Corporate compliance calendar for private limited companies in India

What a corporate compliance calendar tracks

A private limited company owes filings to more than one authority through the year. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs wants annual accounts and returns. The income-tax department wants a return, and a tax audit where turnover is high enough. TDS and GST run on their own monthly and quarterly clocks. A corporate compliance calendar is simply the list of those recurring obligations, arranged by when they fall due and who inside the company has to file them.

The dates below are the recurring statutory rules that repeat every year. Two of them, the ROC filings, are not fixed calendar dates: they are counted from your annual general meeting, so a company that holds its AGM early has earlier ROC deadlines than one that uses the full window. Treat the calendar as your baseline, then confirm the exact date for your company on the official portals.

Annual ROC filings tied to your AGM

These are the filings a private limited company sends to the Registrar of Companies each year. The financial-statement and annual-return dates are measured from the AGM, not from a fixed day in the calendar.

Form ADT-1 for auditor appointment is filed within 15 days of the AGM that appoints or reappoints the auditor, so it appears in the years an appointment happens rather than every single year. If your company took deposits or has changed its facts, check whether extra event-based forms apply.

The income-tax and TDS cycle

The tax side has an annual return and a monthly deduction rhythm. The return date depends on whether the company needs a tax audit.

A company that must get its accounts audited files its return by the later company date, not the July date that individuals use. Settle the audit question early, because it moves both the audit report date and the return date.

The GST return cycle

If the company is registered under GST, add the return cycle. The exact pattern depends on whether the company files monthly or under the QRMP scheme.

QRMP filers report GSTR-1 and pay tax on a quarterly cadence with monthly payment challans, so the dates shift. Confirm which scheme your registration uses before you lock the GST rows.

Who owns each filing inside the company

A calendar only works when each row has a named owner. In a small company one person often wears several hats, but the responsibilities still separate cleanly.

• Company secretary or compliance owner: the ROC pack (AOC-4, MGT-7A, ADT-1, DIR-3 KYC, DPT-3, MSME-1) and the board and AGM calendar behind it.
• Finance or accounts: TDS deposits and returns, advance tax, and the books that feed the financial statements.
• GST owner: monthly or quarterly GST returns and the annual return where it applies.
• Auditor and tax advisor: the statutory audit, the tax audit where turnover crosses the threshold, and the income-tax return.

How to confirm each date on official sources

1. Open the Ministry of Corporate Affairs portal for ROC forms, filing status, and any MCA circular on due dates.
2. Use the income-tax e-Filing portal for the tax calendar and CBDT notices on return or audit dates.
3. Use the GST portal for return dates and CBIC notifications that change them.
4. For the statute behind a filing, read the Companies Act, 2013 rather than relying on a summary.

An extension is only real when you can open an official circular or notification and read which forms and period it covers. If you cannot find that document, do not move the date.

Common mistakes when building the calendar

• Treating AOC-4 and MGT-7A as fixed dates instead of counting them from the actual AGM date.
• Leaving DIR-3 KYC off the company calendar because it is a director-level filing, then losing a DIN to deactivation.
• Using the individual 31 July return date for a company that files by the later company date.
• Forgetting the half-yearly MSME-1 return where the company owes money to MSME suppliers.
• Building the calendar once and never re-checking it against official portals when a date is extended.

Where Complied AI fits

A compliance calendar goes stale the moment a regulator moves a date. Complied AI keeps MCA, CBDT, and CBIC updates in one feed so you can open the source circular or notification behind a change instead of trusting a forward. When you need the rule itself, read the Companies Act section next to the update rather than only the headline date.