Compliance calendar FY 2026-27 for small businesses: GST, TDS, PF, tax and ITR

For FY 2026-27 (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027), a small business with GST registration and a few employees has five to eight due dates every month: TDS on the 7th, GSTR-1 on the 11th (or IFF on the 13th), PF and ESI on the 15th, GSTR-3B on the 20th (or PMT-06 on the 25th), professional tax on the state's date, plus quarterly TDS returns, four advance tax instalments, the ITR by 31 July or 31 October, the tax audit report by 30 September and GSTR-9 by 31 December. This calendar lists them month by month.

How to use this calendar

The table below assumes a proprietorship, partnership firm or LLP registered under GST, with a TAN, with employees covered by PF and ESI, and paying professional tax in a state that levies it. Cross out what does not apply: a business under the GST threshold skips the GST rows, a business with no TAN skips TDS, and a business with under 10 employees usually has no ESI and under 20 has no PF unless it opted in.

Dates are the statutory ones as of September 2026. The government extends dates from time to time by notification, usually close to the deadline, so treat the table as the plan and check the portal message board in the week before each date. Companies have additional MCA filings, mentioned separately below.

Month-by-month due dates for FY 2026-27

The 22nd or 24th for quarterly GSTR-3B depends on your state: the 22nd for Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and the southern union territories; the 24th for the rest of the country. GSTR-9 is mandatory only above ₹2 crore turnover and GSTR-9C above ₹5 crore. Professional tax dates vary by state; Maharashtra's PTRC is due by the end of the month (monthly if the previous year's liability was ₹1,00,000 or more, otherwise annually by 31 March), Karnataka's by the 20th, and several states have none. The professional tax guide has the state list.

GST: monthly and QRMP explained

A monthly filer with turnover above ₹5 crore, or one who chose monthly filing, files GSTR-1 by the 11th and GSTR-3B by the 20th of the following month; tax is paid with GSTR-3B. A QRMP filer (turnover up to ₹5 crore) files both returns quarterly but pays tax monthly: PMT-06 by the 25th of the month after each of the first two months of the quarter, using either 35% of the previous quarter's cash tax or the actual self-assessed liability. The IFF by the 13th is optional and lets you push B2B invoices so buyers see the credit in their GSTR-2B without waiting for the quarter.

Composition dealers pay quarterly through CMP-08 by the 18th and file one annual GSTR-4 by 30 June. Whichever scheme you are on, the late fee and 18% interest clock starts the day after the due date; the late fees and interest guide has the arithmetic, and the GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B guide covers the filing steps.

TDS: deposit by the 7th, return each quarter

If you hold a TAN, every rupee of TDS deducted in a month is due by the 7th of the next month, except March, which is due by 30 April. The quarterly returns, 24Q for salary and 26Q for everything else, are due on 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May. Form 16 for employees is due by 15 June, and Form 16A for other deductees within 15 days of the return due date. Late deposit costs interest at 1.5% per month or part of a month from the date of deduction, and a late return costs ₹200 a day under Section 234E, capped at the TDS amount. The TDS guide for small businesses covers rates and thresholds; remember that an individual or HUF not under tax audit in the previous year generally does not deduct TDS under 194C, 194H, 194I or 194J at all.

Payroll: PF, ESI and professional tax by the 15th

PF contributions and the ECR are due by the 15th of the following month; ESI contributions also by the 15th. Both are hard dates for income tax as well: the employee's share deposited after the due date is permanently disallowed under Section 36(1)(va), and clause 20 of the tax audit report lists every late deposit. ESI half-yearly returns fall on 11 November (April to September) and 12 May (October to March). Professional tax runs on state calendars. The EPF guide and ESI guide cover registration and rates.

Income tax: advance tax, ITR, audit and GSTR-9

Advance tax is due in four instalments: 15% by 15 June, 45% by 15 September, 75% by 15 December and 100% by 15 March, measured cumulatively against the year's estimated tax. Shortfalls attract interest under Section 234C at 1% a month for three months per instalment. If your whole business income is under 44AD or 44ADA, a single instalment by 15 March is enough. The advance tax guide has the working.

The ITR for FY 2025-26 is due by 31 July 2026 if you are not under audit and 31 October 2026 if you are, with the tax audit report by 30 September 2026. Belated and revised returns can be filed until 31 December 2026. The same pattern repeats for FY 2026-27 in 2027. GSTR-9 for FY 2025-26 is due by 31 December 2026; more important for ITC is 30 November 2026, the last date to claim any FY 2025-26 credit or issue a credit note for it, so start the reconciliation in September.

A "first week of every month" routine

Most of the calendar can be handled in the first ten days of each month if you run the same sequence every time. A Bengaluru cloud kitchen (monthly GST filer, 8 staff, no ESI because it is under 10, PF opted in, TAN for rent TDS) follows this:

• 1st to 3rd: Close last month's sales. Issue any invoices still pending, cancel or credit-note anything wrong, and export the sales register. Record every purchase bill received, marking whether ITC will be claimed.
• 4th to 5th: Reconcile the bank and UPI settlements against invoices and receipts, so that the sales figure in GSTR-1 is the same as the one in the books.
• 6th: Compute TDS deducted last month (for the kitchen, 10% on the ₹60,000 monthly rent, ₹6,000, and 1% or 2% on the ₹40,000 delivery-contractor bill). Pay through the e-filing portal by the 7th.
• 7th to 10th: Prepare GSTR-1 from the sales register; check GSTR-2B for the purchase side and note which supplier invoices are missing.
• 11th: File GSTR-1. Then chase suppliers whose invoices did not appear in GSTR-2B.
• 12th to 14th: Run payroll, generate salary slips, prepare the PF ECR and the professional tax challan.
• 15th: Pay PF (and ESI where applicable), and PT if your state's date is the 15th or 20th.
• 18th to 19th: Compute GSTR-3B: output tax less eligible ITC, plus any reverse charge. Arrange cash in the electronic cash ledger.
• 20th: File GSTR-3B and pay. Done for the month unless a quarterly or annual item falls due.

A QRMP filer replaces the 11th with the optional IFF on the 13th and the 20th with PMT-06 on the 25th, and does the full return work only in April, July, October and January.

What a missed date costs: a worked example

Take a Kochi electronics shop, monthly GST filer, with GSTR-3B liability of ₹1,20,000 for August 2026, TDS of ₹15,000 deducted in August, and PF of ₹18,000 for August. The owner is travelling and everything is filed on 2 October instead of by the September dates.

• GSTR-3B was due 20 September; filed 12 days late. Late fee ₹50 a day × 12 = ₹600 (₹25 CGST and ₹25 SGST per day). Interest at 18% on ₹1,20,000 for 12 days = ₹1,20,000 × 18% × 12 ÷ 365 = ₹710. GSTR-1 for August was also late by 21 days at ₹50 a day = ₹1,050 (the portal blocks GSTR-3B until GSTR-1 is filed, so both slip).
• TDS was due 7 September and paid 2 October. Interest at 1.5% per month or part, counted from the date of deduction in August: three months (August, September, October) × 1.5% × ₹15,000 = ₹675, and the department may also disallow 30% of the expense until the TDS is paid.
• PF was due 15 September. EPFO damages under Section 14B run from 5% to 25% a year depending on delay, plus 7Q interest at 12% a year; on ₹18,000 for 17 days that is small in rupees, roughly ₹100 to ₹200, but the employee share of ₹9,000 is disallowed for income tax permanently under Section 36(1)(va), costing about ₹2,800 of tax at 30%.

Total direct cost of one distracted fortnight: around ₹6,000, plus a permanently lost deduction and a compliance rating hit on the GST portal. The GST late fee calculator computes the GST part for any date.

How to get reminders that work

• Put every date from the table into your phone calendar as a recurring event with two alerts, one five days before and one the day before. Assign each event to the person who actually does the work, not the owner.
• Subscribe to a due-date calendar that emails you for your filing type. VyaparKit's free GST due-date calendar sends an email 5 days and 1 day before each GST date for monthly, QRMP or composition filers.
• Turn on SMS and email alerts on the GST portal and the income tax e-filing portal; both send a reminder a few days before returns fall due.
• Agree a monthly checklist with your CA and share it on WhatsApp on the 1st: what you send, by when, and what they file.
• Keep a printed one-page version of this table near the billing counter and tick dates off. Paper survives phone changes.

Common mistakes

• Paying March TDS by 7 April. The March deposit date is 30 April, but the Q4 return is 31 May, and Form 16 is 15 June.
• Forgetting that a QRMP filer still pays tax every month through PMT-06 by the 25th.
• Missing 30 November for last year's ITC and credit notes, which cannot be recovered after that.
• Filing GSTR-1 on time but leaving GSTR-3B for "later", when the late fee runs daily on both.
• Depositing PF on the 16th or 17th; a day late is a permanent disallowance of the employee share.
• Treating the 31 July ITR date as the only one when the business is under tax audit and the actual dates are 30 September and 31 October.
• Ignoring the QRMP opt-in windows, then discovering you are filing monthly by default.
• Letting the Shop and Establishment certificate, FSSAI licence or IEC expire because they are annual or multi-year and never made it into the monthly routine. See the Shop and Establishment guide.

How VyaparKit helps

The calendar only works if the underlying records are ready before each date. Use the GST due-date calendar to get emails 5 days and 1 day before every GST date for your filing type, and the GST late fee calculator to see what a slip costs before deciding whether to wait for a missing invoice. Record purchases through purchase bill with the ITC flag so the GST report is ready on the 7th, and run salaries through payroll run so PF, ESI and PT amounts and the bank file are ready before the 15th. VyaparKit does not file GST returns, TDS returns or PF challans; it gets the numbers ready for whoever does.

Next steps

• Copy the table into your calendar, deleting the rows that do not apply to your registration status and headcount.
• Assign an owner for each date: who prepares, who pays, who files.
• Subscribe to due-date emails and enable portal alerts today.
• Adopt the first-week routine for October 2026 and run it three months in a row before changing it.
• Book a 30-minute review with your CA in the last week of September, November and March, the three heaviest months.