Annual Compliance Cost for a Private Limited Company in 2026-27: The Full Year, Line by Line

Short answer: A private limited company in India spends roughly ₹16,000 to ₹99,000 a year on annual compliance in 2026-27, depending on its size and whether it is GST-registered. The government fees are tiny — ₹600 to ₹1,200 for the three ROC forms. The rest is your auditor's fee and professional time. The bill only turns ugly when you file late.

Ask a founder what annual compliance costs and you will hear two very different numbers. One founder says ₹600. Another says ₹80,000. Both are right. They are just counting different things.

The ₹600 is the government fee. Three ROC forms, ₹200 each, for a company with ₹1 lakh of authorised capital. That is the whole government bill for a small company's ROC filings. The ₹80,000 is everything around it — the statutory audit, the return preparation, the GST returns, the TDS returns. This guide separates the two on every line, so you can see exactly where your money goes and where you can push the number down.

One thing before the numbers: FY 2026-27 runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, but most of its filings land between April and November 2027. When this guide says a form is due on 30 October 2027, that is the FY 2026-27 filing. Keep that year straight and the dates make sense.

Your FY 2026-27 compliance calendar

Every private limited company files the same core set, every year, even if it did no business at all. No revenue does not mean no filings.

Small companies file MGT-7A instead of MGT-7 — a shorter annual return. And one line that will save some readers money this year: DIR-3 KYC, the director KYC, is not due in FY 2026-27 for most directors. It moved to a three-year cycle on 31 March 2026, and the next filing falls due on 30 June 2028. Several cost guides still list it as an annual charge. It is not. I come back to that below, because it is the single most common error in the cost tables floating around right now.

What does the government actually charge?

Almost nothing. The MCA fee for AOC-4, MGT-7/MGT-7A and ADT-1 comes from one table — Table A of the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014 — and it depends only on your authorised capital. Not on turnover. Not on profit. The same slab applies to all three forms.

That is the full government cost of the ROC filings for a normal year. DIR-3 KYC carries no government fee when filed on time. DPT-3 carries no fee either. ITR-6 costs nothing to file on the income-tax portal. The government, in other words, is not where your compliance money goes.

What do professionals charge?

This is the real bill, and it is also where the numbers get fuzzy — because no law fixes what a CA or CS charges. The ranges below are what firms typically charge for a small company in 2026-27, drawn from the going rates quoted across independent compliance guides. Treat them as a band to budget against, not a price list. Your city, your transaction volume and your auditor's seniority will move you inside the band.

Two things worth noticing. First, the audit is the single biggest line — usually half the total bill or more. Second, GST and TDS are the swing factors. A company with no GST registration and no TDS deductions skips two whole rows of the table, which is why the totals below split the way they do.

Two worked totals

Ranges are abstract. Here is what they add up to for two ordinary companies.

Example A — a lean startup. Two directors, ₹1 lakh authorised capital, no GST registration, no employees, turnover well under ₹1 crore. Government fees: ₹600. Statutory audit: ₹10,000–₹15,000. ROC preparation: ₹2,000–₹4,000. ITR-6: ₹3,000–₹5,000. DPT-3 bundled in. Total: roughly ₹16,000–₹26,000 for the year.

Example B — an active trading company. ₹10 lakh authorised capital, GST-registered, five employees, turnover around ₹2 crore, so a tax audit applies. Government fees: ₹1,200. Statutory audit: ₹20,000–₹35,000. Tax audit extra: ₹5,000–₹15,000. ROC preparation: ₹4,000–₹6,000. ITR-6: ₹5,000–₹10,000. GST returns: ₹12,000–₹24,000 a year. TDS returns: ₹4,000–₹8,000 a year. Total: roughly ₹51,000–₹99,000 for the year.

That is the honest band for FY 2026-27: about ₹16,000 at the lean end, about ₹99,000 at the busy end. If someone quotes you ₹5,000 for the full year, something is missing from the quote — usually the audit. If someone quotes ₹1.5 lakh for a two-person company with no GST, get a second quote.

What does late filing cost?

This is where a small bill becomes a large one, and it happens through two different charges that most founders confuse. Think of it like a parking meter and a traffic challan. The meter runs automatically — every day you are late, it ticks. The challan is different: an officer issues it afterwards, and it names people. Paying the meter does not cancel the challan. ROC late filing works the same way.

The meter — the additional fee. File AOC-4 or MGT-7 late and the MCA portal charges ₹100 a day per form, with no upper limit, under Section 403 of the Companies Act. It has run at that rate since 1 July 2018. It is automatic: you pay it at upload, and nothing stops it except filing.

The challan — the statutory penalty. On top of the fee, the Registrar can impose a penalty under Section 137(3) for AOC-4 or Section 92(5) for MGT-7. The company pays ₹10,000 plus ₹100 a day, capped at ₹2 lakh. Each officer in default pays ₹10,000 plus ₹100 a day, capped at ₹50,000. Small companies, OPCs and recognised startups pay half these penalties under Section 446B. And if a company fails to file for three financial years running, every director is disqualified for five years under Section 164(2).

Work it out for a company that files both forms 90 days late:

That is ₹56,000 before a rupee of professional rework — and before any penalty on the officers, who each face up to ₹19,000 of their own. A 90-day delay costs more than two years of on-time compliance for a lean company. Miss the AGM itself and Section 99 adds a fine of up to ₹1 lakh on the company and every officer in default, plus up to ₹5,000 a day while the default continues.

One caution on dates: MCA's General Circular 05/2026 (24 October 2026) let companies file FY 2025-26 AOC-4 by 31 December 2026 and MGT-7 by 31 January 2027 without additional fees. That relief belongs to last year only. It does not move any FY 2026-27 date in the table above.

Three things that cut the bill

Check whether you are a small company now. In December 2025 the MCA raised the small-company limits to paid-up capital of ₹10 crore and turnover of ₹100 crore. If your company sits inside those limits, you file the shorter MGT-7A, you hold fewer board meetings, and your penalties under Sections 92 and 137 are halved. Plenty of companies that were "not small" last year qualify this year and have not noticed. I wrote a separate guide on the new ₹10 crore / ₹100 crore limits — check it before you pay for a full MGT-7.

File on time — the meter is the expensive part. The government fee for a small company is ₹600. Ninety days late on two forms is ₹18,000 in additional fees alone. No discount, no negotiation, no waiver after the due date. The cheapest compliance advice in this guide is a calendar reminder in August, not October.

Do not pay for DIR-3 KYC this year. As noted above, director KYC moved to a three-year cycle on 31 March 2026 and is next due on 30 June 2028. If a quote for FY 2026-27 includes a DIR-3 KYC charge, ask what it is for. The triennial DIR-3 KYC rule is the detail most cost guides have not caught up with yet.

One more practical step: bundle the audit, the ROC filings and the ITR with one firm. Firms price a bundle lower than the same work bought form by form, and one firm holding the full year means nothing falls between two advisors. Before you agree a number, run it through our compliance fee calculator — it prices the year's filings line by line, which is the fastest way to spot a quote that quietly leaves something out.

Five mistakes that inflate the bill

• Budgeting only the government fee. ₹600 is the ROC challan, not the year's cost. The audit alone is usually ten times that.
• Paying for DIR-3 KYC in FY 2026-27. It is not due until 30 June 2028. Check any quote that includes it.
• Treating the ₹100-a-day fee as the whole penalty. The additional fee and the statutory penalty are separate charges. One does not cancel the other.
• Assuming last year's extension applies this year. General Circular 05/2026 covered FY 2025-26 filings only. FY 2026-27 dates stand as in the calendar above.
• Forgetting DPT-3 and ADT-1. DPT-3 falls due on 30 June 2027 and ADT-1 within 15 days of the AGM. They are small filings with the same ₹100-a-day meter if missed, and they are the two most commonly overlooked lines in a founder's calendar. If you have already missed a year, read how to catch up on AOC-4 and MGT-7 before the gap grows.

For a first-time founder, the sequence matters more than any single form — the first annual filing walkthrough covers the order of operations, and our annual filing service handles the whole year end to end if you would rather hand it over.

FAQs

How much does annual compliance cost for a private limited company in 2026-27?
Roughly ₹16,000 to ₹99,000 for the year. A lean company with no GST registration and no tax audit sits near ₹16,000–₹26,000; an active GST-registered company with a tax audit sits near ₹51,000–₹99,000. Government fees are only ₹600–₹1,200 of that — the rest is the statutory audit and professional time.

What is the government fee for filing AOC-4 and MGT-7?
₹200 to ₹600 per form, fixed by the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014 and based only on authorised capital: below ₹1 lakh is ₹200, ₹1–5 lakh is ₹300, ₹5–25 lakh is ₹400, ₹25 lakh–₹1 crore is ₹500, and ₹1 crore or more is ₹600. The same slab applies to ADT-1.

What is the late fee if I file AOC-4 or MGT-7 late?
₹100 a day per form with no upper limit, charged automatically at upload under Section 403. On top of that, the Registrar can impose a penalty under Section 137(3) or 92(5): ₹10,000 plus ₹100 a day, capped at ₹2 lakh for the company and ₹50,000 for each officer in default. Small companies pay half the penalty.

Is DIR-3 KYC still an annual filing?
No. Since 31 March 2026, DIR-3 KYC is filed once every three years. The next filing is due on 30 June 2028, so most directors owe nothing for DIR-3 KYC in FY 2026-27. Cost guides that still list it as an annual charge are out of date.

Does a company with no business still have to pay for annual compliance?
Yes. A private limited company files AOC-4 and MGT-7 every year and has its accounts audited even if it earned nothing. The only way to stop the yearly bill is to close the company through strike-off or to obtain dormant status — and even a dormant company files its annual return.

Annual compliance is not expensive because the government charges a lot. It is expensive because the work is real — an audit, three filings, a return, and a calendar that does not forgive a missed date. Price it line by line, file it on time, and the year's bill stays at the low end of the band. Let it slip, and the meter does the pricing for you.