Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC: Who Needs It and Who Does Not
Whether Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC applies to a given business is the first thing worth settling, and it is where most of the early questions land. The questions below are the ones raised most often in practice; the full scope of the service is on the Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC page.
What is the GSTR-1/GSTR-3B cycle and how often do I need to file?
GSTR-1 reports your outward supplies (sales) for the period; GSTR-3B is the summary return through which tax is actually paid. Both are filed monthly by default. Small taxpayers below the prescribed aggregate turnover threshold can opt into the QRMP (Quarterly Return Monthly Payment) scheme, filing GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B quarterly while still paying tax monthly through a simplified challan. We assess QRMP eligibility and benefit for every eligible client as part of the engagement.
In practice: QRMP reduces filing frequency but not the underlying discipline required — tax still has to be estimated and paid monthly under QRMP, so the cash-flow planning benefit is smaller than businesses sometimes assume.
How does TDS deduction and deposit work, and what are the key deadlines?
TDS must be deducted at the applicable rate under the relevant provision at the time of payment or credit, whichever is earlier — for payments made up to 31 March 2026 these are the familiar Income Tax Act 1961 references (Section 192 for salaries, 194C for contractors, 194J for professional fees, 194-I for rent, 194H for commission, 194Q for purchase of goods above the prescribed threshold); for payments from 1 April 2026 onward, the Income Tax Act 2025 consolidates these into tabular provisions (broadly Section 392 for salary TDS and Section 393 for other payments, referenced by table item rather than the legacy section number). Rates and thresholds carry forward largely unchanged through this transition — only the citation changes. The deducted tax must be deposited with the government by the 7th of the following month (with a special extended deadline of 30 April for TDS deducted in March). Quarterly TDS returns (Form 24Q for salary, Form 26Q for other payments) then report all deductions for the quarter.
In practice: The 30 April deadline for March TDS deposits is a common trap — teams sometimes apply the standard 7th-of-next-month rule and miss that March gets an extended window, but that same extension does not apply to the return filing deadline. We also track the legacy-to-2025-Act citation mapping so returns for post-1 April 2026 transactions quote the correct table item.
What is advance tax, and why does it need quarterly attention rather than a once-a-year estimate?
Advance tax is income tax paid in instalments during the financial year itself, rather than as a lump sum after year-end, for any taxpayer whose estimated tax liability for the year exceeds the prescribed threshold. It is paid across four instalments during the financial year. Because actual income often differs meaningfully from an April estimate — especially for growing or seasonal businesses — the instalment amounts should be recalculated each quarter based on updated financial performance, not fixed once at the start of the year.
In practice: A static April estimate is one of the most common sources of Section 234B/234C interest we see — businesses that grew faster than expected end up materially under-paid on earlier instalments even though they eventually pay the correct total tax for the year.
What are the mandatory ROC filings every company or LLP must make?
For companies: AOC-4 (financial statements) and MGT-7 or MGT-7A (annual return, with the abridged MGT-7A available to small companies and OPCs) filed within their respective post-AGM windows, DIR-3 KYC for every director holding a DIN (once every third consecutive financial year, by 30 June), plus event-based filings for director changes, charge creation/satisfaction, or capital alteration. For LLPs: Form 8 (Statement of Account and Solvency) and Form 11 (Annual Return) filed annually regardless of turnover or profitability.
In practice: LLP filings are sometimes overlooked because LLPs have no audit requirement below the prescribed turnover/contribution thresholds — but Form 8 and Form 11 are mandatory every year regardless of whether the LLP was even active.
What is tax audit, and does PNPC coordinate it as part of this engagement?
Tax audit (historically under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act 1961; carried forward under the renumbered audit provisions of the Income Tax Act 2025) is mandatory once a business's turnover or gross receipts cross the prescribed thresholds under the applicable Act (with a higher threshold available for businesses where cash transactions are limited, subject to the conditions prescribed). We monitor turnover trends throughout the year, flag tax audit applicability well before year-end, and coordinate with the statutory/tax auditor so the audit report is filed alongside the income tax return by the applicable due date.
In practice: Businesses that cross the tax audit threshold mid-year sometimes discover the requirement only close to the filing deadline — we flag this proactively based on quarterly turnover trends, not at year-end.
What accounting or filing systems does PNPC work with?
We work within your existing accounting system — Tally, Zoho Books, QuickBooks, SAP Business One, or similar — alongside the relevant government portals (GST portal, TRACES, income tax e-filing portal, MCA V3). We do not require a system migration purely to take on compliance management.
In practice: We generally advise against a forced software migration purely for compliance management purposes — any migration disruption should be weighed on its own merits, separately from the compliance engagement.
Where this sits in the wider engagement
Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC rarely arrives on its own. The statutory basis and the current requirements are set out on the Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC service page, and the related services are grouped under Accounting Payroll.
What PNPC does
PNPC Global has practised since 1986 across India and the UAE. On Statutory Compliance Management — GST, TDS, ROC we take the work end to end — reviewing the facts, preparing and filing what is required, and dealing with the authority through to closure.