in the home country. It is filed with the home-country institution, not in India.
Available only where home-country national pension membership is maintained, and it has to be obtained in the home country before departure. Only the home-country employer can make the application. The certificate exempts Indian provident fund (EPF) and pension contributions only, not income tax. Without it the individual joins the Indian provident fund with no salary ceiling.
Starts when From the day paid-up capital reaches ₹10 crore.
Cost of missing it: ₹1,000 a day on the officers in default.
The obligation arises on the day of the increase itself, with no notice that the threshold has been crossed.
Starts when On the day of arrival itself (D-day).
Filed by the hotel or the landlord, not by the individual. A copy of it is a required attachment to the foreigner registration, so it is asked for on the day.
Starts when It starts on arrival — 7 days from the arrival date (D+7).
The individual has to go in person; biometrics cannot be given by anyone else. Any query raised at the counter is answered here.
Starts when When a responsible officer is designated, and in any case before an incident occurs.
Cost of missing it: Without the filing, every registered director is exposed.
A tax, safety or environmental breach in India does not end with a penalty on the company — an individual is prosecuted. Where the company has not designated who is responsible, every director on the register becomes that individual by default. A board resolution naming one responsible officer, filed with the registry, narrows 'all directors' to one named person. It has to exist before an incident: producing it afterwards is falsification.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 60 days back from it (D-60).
A single gap blocks the tax clearance application that follows at D-30, which is why the repatriation sequence starts sixty days out.
Starts when CHG-1 within 30 days of creating the charge; CHG-4 within 30 days of its satisfaction. Two separate clocks.
A bank borrowing secured on the company's assets creates a registrable charge. Creation and satisfaction are two separate filings, 30 days each.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 35 days back from it (D-35).
Done jointly by the company and the individual.
Starts when It arises when a new plant or an expansion is planned. The Consent to Establish has to be in hand before construction starts.
Cost of missing it: Without it the construction itself is unlawful.
A Consent to Establish has to be obtained before construction starts on a new plant or on an expansion of an existing one.
Starts when From the day headcount reaches 10.
The company appoints the members itself. From the moment headcount reaches 10, not having a committee is itself the breach, and no notice is given that the line has been crossed.
Starts when It starts on arrival — 2 days from the arrival date (D+2).
The three letters are issued by the company, and the accommodation form copy comes from the hotel or landlord that filed it. Both are required attachments to the registration application, and being late here means the fourteen days cannot be met.
Starts when When a new product is lined up for shipment. Counted back from the shipping date, the determination is made about 6 months ahead.
Cost of missing it: A late determination means the consignment is held.
Before a new product is shipped, it has to be established whether it falls under a quality control order, which makes certification compulsory for that product. The determination is made about six months ahead of shipment.
Starts when Before each movement of goods whose consignment value (the invoice, bill of supply or delivery challan value, GST included) exceeds ₹50,000. That covers a sale or purchase, imported goods leaving the port after customs clearance, a transfer between your own premises, goods sent for job work or repair, a return, or your own equipment moving between sites. The company's turnover does not matter. A business that never moves goods has nothing to do here.
Cost of missing it: Goods moving without a valid e-way bill can be detained or seized along with the vehicle. Release needs payment of, or security for, a penalty of 200% of the tax on the goods if the owner comes forward, otherwise the higher of 50% of their value and 200% of the tax. If it is not paid within 15 days of receiving the order, the goods or the vehicle can be sold (CGST Act s.129). A general penalty of ₹10,000 or the tax evaded, whichever is higher, can also be invoked (s.122(1)(xiv)).
The consignor or recipient that causes the movement fills in Part A (the goods). Part B (the vehicle number, or the rail, air or shipping document) is filled in by that same consignor or recipient when it arranges the transport itself, in its own, hired or public vehicle or by rail, air or ship. When the goods are handed to a road transporter instead, the transporter generates the bill from your Part A (CGST Rule 138(1) to (3)). An e-way bill is valid for one day per 200 km, or per 20 km for over-dimensional cargo or a multimodal shipment with a sea leg, and the first day runs to midnight of the day after it is generated (Rule 138(10)). Goods sent to a job worker in another state need one whatever their value. Movement within a single state follows that state's own e-way bill rules, which can differ. No e-way bill is needed for the movements listed in Rule 138(14), among them non-motorised conveyance, port or airport to an inland container depot or container freight station for customs clearance, goods under customs bond, supervision or seal, most GST-exempt goods, alcoholic liquor, crude oil, petrol, diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel, currency, and used personal and household effects. If you e-invoice, generating the IRN fills Part A automatically.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 60 days back from it (D-60).
The salary is fixed as a rupee figure at this point rather than left in the home currency, and the figure has to clear the salary floor set by the visa rules.
Starts when Within 30 days of issuing shares (or other equity instruments) to the non-resident parent or investor.
The 30 days run from the date the shares are issued, not from the day the remittance arrives (FEMA 395/2019-RB reg. 4(1)). The allotment is also reported to the Registrar on PAS-3, a separate filing.
Starts when Within 60 days of the share transfer, resident to non-resident or the reverse, filed on the FIRMS portal.
Filed on the FIRMS portal when shares move from a resident to a non-resident or the other way round. The 60 days run from the transfer.
Starts when It arises only where a Certificate of Coverage was obtained. The copy has to reach the local office before the first payroll filing.
Only where a certificate was obtained. The Indian entity files it, and the same copy later substitutes for provident fund proof at visa extension.
Starts when Six months from the day the post falls vacant. It applies only above ₹10 crore of paid-up capital.
Cost of missing it: ₹5 lakh flat on the company if the post is not filled.
Applies only where paid-up capital is ₹10 crore or more and a whole-time Company Secretary is therefore required.
Starts when It starts on the day the auditor resigns. The board appoints a replacement within 30 days, and the members approve within 3 months of that board appointment.
The board appoints a replacement within 30 days and the members approve that appointment within three months. Leaving the seat vacant stops the audit and delays the whole close.
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Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 40 days back from it (D-40).
Issued by the Indian entity, with the secondment order coming from head office. The visa application depends on this set, so a delay here moves every date after it.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 30 days back from it (D-30).
The company makes the application, not the departing individual. The previous tax years must already be filed and paid — any gap surfaces at this point.
Starts when Before the length of the posting is fixed. It is the first decision, ahead of the D-90 sequence — nothing downstream can be scheduled until it is made.
The first decision on the calendar, not an administrative detail: tax, the children's school years and provident fund treatment all turn on the length of the posting.
Starts when Within 14 days of arrival (D+14). It is a statutory limit, not a date that can be pushed back for internal reasons.
Cost of missing it: Miss the fourteen days and the individual's residence in India is itself in question.
Form-I, filed through the e-FRRO portal (indianfrro.gov.in) or the Su-Swagatam app. Fourteen days is a statutory limit. The papers can be produced by the company, but attendance and biometrics belong to the individual — one of the five things expatriates most often miss. The Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025 changed the residence procedures, and the conditions printed on the individual visa always prevail.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 90 days back from it (D-90).
Certificates, a bank account and an office address. D is the date of arrival, and every date on this calendar counts from it.
Starts when 31 July of the year following departure. It falls in the financial year after the departure year and happens once only, so it never appears on the departure year calendar.
Leaving does not end the obligation: an Indian return for that year is still due on 31 July the following year. Close the Indian account early and the refund has nowhere to go.
Starts when Within 15 days of allotment. There is an earlier deadline behind it: the shares must be allotted within 60 days of receiving the application money.
Shares have to be allotted within 60 days of receiving the application money, and the return of allotment follows within 15 days of that allotment. Two clocks, one after the other.
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Starts when The moment the breach becomes known. First notice immediately, the detailed report within 72 hours.
Under the DPDP Act: a first notice immediately and a detailed report within 72 hours. The obligation applies from May 2027, so for now it belongs on the calendar as forthcoming rather than current.
Starts when On the day of arrival itself (D-day).
Permitted stay, permitted activity and re-entry are printed on the individual visa and have to be read by the holder. The Immigration and Foreigners Act 2025 changed these procedures, and the conditions printed on the individual visa always prevail.
Starts when It arises only where family accompanies the expatriate. Fourteen days from their arrival (D+14).
The same fourteen-day limit applies to accompanying family. Children under 12 are exempt.
Starts when Before the bank acts on the remittance. The online declaration goes in ahead of the payment (Form 145; Form 15CA for remittances before 1 April 2026), and the accountant certificate (Form 146; Form 15CB before 1 April 2026) is added where the payment is taxable and the year aggregate to that payee exceeds ₹5 lakh.
Cost of missing it: The bank will not process the remittance without the declaration's acknowledgement, and the accountant certificate alone needs one to three working days.
An Indian company paying money abroad files an online declaration before the bank acts on the remittance: Form 145 for remittances from 1 April 2026, Form 15CA before that. Where the payment is taxable and the aggregate paid to that payee in the year exceeds ₹5 lakh, a chartered accountant's certificate is required as well (Form 146; Form 15CB before 1 April 2026), and that certificate alone takes one to three working days. Claiming a treaty rate needs the tax residency certificate (TRC), Form 41 (Form 10F before 1 April 2026) and a no-permanent-establishment declaration in addition. The lead time has to be planned into the payment date rather than discovered on it.
Starts when From the change in the parent shareholding, 30 days at each step: company notice BEN-4, then declaration BEN-1, then registry filing BEN-2. Register BEN-3 is maintained alongside.
Trace the ultimate individual owner sitting above the overseas parent. The chain runs company notice (BEN-4), then the individual's declaration (BEN-1), then the filing with the registrar (BEN-2), 30 days at each step, with register BEN-3 maintained alongside.
Starts when On the day of departure itself (D-day).
Cost of missing it: Without it the individual can be stopped at the airport.
The registration certificate is handed back on departure and the no-objection certificate is carried.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 9 days back from it (D-9) on the normal route. A longer review pushes this date out.
This is the timing on the normal route.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 30 days back from it (D-30).
The individual attends in person. Family visas are submitted at the same time rather than in a second round, so the family papers have to be ready on this date too.
Starts when Before departure. It can be started as soon as the posting is confirmed.
A copy of the passport is enough to apply, so it can be done before leaving rather than after arrival.
Starts when Only after 182 days in India (D+182). It is not available on arrival — the days have to accumulate first.
Eligibility arises once 182 days or more have been spent in India in the 12 months before the application. Enrolment is in person at an Aadhaar centre on Form 7 or Form 8, and the biometrics are the individual's to give.
Starts when From the day headcount reaches 300.
Standing Orders do not take effect when the company adopts them — they take effect only once the labour authority certifies the text, and operating differently from the certified text is itself a breach. Applies across all sectors.
Starts when From the day turnover reaches ₹200 crore, or borrowings reach ₹100 crore.
Either limb triggers the appointment on its own — turnover of ₹200 crore or more, or borrowings of ₹100 crore or more.
Starts when At the board meeting itself, at the moment the dissent is expressed. It begins and ends in that room.
A director who dissents at a board meeting asks, at that meeting, for the dissent to be entered in the minutes. That entry is the basis for 'I objected'. Amending minutes later is falsification, so there is no second chance to create the record.
Starts when From the day turnover reaches ₹50 crore, or borrowings reach ₹25 crore. Crossing the line at any point in the year is enough, not just at the year end.
The statutory auditor gives a separate opinion on whether internal controls actually work. The threshold counts if it is crossed at any point during the year.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 50 days back from it (D-50).
The individual's own task; the company cannot do it on their behalf. Photographs are taken at the same time.
Starts when Departure alone does not start it. The claim can only go in once employment has ended and the company confirmation has been issued.
Employment must have ended and the company's confirmation must have been issued before the claim can be made.
Starts when Once the refund from the final Indian return has actually arrived. Closing the account at departure leaves the refund with nowhere to land.
The refund from the final return is paid into it, so the account is closed only after the refund has arrived.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 14 days back from it (D-14).
The temporary address matters beyond the trip itself: the accommodation form filed against it is a required attachment to the fourteen-day foreigner registration.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 30 days back from it (D-30).
Checked alongside the clearance application made on the same day, so a shortfall shows up before the application rather than in it.
Starts when It starts once the arrival date is fixed — 45 days back from it (D-45).
Gathered by the individual — degree and experience certificates, together with an English CV.
Starts when Within 30 days of a director being appointed, resigning or otherwise changed. The resigning director also files DIR-11 separately.
Covers appointment, resignation and a change in a director's particulars. A resigning director also files DIR-11 in their own name, separately from the company's filing.
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Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 14 days back from it (D-14).
The provident fund claim after departure depends on these, so they are prepared while the employee is still on the payroll and handed over on departure.
Starts when It arises every time the residential address changes, so it can repeat any number of times during a posting. In practice it is filed by the day before the move.
Filed every time the residential address changes, not only on the first move out of temporary accommodation.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — the day before departure (D-1).
Filed together with the company, the day before travel.
Starts when It starts on arrival — 1 days from the arrival date (D+1).
Company and individual together. The address settled here is the one the foreigner registration is made against; changing it later means a separate change-of-address filing.
Starts when Within 30 days of the change of registered office.
A change of the company's registered office is notified to the registrar on INC-22 within 30 days. It sits in the same source row as the change of director (DIR-12) and the special resolution (MGT-14), but each is a separate filing running its own 30-day clock — moving the office under a resolution produces two of them at once, and filing one does not cover the other.
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Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 7 days back from it (D-7).
Carried out with the landlord present, and the utility accounts are settled at the same time.
Starts when From the day paid-up capital reaches ₹50 crore. After that the clock runs from the date of appointment: 5 years for an individual auditor, 10 years for a firm.
Once the threshold is crossed the same auditor cannot be reappointed indefinitely — five years for an individual auditor, ten for a firm.
Starts when Written notice within 30 days of the director's other directorships or shareholdings arising or changing.
Cost of missing it: ₹25,000 on the director if missed.
A director holding shares or an office in another company must disclose it to the company in writing. The duty sits on the individual director, and so does the penalty.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 60 days back from it (D-60).
Company side. The successor's visa needs the same lead time as the original posting — this calendar starts at D-90 — so it is begun while the outgoing employee is still in place.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 7 days back from it (D-7).
The closing figure is given to the employee before departure; the settlement itself is paid on departure.
Starts when On moving in. The original lease agreement is collected at that point.
Not a statutory deadline, but the document is used again for the bank account, for Aadhaar and for the change of address filing.
Starts when After the foreigner registration is complete. This one only opens once that step is done.
The individual attends in person, and registration has to be complete first.
Starts when On the day of arrival itself (D-day).
Arranged on the day of arrival, in the individual's own name rather than the company's.
Starts when When a registered trade union comes to exist at a site. It is not on the company schedule — the trigger comes from the union side.
Where one registered union exists it has to be recognised as the negotiating union. Where there are several, the one holding more than 51% of the members is recognised. Not applicable where there is no union.
Starts when At the moment the board resolution designating the responsible officer is passed. The limits go into that same resolution, not a separate document.
The resolution that names the officer should also state how far that person may decide alone, and what needs head-office approval. That record is the basis for 'that was beyond my authority'.
Starts when Before the posting is approved. School admission timetables run on their own calendar, so for a posting with family this is one of the first things to check.
A family item. The Indian school year starts in April, so the admission calendar is settled before the posting is signed off rather than after.
Starts when From the day borrowings reach ₹100 crore.
An external company secretary audits compliance as a whole — not the accounts — and issues a report on it.
Starts when Before the foreigner registration application is made. It goes into that application, so it comes first in the sequence.
A hotel or serviced apartment accommodation form (C-Form) copy is accepted. A lease is not needed first.
Starts when SH-7 and MGT-14 each within 30 days of the increase in authorised capital. Two filings, not one.
One resolution produces two filings — SH-7 for the increase in authorised capital and MGT-14 for the resolution itself, 30 days each.
Starts when From the day the premises open. The window runs 30 to 90 days depending on the state, so check that state figure before opening.
Opening premises in a state brings a registration with that state, due within 30 to 90 days of opening. The window varies by state, and it runs from the day the premises open.
Starts when Each time an officer is seconded. It is written per posting, not reused from the last one.
Each seconded officer's duties are set down in writing. Where responsibility is disputed later, the job description is the basis for 'that was not my remit'. It is prepared at the time of the posting — a document created after an incident is falsification.
Starts when It starts once the departure date is fixed — 14 days back from it (D-14).
The individual's own arrangements, settled two weeks before departure.
Starts when Within 4 months of departure. It is settled after the individual has already left India, so someone has to be left holding it.
Returned by the landlord, within four months of departure.
Licences, consents and certificates. There is no common annual date here; there is the date printed on your own document, and renewal has to start well before it. A lapse is not a late fee, it is a stop-work order or a customs clearance that does not come.
Starts when The expiry date on the visa is the trigger. Extensions are granted one year at a time, to five years in total.
Granted one year at a time, to five years in total. Where a Certificate of Coverage was obtained, its copy substitutes for the provident fund proof at extension.
Starts when The expiry date on the BIS licence is the trigger. The cycle is five years, and the renewal goes in before it lapses.
Cost of missing it: On expiry, customs clearance and sale stop.
A product covered by Bureau of Indian Standards certification carries a licence that runs for five years. A lapse is not settled by paying a fee: the goods stop at customs and off the shelf until the licence is back in force.
Starts when The expiry date on the cosmetics import registration is the trigger. The cycle is three years, and the renewal goes in before it lapses.
Cost of missing it: On expiry, imports stop.
An import registration for cosmetics runs for three years — the shortest cycle in this group, where most of the neighbouring items run for five. Renewal is applied for before the registration expires.
Starts when The five-year retention period on the registration is what runs out. The fee is paid before it does — this one is kept alive by payment, not by a renewal application.
Cost of missing it: Unpaid, the licence is treated as cancelled.
A medical device registration carries a retention fee payable every five years. It is a payment rather than a renewal application, so it is tracked by the expiry date of the registration it keeps alive.
Starts when The expiry date on the current Consent to Operate or Environmental Clearance is the trigger. The cycle is ten years, with the application in before it lapses.
An orange-category plant renews its Consent to Operate every ten years, and the Environmental Clearance sits on the same ten-year line. The renewal application goes in before the current consent expires, not after it has lapsed.
Starts when The expiry date on the Consent to Operate is the trigger. Red-category plants renew every 5 years, with the application in before it lapses.
Cost of missing it: Operating after the consent expires is operating without consent.
Plants are graded red, orange or green by pollution load, and the grade sets how often the Consent to Operate has to be renewed — the dirtier the grade, the more often it renews. A red-category plant renews every five years with the State Pollution Control Board.
Starts when The expiry dates written on the factory licence and the fire NOC are the triggers. The cycle runs 1 to 3 years depending on sector and state, so it has to be tracked from the documents themselves.
Cost of missing it: On expiry, a stop-work order.
A factory licence and the fire no-objection certificate run on a one to three year cycle, the period varying by sector and by state. These are managed by expiry date rather than by a filing deadline, so the renewal application goes in before the certificate lapses.
Starts when Each certificate's own expiry date is the trigger: renew 30 days before it. Expiry dates differ from director to director, so this is tracked person by person.
Cost of missing it: On expiry, every filing stops that day.
Every registry filing is signed with a director's digital signature certificate, so this is managed against an expiry date rather than a deadline — nothing falls due until the certificate simply stops working. Renewal is started 30 days ahead, and the DIN, KYC and DSC validity of each director is worth reviewing once a quarter so that no certificate reaches its expiry unnoticed.
Starts when The expiry date on the Certificate of Coverage is the trigger. The extension has to be agreed before it lapses.
Handled by head-office HR, agreed before the certificate's term runs out rather than after.
Starts when The expiry date on the Consent to Operate is the trigger. Green-category plants renew every 15 years, with the application in before it lapses.
A green-category plant renews its Consent to Operate every fifteen years. Two changes of personnel will usually pass between one renewal and the next, so the expiry date belongs in a register rather than in one person's memory.
Starts when The expiry date on the registration is the trigger. It is about five years, though the period and the procedure vary by state. Closing registered premises is itself a filing, which is easy to miss.
The state establishment registration covering an office or a shop renews on a five-year cycle, though the period and the procedure differ from state to state. Closing registered premises is itself a filing — vacating the space does not end the registration.
Starts when The three-year term of the committee members is what runs out. Reappoint before it expires.
Members hold office for three years. Reappoint them before the term runs out, or the company is left with no committee.
These do not apply at all until a turnover, capital or headcount figure is crossed. Some apply from the day it is crossed, others only from the next financial year, so check each entry.
Starts when From the day any one of net profit ₹5 crore, net worth ₹500 crore or turnover ₹1,000 crore is crossed. Any one of the three is enough.
Triggered by any one of three figures — net profit ₹5 crore, net worth ₹500 crore or turnover ₹1,000 crore. The obligation covers the CSR spend, the CSR committee and Form CSR-2, and amounts carried over unspent become a liability in the accounts.
Starts when From 1 April of the financial year after aggregate turnover first exceeds ₹5 crore. Every financial year from 2017-18 counts, not only the latest; a company that already exceeded ₹5 crore in a year up to 2022-23 has been covered since 1 August 2023 at the latest. Crossing ₹5 crore part-way through a year does not start it that day, and falling back below ₹5 crore later does not end it.
Cost of missing it: Without an IRN the document is not treated as an invoice (CGST Rule 48(5)). The buyer holds no tax invoice to claim input tax credit on (CGST Act s.16(2)(a)), and the supply can attract a penalty of ₹10,000 or the tax evaded, whichever is higher (s.122(1)(i)). Where AATO is ₹10 crore or more, past the 30-day window the IRP will not issue an IRN at all.
From then on, every invoice, credit note and debit note to a GST-registered buyer (SEZ units included) or for export, including exports to group companies abroad, is uploaded to an Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) and must carry the Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and signed QR code it returns. Invoices to unregistered buyers (B2C) are outside this. Turnover here means aggregate turnover: every GSTIN under the company's PAN across India, exempt supplies and exports included, the GST itself left out. Where annual aggregate turnover (AATO) is ₹10 crore or more, the IRP refuses any document more than 30 days old, so an invoice dated 1 April must be reported by 30 April (GSTN advisory of 5 November 2024, in force from 1 April 2025). Suppliers that do not have to e-invoice: SEZ units (SEZ developers do), banks, insurers and other financial institutions including NBFCs, goods transport agencies, suppliers of passenger transport or of multiplex cinema admission, government departments and local authorities (Notification 13/2020-Central Tax as amended; ₹5 crore from 1 August 2023 under Notification 10/2023-Central Tax).
Tool for thise-Invoice (INV-01) guide
Starts when From the day headcount reaches 20 for the provident fund, or 10 for state insurance. The two thresholds differ, so state insurance bites first.
Registration and the monthly payment cycle both begin the moment the headcount is reached, with no notice that the line has been crossed.
Starts when From the day annual turnover passes ₹2 crore for GSTR-9, and ₹5 crore for GSTR-9C. Two separate thresholds.
The annual return GSTR-9 is required above ₹2 crore of turnover, and the reconciliation statement GSTR-9C above ₹5 crore.
Continuous obligations with nothing to file on a date: registers kept current, records retained for their statutory period, notices displayed, policies maintained. They are checked at inspection, not on a due date.
Starts when This cannot start after an incident. The notices, attendance and questions have to already be on record, built up as a matter of routine.
Cost of missing it: The s.149(12) protection works only where notices, attendance and questions are on record.
A director who is not in day-to-day charge is not automatically out of reach of a prosecution. The statutory protection turns on what the board papers actually show — that notice was given, who attended, and what was asked. Where none of that is on record, the protection has nothing to rest on, and minutes amended afterwards are falsification rather than evidence.
Starts when It runs for as long as the plant is operated. Whose name is on the registration is worth re-checking whenever people move roles.
Where there is a plant, the individual named on its registration is the accused in a safety or environmental case. That person often does not know their name is on it, so the registration has to be read and the name confirmed.
Starts when Withholding follows each monthly payroll run. The certificate itself is issued once a year, by 15 June — on Form 130 (formerly Form 16) from tax year 2026-27.
Withheld monthly by the Indian entity on the expatriate's salary. The certificate moves to new Form 130 (formerly Form 16) from tax year 2026-27 and is first issued on it by 15 June 2027; the certificate for FY 2025-26, issued by 15 June 2026, is still the old Form 16.
Tool for thisTDS projection
Starts when Reviewed once a year, so that visa and Certificate of Coverage extensions can be agreed before either expires.
Reviewed once a year so extensions are agreed before expiry. Where no Certificate of Coverage exists, only the visa date is tracked.
Starts when There is no date to put on a calendar. The source sets no month or day, so pick a review month and keep it the same every year.
Once a year each seconded officer checks which positions they are actually registered in. The review clears positions held without the person's knowledge.
Starts when Each state notifies the revised dearness allowance twice a year, in April and October. The notification is the trigger, and it is applied in the payroll for those months.
Cost of missing it: The difference not applied counts as unpaid wages.
Each state notifies a revised variable dearness allowance twice a year, and the minimum wage moves with it. The revised figure has to be reflected in the payroll register.
Starts when Not a date but an event: each time an inspection or a training session takes place, recorded with the date and signatures.
Site inspection and training records, each carrying a date and a signature, are the basis for 'I did not know and took due care'. Proving due care falls on the officer, not on the authority.
Starts when Each time there is something to enter. The register of members (MGT-1), the significant beneficial owners register (BEN-3) and the board minutes are kept current as entries arise, not written up at the year end.
Separately from anything filed with the registry, the company keeps its own statutory books: the register of members (MGT-1), the register of significant beneficial owners (BEN-3) and the board minutes. These are maintained continuously as entries arise, not assembled at year end, and a filing made to the registry does not stand in for the register behind it.
Starts when There is no nationwide date. Both the filing cycle and the deadline are set by each state, and the state that counts is where each employee works.
Levied by the state rather than centrally, and only some states levy it — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal and Telangana among them. The filing cycle and the due date follow the state.
Tool for thisSalary calculator
Starts when It is not conditional on finding someone. The enquiry is made and the record kept whatever the outcome, including where there is no significant beneficial owner.
Identifying the significant beneficial owner is a duty to enquire before it is a duty to file. Where the enquiry finds no significant beneficial owner there is nothing to file, and that is exactly where companies end up with no evidence at all — a company with no SBO still has to be able to show that it asked. So the enquiry itself is written down and kept, whatever it found. Where the enquiry does find one, the filing chain that follows runs BEN-4, then BEN-1, then BEN-2, with BEN-3 maintained alongside.
Starts when Contribution periods run April to September and October to March (ESI (General) Regulations, 1950, kept in force by the Code on Social Security's transitional saving, s.164(2), until new regulations are notified). An employee covered when a period begins stays covered to its end even if a raise takes wages over the ceiling (S.O. 2351(E), in force from 8 May 2026), so contributions continue to the end of that half rather than stopping in the month wages crossed.
Each half-year is one contribution period. Coverage is tested on monthly ESI wages against ₹21,000. From the November 2025 wage month the Labour Ministry's FAQs (16 March 2026) take those wages as the Code on Social Security, 2020 defines them: Basic + DA + retaining allowance, topped up to half of total pay, not gross. Counting special allowance only through that half-of-pay test also follows the FAQs; read literally, s.2(88) would count such allowances as wages in full. Practice is not yet uniform: some advisers and ESIC branch offices still test ₹21,000 against gross, so confirm with your branch office. The ₹21,000 figure itself continues administratively, because no ESI wage ceiling had been notified under the Code as of September 2026. If wages cross the ceiling in the middle of a period, contributions do not stop that month — they continue to the end of that half. That rule, the old ESI Act's s.2(9) proviso, lapsed with the Act on 21 November 2025 and was restated by S.O. 2351(E) from 8 May 2026; no instrument covered the time in between, which takes in most of the October 2025 to March 2026 period. New ESI (General) Regulations under the Code were still in draft as of September 2026; once they are notified, check whether the periods have changed.
What the questions do, why a majority of these obligations have no date at all, and where the year boundaries fall.
India does not hand a company one list of things to file. It hands it a set of conditional lists. Provident fund starts at twenty employees and state insurance at ten. E-invoicing begins the financial year after turnover first exceeds ₹5 crore. Transfer pricing documentation exists only where there are transactions with overseas group companies. Printed as one flat list, all 172 obligations look equally like somebody else’s problem, and the reader stops reading.
So each answer here removes rather than adds. Expatriate postings alone account for 55 of the 172 entries — answer that nobody is posted to India and a third of the list goes at once. Eight answers usually bring it down to something a person can read in one sitting, and the running count beside the questions shows exactly how much each answer took out. Anything left unanswered stays on the list, because an unanswered question is not a no.
Of the 172 obligations here, 98 genuinely have no calendar date. Some start the day an event happens — a share allotment, a director change, a charge created over assets — and run a fixed number of days from it. Some are managed by expiry, like a factory licence or a consent to operate. Some switch on when a capital, turnover or borrowing figure is crossed, either at once or from the next financial year. Some are standing duties that are never finished.
Those are kept off the grid and listed on their own, each with the trigger that starts its clock. An event-driven filing acquires a deadline the moment the event occurs and not one day earlier, so placing it in, say, June would be a fabrication. Both counts are shown side by side, because the undated set is the larger of the two and is the one most easily mistaken for a footnote.
ADT-1, AOC-4 and MGT-7 are each counted from the day the annual general meeting is actually held. Thirty September is the outer limit for holding that meeting on a 31 March year end, not a filing deadline — a company that meets on 12 September files AOC-4 by 12 October, not 30 October. Because all three derive from the same date, defaulting it would put three wrong deadlines on the calendar at once, which is why the meeting date is asked rather than assumed.
The cost of the heaviest one is not subtle. AOC-4 attracts ₹100 for every day of delay with no upper limit, and three consecutive years missed disqualifies every director for five years under section 164(2). Until a meeting date is entered, the three filings sit in the undated list with that explanation attached.
The Indian financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March, and nearly every deadline is expressed against it. April is month one. Advance tax falls on the fifteenth of June, September, December and March. The annual filings cluster in the autumn that follows the close. Working in any other frame is how a month quietly goes missing — a common stumble coming from a country whose corporate year ends in December.
A calendar printed for a wall, though, runs January to December, so both layouts are offered here from the same set of obligations. In the January-to-December view the first three months belong to the financial year that began the previous April and are pulled from it rather than left blank. That seam is exactly where a hand-built calendar loses its first quarter.
The answers, the year you picked and the meeting date are written into the address bar and nowhere else. No profile is stored, nothing is sent to a server, and the filtering runs entirely on your machine — which also means the link reproduces the same calendar for whoever opens it, and the page prints exactly what you see.
The trade is that there is no reminder service and no record of what you have already filed. This is a calendar you read and print, not an inbox that chases you.
The year boundary, the three kinds of obligation, what a miss actually costs, and the order the year-end has to run in.
The Indian financial year runs from 1 April to 31 March, and nearly every deadline is expressed against it. April is month one. Advance tax falls on the fifteenth of June, September, December and March. The annual filings cluster in the autumn that follows the close. Working in any other frame is how a month quietly goes missing — and it is a common stumble coming from a country whose corporate year ends in December.
A calendar printed for a wall, though, runs January to December, so both layouts are offered here from the same set of obligations. In the January-to-December view the first three months belong to the financial year that began the previous April and are pulled from it rather than left blank. That seam is exactly where a hand-built calendar loses its first quarter.
The other half of the design is subtraction. India does not hand a company one list of things to file; it hands it a set of conditional lists. Provident fund starts at twenty employees and state insurance at ten. E-invoicing begins the financial year after turnover first exceeds ₹5 crore. Transfer pricing documentation exists only where there are transactions with overseas group companies. Expatriate postings alone account for 55 of the 172 entries here — answer that nobody is posted to India and a third of the list goes at once.
Of the 172 obligations here, 98 have no calendar date. That is not missing data — the date does not exist until something happens. Most compliance calendars sold as products quietly put every obligation on a day anyway, because a grid with holes looks unfinished. That is how invented deadlines get published, so the three kinds are kept apart here.
A day on the calendar
Recurs on a fixed day — monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or once a year — whether or not anything happened.
GSTR-3B on the 20th of the following month. Advance tax on 15 June.
Nothing to work out. The only way to fail is to forget, which is what a calendar is for.
A clock that starts when something happens
No date exists until the event occurs; then a fixed number of days runs from it.
A share allotment starts the PAS-3 clock. A director change starts DIR-12. A charge over assets starts CHG-1.
Finance is told about the event weeks later, by which time the clock has been running the whole time.
Managed by a register, not by a date
A licence expires. An obligation switches on once a capital, turnover or borrowing figure is crossed — some at once, some from the next financial year. A duty simply never ends.
Factory licence renewal. E-invoicing from the year after turnover first exceeds ₹5 crore. Statutory registers kept current.
Discovered by an inspector, a customs hold or a stop-work order rather than by a reminder.
Due dates are easy to find and easy to ignore. The reason to act on one is the amount attached to it, so the amounts are put in the open here rather than folded into a tooltip. Every figure below also appears on the individual obligation in the calendar.
The fee runs per form and per day, so a filing that slips a quarter is a five-figure rupee amount before anything else. Worse, three consecutive years missed disqualifies every director for five years — and a disqualified director is disqualified in every company they sit in, not only this one.
Basis · Companies Act 2013 — five-year disqualification under section 164(2).
Interest runs from the due date, and the next month's GSTR-1 is blocked until the return is filed, so one late month stops the following one. GST that was collected from customers and left unpaid for three months is a prosecution matter, not a fee.
Basis · Central Goods and Services Tax Act — interest on delayed payment under section 50.
This is the hardest date in the GST year because there is no fee to pay and no extension to ask for. The credit does not carry forward and is not refunded — it simply stops existing. Separately, credit taken against a supplier who has not filed GSTR-3B by 30 September must be reversed by the same date.
Basis · CGST Rule 37A for the supplier-default reversal.
Interest is the smaller half. Where tax was never deducted at all, thirty per cent of the underlying expense is disallowed in the tax computation, so a missed deduction on a large invoice costs far more than the tax itself. Amounts withheld and not paid over can also become a criminal matter.
Basis · Income-tax Act, 2025 s.398(3)(a) for the interest (s.201(1A) of the 1961 Act for FY 2025-26 and earlier); the disallowance applies where tax was not deducted.
These are the amounts the statute charges. Professional fees, the credit your customer loses downstream, and the time spent on a condonation application are on top of them.
Between mid-February and 1 April there is a sequence in which each step depends on the one before it. Anything not settled by 31 March cannot be settled after it, and a close that starts late pushes every September and October deadline behind it.
Everything that follows depends on this list being right. A supplier who registered during the year changes the payment clock that applies to their invoices.
The second step, and only possible once the supplier list is settled. A payment clock that straddles 31 March is settled on this side of it.
The last instalment of the year. Shortfalls found after this date are interest, not instalments.
Issue the self-invoices that were never raised. A reverse-charge supply with no self-invoice has no credit attached to it.
Credit taken on an invoice that has gone unpaid this long has to be dealt with rather than left in the ledger.
The last practical window before the disallowance attaches to the year being closed.
The physical count the auditor will ask about. It cannot be done retrospectively.
Budget changes take effect with the new year. Payroll and invoicing that still run last year’s rates produce a quarter of corrections.
Everything after this point — the general meeting, the audit report, the annual filings — is scheduled off the date this finishes.
This is a reference calendar, not filing software. It is not connected to any government portal, it cannot see what has already been filed, and the dates shown are the statutory outer limits. An internal cut-off belongs several days earlier, because portals queue and payments settle on banking days.
Three national holidays are marked — Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti — and none of them postpones a deadline. Electronic filing and electronic payment both work on a holiday. What stops is anything needing a bank counter or a signature in person, so a payment landing on one of those days is normally settled on the last working day before it.
State-level obligations vary far more than the national ones. Professional tax, labour welfare fund contributions, shop-and-establishment renewal and factory inspection dates differ by state, and are shown with that caveat rather than as settled national dates. Nothing here is filed for you, and nothing here is legal or tax advice.
About the filtering, the undated obligations and the two year views.
Because most Indian compliance obligations are conditional. Each answer removes the ones whose condition the entity does not meet — twenty employees for provident fund, a turnover threshold for e-invoicing, an overseas group transaction for transfer pricing. The count above the questions shows the effect of each answer as you give it.
Everything that depends on it stays on the list. An unanswered question is treated as unknown rather than as a no, because silently dropping a real obligation is a worse failure than showing one obligation too many.
It has no fixed date. AOC-4, MGT-7 and ADT-1 are all counted from the day the annual general meeting is held, so until that date is entered they sit in the undated list. Thirty September is the outer limit for holding the meeting, not a filing deadline.
Not by itself. Electronic filing and electronic payment work on both. What stops is anything needing a bank counter or a signature in person, so a payment landing on one of those days is normally settled on the last working day before it.
Yes. Every answer, and the year you picked, are written into the address bar, so the link reproduces the same calendar for whoever opens it. Nothing is sent to a server — the filtering runs entirely in your browser.
Pick the financial year you are planning for; April to March is the frame every Indian deadline is expressed in. Switch to the calendar-year view when you want a January-to-December sheet to print and pin up.
The 20th of the following month for monthly filers, with the return and the payment falling on the same day. Under the quarterly QRMP scheme it is the 22nd or the 24th of the month after the quarter, depending on which group the state of registration falls into. Paying late carries 18% a year, and next month's GSTR-1 is blocked until the return is filed. GSTR-1 itself comes earlier, on the 11th.
It is not a fixed date. AOC-4 is due 30 days after the annual general meeting, so a meeting held on 30 September makes it 30 October, and an earlier meeting moves it earlier. A one person company holds no meeting and works to 180 days from the year-end instead. The same meeting date fixes ADT-1 at 15 days and MGT-7 at 60.
An additional fee of ₹100 a day accrues with no ceiling, and it keeps running until the form is filed — a year late is ₹36,500 on that form alone. Penalties on the company and its officers are separate. Miss financial statements or annual returns for three consecutive financial years and every director of the company is disqualified for five years under s.164(2). A disqualified director cannot sit on any other board, and the blocked director identification number stops filings at those companies too.
Once a year, by everyone holding a director identification number as at 31 March. This calendar places it on 30 June. The ministry has moved this date more than once and has extended it by circular in some years, so confirm the current year's date on the MCA portal before relying on it. What matters more in practice is the consequence: miss it and the DIN is deactivated, every e-form that director signs stops, and reactivation costs ₹5,000. A change of passport, address or contact details calls for a fresh filing at the time of the change rather than at the next cycle.
No. Independence Day is a national holiday and banks and government offices are closed, but that does not extend a GST, withholding or company filing deadline. The e-filing and e-payment portals work, and a date moves only when CBIC or CBDT issues a notification saying so. Only payments that need a banking day are affected, so a holiday is a reason to file early rather than late. The same is true of 26 January and 2 October.
In four instalments — 15 June, 15 September, 15 December and 15 March — at a cumulative 15%, 45%, 75% and 100% of the estimated annual liability. The percentages are cumulative rather than per instalment, which is the part most often missed. Shortfalls carry interest: under ss.234B and 234C for FY 2025-26 and earlier, including the 15 March 2026 instalment, and under s.424 and s.425 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 from tax year 2026-27, starting with the 15 June 2026 instalment. Tax paid up to 31 March still counts as advance tax for that year, but the interest on what was short at 15 March remains.
There is no single number. This checklist holds 172 obligations and no company is subject to all of them. Headcount, turnover, the states with a place of business, whether anything is manufactured, foreign shareholding, transactions with overseas group companies and whether anyone is posted in from abroad all cut the list differently. Answering a handful of questions removes most of it, and what is left is the list worth managing.