There is no single "audit last date". For the year ended 31 March 2026 a private limited company has at least four: the AGM by 30 September 2026 (Section 96 of the Companies Act 2013), which forces the statutory audit to be signed about three weeks earlier because the audited financial statements must reach members 21 days before the meeting (Section 136); the tax audit report, if Section 44AB applies; the income-tax return; and GSTR-9/9C on 31 December 2026. The ROC forms then hang off the AGM date — ADT-1 in 15 days, AOC-4 in 30 days, MGT-7 or MGT-7A in 60 days — so an AGM on 30 September 2026 gives 15 October, 30 October and 29 November 2026.
Two things changed for FY 2025-26 on the tax side. First, the Finance Act 2026 rewrote the return due dates in Section 139(1) as a table: transfer pricing cases 30 November; companies, audited assessees and partners of audited firms 31 October; business and professional assessees who need no audit 31 August; everyone else 31 July. Second, on 28 September 2026 the CBDT extended the 31 October 2026 return date to 21 November 2026 for the second group, and with it the specified date for the tax audit report from 30 September 2026 to 21 October 2026. Transfer pricing cases are outside that extension: Form 3CEB stays at 31 October 2026 and the return at 30 November 2026.
On the MCA side, the only FY 2025-26 date extended as of 1 October 2026 is DPT-3, which General Circular 02/2026 allowed up to 31 July 2026 without additional fee. No general extension of the AGM, AOC-4 or MGT-7 has been announced; a company that cannot hold its AGM applies to its own Registrar for up to three months, and a first AGM cannot be extended at all. DIR-3 KYC has also left the September calendar — from 31 March 2026 it is a once-in-three-years filing due by 30 June. For FY 2026-27 the same framework repeats one year later, but the tax dates come from the Income-tax Act 2025: Section 263 for the return, Section 63 for the tax audit, on the new Form 26.
A private limited company (not a small company) with a 31 March 2026 year-end, turnover of ₹14 crore, GST aggregate turnover above ₹5 crore, no transfer pricing report, no ROC extension. It plans to hold its AGM on the last permissible day.
