Every GST, TDS, PF and advance tax date still ahead for financial year 2026-27, what late filing actually costs, and the calendar habits that prevent penalties.
Once October is underway, the year’s filing calendar stops being a broad plan and becomes a short list of specific dates that either get met or get missed. Almost every penalty in this framework is avoidable, and almost all of them are avoidable by knowing what is due and when.
Below is a working calendar for financial year 2026-27, written from early October so it covers what is genuinely still ahead. These are the standard statutory dates. Circulars occasionally extend a particular deadline, and when that happens the extension is what counts, so please confirm the current position before relying on any date here.
October: the immediate ones
These are the closest. If you file monthly under GST, the first half of October is already committed.
Due between 10 and 20 October 2026
- 15 October — GSTR-1 for September, and GSTR-6 for inward supplies of long-term transit, where you are a monthly filer.
- 15 October — Employee Provident Fund contribution and ECR filing, along with ESI contributions, for September.
- 20 October — GSTR-3B summary return for September, monthly filers.
- 25 October — GSTR-3B for September, if you are a QRMP filer.
Due 31 October 2026
- TDS and TCS quarterly return for the second quarter of FY 2026-27. This is the most commonly missed of the quarter-end filings, because it is not an income tax return and does not attract the same attention.
- 30 November — income tax returns for assessment year 2026-27 falling within the transfer pricing provisions.
A note on the transfer pricing date
This applies to returns within the transfer pricing provisions under section 92. If you are unsure whether that includes you, it is worth settling before October rather than assuming the ordinary date applies.
November and December: the heavier half
15 December — third advance tax instalment
By this date, seventy-five per cent of the estimated advance tax for the year should have been paid. For a business with reasonably predictable profits, this is usually the instalment that catches people out, because the second quarter is often met with an estimate and the year does not always follow it.
31 December — presumptive advance tax, GSTR-9, and year-end books
- Presumptive income — if you report under section 44AD or 44ADA, the third and final instalment falls on this date.
- GSTR-9 — the annual GST return for FY 2026-27.
- Books and registers close for companies preparing annual accounts, along with stock count and final reconciliations.
January to March 2027
January and February
- 15 and 20 January — GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B for December.
- 31 January — TDS and TCS quarterly return for the third quarter.
- 15 February — PF and ESI contributions for January.
March: the ones that close the year
- 15 March — final advance tax instalment. By this point the full estimated liability for the year should have been paid, and under-estimating here attracts interest even where the eventual return is correct.
- 31 March — the financial year ends. This is the date that determines which assessment year everything belongs to.
- Fourth-quarter GST, TDS and PF returns fall in the weeks either side of month end.
Annual filings that sit just after the year turns
Worth diarising now rather than in January, because they cluster:
- 31 January 2027 — fourth-quarter TDS and TCS return.
- 15 February 2027 — January PF and ESI contributions, and the January GST returns.
- From mid February — Form 16 and your employer’s other TDS certificates become available. This is the natural point to begin reconciling against your Annual Information Statement rather than waiting for April.
- After the annual general meeting — companies file AOC-4 within thirty days of the AGM and MGT-7 within sixty. If the meeting is held in December or January, both dates move with it.
What late filing actually costs
Worth being precise about, because the number people fear is often higher than the number that applies.
- GST late fee is charged per day, at different rates for the return and for the payment. A delay of a few days costs materially less than a delay of a few weeks.
- TDS and TCS late filing attracts a fee calculated as a percentage of the tax due, and that percentage rises with the delay.
- Advance tax shortfall attracts simple interest on the amount not paid, period by period. This applies even where the return is ultimately correct and the full tax is paid later.
- Income tax return late filing carries a flat fee, higher for individuals than for others, and it is payable even where the return shows no tax payable at all.
- Deliberate intent to evade carries far heavier consequences. Nothing here should be read as suggesting a delay is merely administrative where it is not.
A method that works
The businesses that manage this well are not the ones with the best filing system. They are the ones that do four things consistently:
- 1Keep every date in one shared calendar. Not in each person’s head, and not in an email thread. One place, visible to everyone who owns a filing.
- 2Work backwards. Each date should carry an internal deadline several days earlier, so that the unexpected does not decide whether a filing gets made.
- 3Reconcile as you go. Matching TDS, GST and payroll against the ledger monthly makes the quarterly and annual filings a summary of clean data rather than a project assembled under pressure.
- 4Confirm before you file. Statutory dates are set in law but moved by circular. One check against the current position costs less than any penalty on this page.
The cheapest fix
Most of the cost of a missed deadline is interest and fees that never arose. If your books are reconciled to March and your data is current, a quarterly filing takes hours rather than days. The work that prevents penalties happens in the months before them, not in the week of the due date.
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Please read this as general information
Tax rules, rates and deadlines change, and this article was written in good faith but is not advice for your specific case. Before you act on any of it, please check the current position with your tax adviser or with us. We will happily look at your particular situation.
