ROC compliance means filing required forms, returns, documents, and company information with the Registrar of Companies under the Companies Act, 2013 and related rules.

Yes, companies are generally required to comply with annual filing and other applicable company law requirements, even if there is no business activity, subject to company status and applicable law.

AOC-4 is used for filing financial statements, while MGT-7 or MGT-7A is used for annual return filing, depending on the applicable company category and rules.

Yes. Startups registered as companies must maintain ROC compliance. Clean records are especially important before fundraising, ESOP planning, due diligence, or acquisition.

The AGM must be held by 30 September, AOC-4 filed within 30 days of the AGM, and MGT-7/MGT-7A within 60 days of the AGM. For most companies with a standard financial year, this means AOC-4 and MGT-7 typically fall due through October and November. Practically, that timeline only holds if your audited financials are ready well before the AGM — which is why we start the compliance calendar the moment your financial year closes, not the week before the deadline. If you're unsure where your company stands this year, share your CIN with our team and we'll pull up the exact status.

A late fee of ₹100 per day per form applies from the day after the due date, with no maximum cap — on top of the normal filing fee. A 100-day delay on AOC-4 alone works out to ₹10,000 in additional fees, and missing both AOC-4 and MGT-7 doubles that burden. Beyond the daily fee, Sections 92(5) and 137(3) allow for separate statutory penalties on the company and every officer in default. This is the part most founders underestimate — the daily fee alone can already run into tens of thousands before a director even faces personal exposure.

Yes. Every company must file AOC-4 and MGT-7 annually to maintain "Active" status on the MCA portal, regardless of business activity. A dormant or zero-transaction company still files NIL financial statements and a NIL annual return. Skipping filings on the assumption that "there's nothing to report" is one of the most common — and most expensive — mistakes we see, especially in group structures with holding or subsidiary entities that were set up but never actively traded.

Failing to file AOC-4 or MGT-7 for three consecutive financial years triggers director disqualification under Section 164(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 — for five years, across every company the director sits on. This is the consequence that catches people off guard, because it isn't limited to the one non-compliant company. A director disqualified for one company's defaults becomes ineligible to be appointed or reappointed anywhere else too, which can unravel unrelated business relationships built over years.

DIR-3 KYC is an annual identity verification every director holding a DIN must complete, and failing to file it by the deadline deactivates the DIN along with a fixed penalty to reactivate it. Once a DIN is deactivated, that individual legally cannot sign board resolutions, financial statements, or any MCA filing — which can quietly stall an entire company's compliance chain until it's fixed. We track DIR-3 KYC deadlines for every director on our retainer clients as a standing item, precisely because it's so easy to lose track of.

Technically the MCA portal allows any authorised signatory with a valid digital signature to file, but MGT-7 requires certification by a practising Company Secretary, and the underlying financial statements need CA-prepared audited accounts. Errors in these filings — wrong classifications, mismatched figures between AOC-4 and the audited financials, incomplete director disclosures — commonly cause form rejection, which resets the clock and adds more late fees while you refile. Most companies find it cheaper, in both time and penalty exposure, to have a CS-CA team handle it end to end.

File the pending AOC-4 first, then MGT-7, and check immediately whether any adjudication notice has already been issued under Section 92 or 137, since responding within the notice's timeline can materially change your penalty exposure. The government periodically opens limited settlement windows offering reduced statutory penalties for companies that come forward before a notice is issued — but these have strict eligibility dates and don't waive the daily late fee itself. The single worst move here is doing nothing while penalties keep compounding; get a compliance audit done so you know the exact numbers before deciding how to proceed.

Beyond annual filings, companies must hold the statutory minimum number of board meetings, maintain proper minute-books and statutory registers, file event-based forms like DPT-3 for loans and MGT-14 for special resolutions, and keep director KYC current. Larger or listed companies also carry secretarial audit and SEBI compliance obligations layered on top. This is why we set clients up on a retainer calendar rather than handling each filing as a one-off — a missed board meeting minute or an unfiled DPT-3 can be just as costly as a missed AOC-4, and it's usually the one nobody's watching.

Yes. We can review pending filings, identify compliance gaps, prepare required documents, and guide you on the suitable corrective steps.