The Startup Compliance Calendar: What Indian Founders Must File

Compliance is not hard. It is just relentless, and it arrives on dates nobody chose. The founders who suffer are not the ones who find it difficult - they are the ones who find out late.

This is a map of the recurring obligations an early-stage Indian company typically carries. It is deliberately structural rather than date-specific, because due dates and thresholds are revised regularly.

Four separate streams

Founders tend to think of "compliance" as one thing. It is at least four, run by different authorities, on different cycles.

Company law. Board meetings at prescribed intervals, an annual general meeting, statutory registers, annual return and financial statement filings with the Registrar of Companies, director KYC, and disclosures of director interest. This stream is about the company's existence and governance.

Income tax. Advance tax instalments through the year, TDS deduction on qualifying payments with periodic returns, the annual income tax return, and a tax audit where turnover conditions are met.

Indirect tax. If registered for GST: periodic returns for outward supplies and summary returns, an annual return, and reconciliation of input credit.

Payroll and labour. Provident fund and state insurance contributions once headcount thresholds are crossed, professional tax in states that levy it, and salary TDS.

Each stream has its own portal, its own penalties and its own vocabulary. None of them talk to each other.

The rhythm

Rather than memorise dates that change, internalise the shape:

• Monthly - payroll deductions and deposits, GST outward supply and summary returns if registered.
• Quarterly - TDS returns, advance tax instalments, and at least one board meeting.
• Annually - statutory audit, income tax return, ROC annual filings, GST annual return, director KYC, and the AGM.

Then get the actual current due dates from your CA or CS and put every one in a shared calendar with a named owner and a two-week warning. Not the founder's personal calendar. A shared one, with an owner who is not the founder wherever possible.

Due dates, thresholds and forms change every year, sometimes mid-year. Treat the rhythm above as structure and confirm specifics with a qualified professional.

The one-time items founders forget

Beyond the recurring cycle, several one-off obligations catch people out:

• Commencement of business declaration after incorporation, before the company can borrow or begin operations.
• Share allotment filings every time you issue shares - including to founders and to your first angel. This is the one that stalls diligence years later, when it turns out an allotment was never filed.
• Foreign investment reporting if you take money from a non-resident investor. This has its own strict timelines and is not optional.
• Registered office intimation and any subsequent change.
• Auditor appointment and filings following it.
• DPIIT recognition, if you want scheme access and the associated benefits. See our guide to DPIIT recognition for the process.

What good looks like

The startups that never have a compliance crisis do three unremarkable things.

They retain a professional early - a CA and a practising CS on modest retainers, engaged before the first deadline rather than after the first notice.

They keep one folder, structured, containing incorporation documents, board and shareholder resolutions, share certificates and allotment records, filed returns with acknowledgements, tax challans, agreements, and the current cap table. When an investor asks, the answer is a link, not a fortnight.

They name an owner. Compliance that belongs to everyone belongs to no one. It does not need to be a senior person - it needs to be a specific person with the calendar.

For incubators

Every incubator ends up doing compliance triage for its cohort, usually informally and usually too late. Two things make it tractable: a standing document request against each startup with a tracked status, so you can see at a glance who has filed and who has not, and structured startup records that hold incorporation date, entity type, recognition status and audit position rather than leaving them in email.

That converts "chase everyone before the review meeting" into a filter.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Requirements vary by state, sector, structure and turnover, and change frequently. Confirm your obligations with a qualified professional.