The MSME compliance calendar: dates a small business cannot miss

If you file GST monthly, two dates run your month: GSTR-1 by the 11th of the following month and GSTR-3B by the 20th of the following month. If your turnover was up to Rs 5 crore in the previous financial year, you can instead file returns quarterly under the QRMP scheme, with GSTR-1 by the 13th of the month after the quarter and GSTR-3B by the 22nd or 24th, depending on your state group, while still paying tax monthly. Around those GST dates sit TDS, PF and ESI dates every month, and a set of annual dates that are easy to forget until the fee starts running. This calendar puts them on one page.

The short version: your month on one table

Most misses are the same five or six dates, in the same order, every month. Fix these first. The rest of this article explains which apply to you, what changes on QRMP or composition, and what a miss costs.

Two points catch owners out. The 25th matters even when no return is due, because QRMP changes return dates, not the payment rhythm. And the 11th and 20th are a pair: filing GSTR-3B on time while GSTR-1 slips still leaves a late fee on GSTR-1, and since July 2025 the GSTR-1 figures also lock part of GSTR-3B, as explained below.

Advance tax sits outside this rhythm. Its instalments fall on 15 June, 15 September, 15 December and 15 March. Put those four dates in the same calendar now.

Monthly filers: who files every month, and what has changed

You file monthly if your turnover is above Rs 5 crore, or if you are within the QRMP limit but have not opted in. Monthly filing is the default. QRMP is a choice you make on the portal, within the windows in the next section. It does not happen by itself because your turnover is small.

The sequence is short. GSTR-1 reports outward supplies for the month, due by the 11th of the following month. GSTR-3B is the summary return through which tax is paid, due by the 20th. Where they apply to you, GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 are both due by the 10th.

The July 2025 change that alters how you correct a mistake

From the July 2025 tax period, Table 3 of GSTR-3B, which carries your outward liability, is auto filled from GSTR-1 and the IFF, and it cannot be edited inside GSTR-3B. In practice this moves where your checking has to happen. If an invoice figure is wrong, the correction no longer happens at the GSTR-3B stage. Corrections go through GSTR-1A, so the error has to be found and fixed at the GSTR-1 stage.

So treat the days before the 11th as the checking window: invoice values, tax rates and buyer details must be right in GSTR-1 itself, because that return now drives the liability you pay against on the 20th.

A second July 2025 change sits behind the first. The portal bars returns more than three years past their due date. Past that point, an unfiled return cannot be filed at all. If you carry historic unfiled periods, list them by period and clear them oldest first.

QRMP: quarterly returns, monthly payment

The QRMP scheme, Quarterly Returns with Monthly Payment, is open to taxpayers with turnover up to Rs 5 crore in the previous financial year. It reduces the number of returns you file. It does not reduce how often you pay, or the monthly bookkeeping underneath.

The state split for quarterly GSTR-3B

Quarterly GSTR-3B is due on the 22nd for one group of states and the 24th for the other. Check your group once, from the state of your principal place of business, and fix that date in your calendar for every quarter.

A business registered in more than one state may have to work to both dates in the same quarter, one for each registration. If so, use the 22nd as your internal deadline for all registrations, and hold the 24th as buffer.

Opting in: the windows close on fixed dates

For the financial year 2026-27, the opt in windows close on 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January, ahead of the quarter to which the choice applies. Miss a window and you continue filing monthly for that quarter. If you intend to move, decide before your window closes, and record the choice in your calendar so the person filing knows which pattern the business is on.

Should you take QRMP? A two minute check

• Above Rs 5 crore in the previous financial year: the question does not arise. You file monthly.
• Within the limit, with most sales to end consumers: QRMP usually cuts filing effort without hurting anyone else. Keep the monthly PMT-06 payment on the 25th in your calendar.
• Within the limit, with business buyers who claim input tax credit: QRMP works only if you use the IFF in month one and month two. Without it, buyers wait until your quarterly GSTR-1 to see your invoices.
• Monthly figures usually settled late: be careful. A quarter of unreconciled figures is a larger problem than a month of them.

Composition scheme: two dates, and one date that has changed

Composition taxpayers have only two recurring dates. CMP-08, the quarterly statement of self assessed tax, is due by the 18th of the month after the quarter. GSTR-4 is the annual return.

The GSTR-4 date needs care, because it has changed and many calendars have not caught up. Under Rule 62 of the CGST Rules, for financial year 2024-25 onwards, GSTR-4 is due by 30 June following the end of the financial year. Many older guides and CA calendars still show 30 April, the earlier position. Use 30 June. If your accountant's calendar or your accounting software still carries 30 April, ask for it to be corrected. The rule text on the CBIC tax repository is the reference to check, and it states 30 June for FY 2024-25 onwards.

If you are weighing composition against regular GST, filing load is only one part of the comparison. The tax cost turns on input tax credit and on whether your buyers are businesses. See our article on the composition scheme vs regular GST.

The annual calendar: the dates that arrive once and are missed once

Annual dates are missed because nothing in the monthly routine points at them. Put them in the calendar at the start of the financial year, with a reminder a month ahead for the ones that need records gathered first.

Read the two December thresholds together. Above Rs 2 crore, you file GSTR-9. Above Rs 5 crore, you file GSTR-9C as well, on the same date. December is also a full monthly compliance month, so annual GST work lands on top of the ordinary 11th and 20th. Start GSTR-9 work in October, not December.

Your structure decides which other rows are yours. A proprietorship has no LLP forms. An LLP files Form 11 and Form 8 every year, whether or not it traded heavily. A private limited company carries its own Registrar of Companies filings instead. Our comparison of proprietorship vs LLP vs private limited sets out each structure's annual filing load side by side.

Businesses above the e-invoicing threshold carry extra discipline inside the monthly cycle, because invoice data flows into the returns. Our article on GST e-invoicing and the Rs 5 crore rule explains who it applies to.

What late filing actually costs

Late filing costs two separate things: a late fee, charged per day, and interest, charged on the tax. Both run from the due date to the filing date.

The late fee, with its caps

For GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, the late fee is Rs 50 per day of delay. For a nil return, it is Rs 20 per day. The fee does not run without limit. It is capped by turnover:

In a normal month, a small filer who is a week late is nowhere near the cap, so the per day rate is the real cost: Rs 50 a day, on each late return. A month in which both GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B slip carries the fee twice.

Interest, and the costs that are not fees

Interest runs at 18% per year on the net cash liability, for the days between the due date and the payment date. On a large liability over a long delay, interest overtakes the late fee quickly, because the fee is capped and interest is not.

Two further consequences sit behind the money. Returns must be filed in sequence, so an unfiled earlier period blocks orderly filing of later ones and turns one miss into a backlog. Persistent non compliance can also bring restrictions on moving goods, including blocked e-way bill generation. And since July 2025, a period unfiled for more than three years past its due date cannot be filed at all.

Worked example: twelve days late, in rupees

Take a Jaipur garments wholesaler, a monthly filer with turnover of Rs 3 crore. It files its October GSTR-3B twelve days late, with a net cash liability of Rs 1,80,000.

Step 1: the late fee. Twelve days multiplied by Rs 50 per day equals Rs 600. The cap for a business with turnover between Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 5 crore is Rs 5,000, so the Rs 600 applies in full.

Step 2: the interest. Rs 1,80,000 multiplied by 18% gives Rs 32,400 for a full year. For twelve days: Rs 32,400 multiplied by 12, divided by 365, equals Rs 1,065.21, rounded to Rs 1,065.

Step 3: the total. Rs 600 plus Rs 1,065 equals Rs 1,665 for twelve days on one return. If GSTR-1 for the same month was also twelve days late, add a further Rs 600 of late fee, taking the month's total cost of delay to Rs 2,265.

Step 4: the nil comparison. Had the same return been a nil return filed twelve days late, the fee would be 12 multiplied by Rs 20, which is Rs 240, within the Rs 500 nil cap. A nil month is cheaper to be late on, but it is not free.

Twelve days cost this business Rs 1,665 on one return. The same habit on a bigger liability, or over sixty days, produces a far larger bill for nothing.

A monthly routine that prevents most misses

What prevents misses is a fixed routine tied to dates, so work is finished before the deadline rather than started on it. This five step routine fits a monthly filer. QRMP filers use the same steps in month one and month two, ending at the IFF and PMT-06 instead of a full return.

1. By the 7th: deposit TDS for the previous month, and close the previous month's sales and purchase entry in your books.
2. By the 10th: have all sales bills for the month issued and checked. The checking the July 2025 lock makes necessary has to be done by here, not after filing.
3. On the 11th (monthly) or by the 13th (QRMP): file GSTR-1, or upload invoices through the IFF if you are on QRMP and your buyers need them early. Check figures once more before submission, because they now feed GSTR-3B directly.
4. After the 14th: check GSTR-2B, the statement showing input tax credit available to you for the month, against your purchase records. Differences found now can still be followed up with suppliers in time. Differences found on the 20th cannot.
5. By the 18th: check your electronic cash and credit ledgers, confirm how much liability will be paid in cash, and keep that amount ready. File GSTR-3B by the 20th if you are a monthly filer. On QRMP, pay through PMT-06 by the 25th in month one and month two.

Two habits hold the routine together. Give each step a single named owner, even if that owner is you. Dates that belong to everyone belong to no one. Then hold a fifteen minute review at month end: which dates were met, which were late, and what blocked them.

Common mistakes

Assuming QRMP means no monthly payment. It does not. Tax is still paid monthly through PMT-06 by the 25th in the first two months of the quarter.

Skipping the IFF and slowing your buyers down. The IFF is optional, which makes it easy to skip. But if your buyers are businesses, your invoices reach their records only when you report them. Skip it in month one and month two, and your quarterly GSTR-1 is the first time buyers see a full quarter of invoices. Use the IFF whenever a buyer needs credit early.

Trying to correct GSTR-3B instead of GSTR-1. Since July 2025, the outward liability in Table 3 of GSTR-3B is auto filled and cannot be edited there. A wrong invoice figure is corrected through GSTR-1A, at the GSTR-1 stage.

Planning composition filing around 30 April. That date is out of date for GSTR-4. For FY 2024-25 onwards, Rule 62 sets GSTR-4 by 30 June. Calendars and templates that still show 30 April need correcting.

Treating a nil month as a no filing month. A nil return is still a return. It carries a late fee of Rs 20 per day, capped at Rs 500, and an unfiled nil month breaks filing sequence just as a taxable month does. File it on the normal date.

Leaving old periods unfiled because they feel closed. The three year bar introduced in July 2025 gives an unfiled period a hard expiry. List every unfiled period and clear them oldest first.