Tax Registrations and Filings

Three things decide it: your turnover, what you sell, and the state you operate in.

Almost every business needs a PAN, and most need a shop and establishment registration. GST depends on crossing a turnover threshold or carrying on an activity that requires it regardless. The rest are activity-specific: an Import Export Code if you trade across the border, FSSAI if you handle food, ESI once the payroll is large enough, professional tax if you employ people in a state that levies it.

A registration is obtained once and stays valid, though several have to be kept current. A return is filed again every month, quarter or year for as long as the registration exists.

That distinction is why this page is in two halves. The registrations are a set-up task with deadlines counted from formation; the returns are a permanent operating cost, and they are where a compliant business most often slips.

In most cases yes. A GST registration obliges you to file whether or not you traded, and a nil return is still a return. The same applies to the annual filings a registered company or LLP owes.

Treating a quiet year as a year off is one of the more expensive mistakes in this area, because the late fee accrues per return rather than once.

A late fee applies, and for most returns it accumulates for as long as the return is outstanding rather than being charged once. Interest may apply separately on any tax that was due.

Where a filing has been missed for a long period the position is usually still recoverable, but the cost of putting it right rises with the delay.

For income tax and MCA filings, in most cases yes. A Digital Signature Certificate is what a return or a form is signed with, and it is obtained separately and renewed on its own cycle.

Several can, and in practice often are. But some carry a deadline counted from formation rather than from when you get round to it: the shop and establishment registration is due within 30 days of the business being set up, and PAN within 30 days of establishment.

Where a deadline has already passed the registration is usually still available, with the consequences that attach to the delay.