MCA Compliance Calendar 2026: Every Deadline Your CA Firm Needs to Track

The Filing Season Timeline for FY 2025-26

For most Indian companies with a March 31 financial year-end, the annual compliance cycle follows a predictable but intense pattern. The period from July to November concentrates the majority of ROC filings into a narrow window that tests the capacity of every CA firm.

This calendar covers the key MCA filings for FY 2025-26 (April 2025 to March 2026), with deadlines, applicability, and penalty implications.

Key Dates: The Annual Compliance Sequence

Financial Year-End: 31 March 2026

All statutory obligations are measured from this date. Companies with different year-ends (permitted for subsidiaries of foreign companies) should adjust accordingly.

Board Meeting for Financial Statement Approval

Deadline: Within 30 days of financial year-end (by 30 April 2026)

The Board must approve the financial statements at a duly convened board meeting. This is the first trigger in the compliance chain. Practical reality: many companies hold this meeting in late May or June.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Deadline: Within 6 months of financial year-end (by 30 September 2026)

The AGM must be held within 6 months of the year-end. For FY 2025-26 (March year-end), the AGM deadline is 30 September 2026.

Extension: The Registrar may grant a 3-month extension (to 31 December 2026) on application. However, relying on extensions is risky and may attract scrutiny. Practical note: Most CA firms schedule AGMs between August and September. The September AGM deadline is the anchor date for all subsequent filings.

AOC-4 (Annual Financial Statement Filing)

Deadline: Within 30 days of AGM

If AGM is held on 30 September 2026, AOC-4 is due by 30 October 2026.

What it includes:

• Form AOC-4 with approximately 300 data fields
• Financial statements (Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Flow, Notes)
• Board's Report under Section 134
• Auditor's Report
• XBRL instance document (for applicable companies)

Penalty for late filing: Rs. 100 per day of delay for the company. Separate penalty of Rs. 100 per day for every officer in default (typically directors). There is no maximum cap on AOC-4 penalties — a delay of 365 days results in Rs. 36,500 per person.

AOC-4 XBRL

Deadline: Same as AOC-4 (within 30 days of AGM)

Filed alongside AOC-4 for companies meeting XBRL thresholds. The XBRL instance document is uploaded as an attachment to the AOC-4 form on the MCA portal.

MGT-7 / MGT-7A (Annual Return)

Deadline: Within 60 days of AGM

If AGM is held on 30 September 2026, MGT-7 is due by 29 November 2026.

MGT-7 is the full annual return (for companies with paid-up capital of Rs. 10 crore or more, or turnover of Rs. 50 crore or more). MGT-7A is the abridged form for smaller companies.

Contents: Shareholding pattern, director details, meeting records, remuneration, indebtedness, penalties/compounding. Penalty: Rs. 100 per day of delay (company + officers). Same structure as AOC-4.

CSR-2 (Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting)

Deadline: Filed as an addendum to AOC-4

Applicable to companies meeting Section 135 thresholds (net profit > Rs. 5 crore in any of the preceding 3 financial years). CSR-2 requires disclosure of CSR expenditure, projects undertaken, and compliance with the CSR policy.

MSME-1 (Half-yearly Return on Outstanding Payments to MSMEs)

Deadlines:

• For April-September 2025 half-year: by 31 October 2025
• For October-March 2026 half-year: by 30 April 2026

All companies that have outstanding payments to Micro and Small Enterprises beyond 45 days must file MSME-1. This is a half-yearly return, not annual.

DPT-3 (Return of Deposits)

Deadline: By 30 June 2026

Every company that has accepted deposits or has outstanding receipt of money or loan which is not considered as deposit must file DPT-3 annually. This includes amounts received from directors, inter-corporate deposits, and amounts exempt under the Deposit Rules.

DIR-3 KYC (Director KYC)

Deadline: By 30 September 2026

Every individual holding a DIN must file DIR-3 KYC annually. While this is a director-level obligation (not company-level), CA firms frequently assist clients with this filing.

Late filing fee: Rs. 5,000 (flat fee, not per-day).

The Penalty Calculator

MCA penalties for late filing are calculated on a per-day basis with separate liability for the company and each officer in default.

For AOC-4 and MGT-7: Example: A company with 3 directors, filing AOC-4 90 days late:

• Company penalty: Rs. 9,000
• Director penalties: 3 x Rs. 9,000 = Rs. 27,000
• Total: Rs. 36,000

For a firm managing 80 clients, even a single week's delay across all clients generates significant aggregate penalty exposure for the clients.

Managing the September-October Crunch: Practical Tips

The period between the AGM deadline (30 September) and the AOC-4 deadline (30 October) is the most intense month in the annual compliance calendar. A firm handling 80-150 clients must produce and file 80-150 complete AOC-4 packages in approximately 30 calendar days.

1. Stagger AGM Dates

Not all clients need to hold AGMs on 30 September. Encourage clients to hold AGMs in August or early September. A client with an 18 August AGM has an AOC-4 deadline of 17 September — well before the rush.

2. Parallel Processing

Do not wait for the auditor's signed report to begin financial statement preparation. The trial balance and financial statements can be prepared and reviewed before the audit is complete. Only the final assembly (combining audited statements with the auditor's report) needs to wait.

3. Batch XBRL Conversion

If outsourcing XBRL, send batches of 10-15 clients to the vendor weekly starting in August. Do not send all 80 clients in the last week of September.

4. Template Standardisation

Maintain current-year templates for Board's Report, AOC-4 data, and financial statements. Update templates before filing season begins (July). Every hour spent on template maintenance in July saves five hours of corrections in October.

5. Client Data Collection

The biggest bottleneck is often client data — director details, shareholding changes, related party information, and supplementary schedules. Send data collection requests in June. Follow up in July. Have a hard deadline of August for client data submission.

6. Use Integrated Tools

A workflow that generates financial statements, XBRL, Board's Report, and AOC-4 data from a single source eliminates the manual assembly step and the associated errors. ThynkFile produces the complete filing package from the Trial Balance — financial statements, XBRL instance document, Board's Report template, and AOC-4 data — reducing the per-client processing time from days to under an hour.

Planning Ahead: Mark These Dates

The compliance calendar is unforgiving. Missing a single deadline triggers penalties that accumulate daily with no cap. For CA firms, the margin for error is measured in days, not weeks. Building a systematic filing workflow — whether through internal process discipline or purpose-built tools — is not optional. It is a professional obligation.