Your company’s first statutory year, in order

Most compliance trouble we see does not come from companies refusing to file. It comes from directors who did not know a deadline existed, or did not realise it had already started running. Almost every date below is calculated from a single choice you make once.

Everything hangs off your financial year end

Your financial year end (FYE) is not a formality. It is the anchor from which your filing obligations are measured, so choosing it casually means inheriting a calendar you did not design. Once it is set, the sequence follows.

The sequence

1. Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) — filed with IRAS within three months of FYE. A waiver applies in defined circumstances, but assume you must file unless you have confirmed otherwise.
2. Annual General Meeting — a private company must hold its AGM within six months of FYE. In some circumstances the requirement can be dispensed with, which is a decision to take deliberately rather than by default.
3. Annual Return — filed with ACRA within seven months of FYE. It follows the AGM, so a late AGM makes a late annual return almost automatic.
4. Corporate tax return (Form C-S or Form C) — filed with IRAS by 30 November each year. Note this one is a fixed calendar date, not an offset from your FYE.

What else may apply

• Audit — many small companies qualify for audit exemption, but qualification is tested against specific criteria and is not automatic or permanent.
• GST returns — only once registered, and on their own cycle.
• Payroll and CPF — monthly, from the moment you have your first employee.
• Register of registrable controllers — to be kept and maintained, separately from your other registers.

Why the cascade matters

These deadlines are not independent. A late set of accounts delays the AGM; a delayed AGM delays the annual return; a rushed annual return tends to surface errors in the registers that then need correcting. One slipped date at the start of the chain typically produces three problems at the end of it.

That is the argument for holding the corporate secretarial, accounting and tax work in one place. Not because it is tidier, but because the person tracking the AGM is then the same person who knows whether the accounts are ready.

If you are already behind

File anyway, and file soon. Late filing is a manageable problem. Continued non-filing is a different category of problem, and the gap between the two widens quickly.