August 2026 is quieter than July, but carries two hard stops on one day. Monday 31 August is the statutory income-tax return date for non-audit business and professional income, and the last day of the extended CCFS-2026 window for overdue ROC filings. Around them run the usual monthly GST, TDS, EPF and ESI dates, several under new law. This calendar covers the main central tax, corporate, labour and foreign-exchange deadlines this month, with the applicability test and legal basis for each.

August 2026 at a Glance

Two deadlines dominate the month, and both land on Monday, 31 August 2026: the income-tax return for non-audit business and professional income, and the extended window under the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026 (CCFS-2026) at the MCA. A late return can block the carry-forward of specified business and capital losses, subject to statutory exceptions. If the CCFS-2026 window closes on you, the scheme concession goes, and the ordinary consequences for each form apply instead.

No	Due Date	Compliance	Who Should Care
1	31-08-2026	ITR-3 / ITR-4 (non-audit), AY 2026-27	Proprietors, professionals, presumptive taxpayers, partners of non-audited firms
2	31-08-2026	CCFS-2026 extended scheme window closes	Companies with overdue MGT-7, AOC-4, ADT-1 and legacy annual filings
3	20-08-2026	GSTR-3B for July 2026	Every regular monthly GST filer
4	15-08-2026	EPF ECR and ESI contributions, July wages	All covered employers (falls on a Saturday and a national holiday)
5	07-08-2026	TDS / TCS deposit for July 2026	Every deductor and collector holding a TAN
6	31-08-2026	Extended export obligation period ends	Advance Authorisation and EPCG holders whose obligation expired March to May 2026

Income Tax & TDS – August 2026

August is the first month where the two-statute split shows up on a single page. Every TDS and TCS act this month relates to FY 2026-27 and runs under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered the familiar certificate and challan forms. The 31 August return, by contrast, is for FY 2025-26 and is still filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961, preserved by Section 536 of the 2025 Act. Using the right form number matters this quarter.

Due Date	Purpose	Period	Description
07-08-2026	TDS / TCS deposit (non-government)	Jul 2026	Tax deducted or collected in July, within seven days of month-end under Rule 218(2)(b). A government office paying without a challan must credit the same day under Rule 218(1)(a).
07-08-2026	Form 127 (buyer or licensee declarations)	Jul 2026	Seller uploads the no-collection declarations received in July, under Rule 212 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, successor to Form 27C.
14-08-2026	Form 132 (TDS certificate)	Jun 2026	Certificate for tax deducted through the challan-cum-statement route in June. That statement was due 30 July (30 days from month-end); Rule 215 adds 15 days—successor to Forms 16B, 16C, 16D and 16E.
15-08-2026	Form 131 (quarterly TDS certificate, non-salary)	Q1: Apr-Jun 2026	Successor to Form 16A. The Q1 TDS statement is due 31 July under Rule 219; Rule 215 gives 15 days from that date.
15-08-2026	Form 133 (quarterly TCS certificate)	Q1: Apr-Jun 2026	Successor to Form 27D. Rule 219 now sets the Q1 TCS statement at 31 July, in line with the TDS statement, so the Rule 215 fifteen-day certificate falls on 15 August. Under the 1962 Rules this date was 30 July.
15-08-2026	Form 137 (book-adjustment statement)	Jul 2026	Government offices that pay tax by book entry, within 15 days of month-end under Rule 218(6)—successor to Form 24G.
30-08-2026	Form 141 (challan-cum-statement)	Jul 2026	Property purchase, rent, contract and professional payments, and virtual digital asset transfers, within thirty days of month-end under Rule 218(3). Replaces Forms 26QB, 26QC, 26QD and 26QE. 30 August is a Sunday.
31-08-2026	ITR-3 / ITR-4 (non-audit), AY 2026-27	FY 2025-26	Business and professional income not subject to audit, and partners of non-audited firms, under Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as substituted by the Finance Act, 2026.

The 31 August date is not an extension. The Finance Act, 2026 substituted the due-date table in Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) with effect from 1 March 2026 and created a separate 31 August slot for non-audit business and professional income. The trigger is the nature of the income and the audit position, not the form number you happen to file. A non-audit firm or LLP filing ITR-5 also gets 31 August, while someone filing ITR-3 whose income is not business income does not.

GST Deadlines – August 2026

Nothing in the GST statute changed for August, but two portal behaviours decide whether the month goes smoothly. Outward liability in GSTR-3B has been hard-locked since the July 2025 period, so the only route left to correct it is GSTR-1A, open from 12 August until you file the July GSTR-3B. GSTR-2B is ordinarily generated on 14 August, which is why the Invoice Management System (IMS) is best cleared before that date.

Due Date	Purpose (Form)	Period	Description
10-08-2026	GSTR-7 / GSTR-8	Jul 2026	GST TDS return by deductors under Section 51 and TCS return by e-commerce operators under Section 52. A nil GSTR-7 is mandatory.
11-08-2026	GSTR-1	Jul 2026	Outward supplies for monthly filers, under Rule 59(1). GSTR-1A opens on 12 August.
13-08-2026	IFF (QRMP)	Jul 2026	Optional B2B invoice upload up to ₹50 lakh under Rule 59(2). The facility expires after 13 August and cannot be filed later.
13-08-2026	GSTR-5 / GSTR-6	Jul 2026	Non-resident taxable persons under Section 39(5) and Input Service Distributors under Section 39(4).
14-08-2026	GSTR-2B generated	Jul 2026	Auto-drafted ITC statement under Rule 60(7). Review IMS records before generation; if you act later, run the portal’s recomputation before filing GSTR-3B.
20-08-2026	GSTR-3B	Jul 2026	Monthly summary return and tax payment under Rule 61(1)(i). Interest in Table 5.1 is auto-computed.
20-08-2026	GSTR-5A	Jul 2026	OIDAR suppliers and overseas online money-gaming suppliers, under Rule 64.
25-08-2026	PMT-06	Jul 2026	QRMP monthly tax payment by the fixed-sum or self-assessment method.

Two entries you will see on other August calendars do not belong there. The staggered 22nd and 24th dates apply only to quarterly QRMP returns under Rule 61(1)(ii), and no quarter ends in July, so those fall in October. And GSTR-11 has no statutory due date: GSTN’s own guidance confirms that a UIN holder may file it any time after the quarter ends, because Rule 82 ties it to the refund claim rather than to a date.

ROC, Company & LLP – August 2026

One MCA date matters this month, and it exists only because of the fire at the MCA data centre on 5 June 2026. General Circular No. 03/2026 dated 8 July 2026 extended the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026 from 15 July to 31 August 2026, giving defaulting companies six more weeks to clear overdue annual filings at a tenth of the additional fee. Within the recurring central filings this calendar covers, that is the only August item.

Due Date	Purpose (Form)	Authority	Description
31-08-2026	CCFS-2026	MCA / ROC	Last day to file overdue MGT-7 / MGT-7A, AOC-4 (including XBRL and CFS), ADT-1, FC-3 / FC-4 and legacy 1956-Act annual forms at normal fee plus 10% of the additional fee. Dormancy through MSC-1 at 50%; strike-off through STK-2 at 25%. Companies under a final strike-off notice, or already dormant, amalgamated or dissolved, are outside the scheme.
Not due in August	DPT-3 (return of deposits)	MCA / ROC	The statutory date was 30 June 2026, and the additional-fee waiver under General Circular No. 02/2026 ran only to 31 July 2026. No further extension has been issued, so a pending DPT-3 is now a late filing.
Coming next: 30-09-2026	AGM and DIR-3 KYC	MCA / ROC	The AGM for FY 2025-26 under Section 96 and director KYC under Rule 12A both fall on 30 September. AOC-4 and MGT-7 then run off the AGM date.

Event-based filings sit outside this table by nature. An allotment, a charge, a change in directors or a resolution under Section 117 carries its own clock from the date of the event, so check your own board calendar alongside this one.

EPF & ESI – August 2026

Provident fund compliance moved to a new instrument on 1 July 2026. The Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, notified by G.S.R. 525(E) dated 29 June 2026 under the Code on Social Security, 2020, replaced the EPF Scheme, 1952. The monthly rhythm is unchanged: contributions and the electronic challan-cum-return (ECR) within fifteen days of the wage month. August’s difficulty is the calendar rather than the law, because 15 August 2026 is a Saturday and Independence Day.

Due Date	Compliance	Period	Particulars
15-08-2026	EPF contribution and ECR	Wage Month: Jul 2026	Deposit and file within fifteen days of month-end under the EPF Scheme, 2026. The five-day grace period was withdrawn in 2016.
15-08-2026	ESI contribution	Wage Month: Jul 2026	Regulation 31 of the ESI (General) Regulations, 1950, preserved under Section 164(2)(b) of the Code on Social Security, 2020.
Open through August	Enrolment Campaign 2026 and VISHWAS 2026	Ongoing	The employees’ enrolment campaign runs to 31 October 2026, and the VISHWAS damages-settlement window runs roughly six months from 29 June 2026. Neither closes in August.

Because 15 August 2026 is a Saturday and Independence Day, payroll should plan to complete both payments by Friday 14 August. Treat 14 August as an operational safety date rather than a substituted statutory deadline, and check current EPFO and ESIC notices and your bank’s cut-off before processing. The reason to build in the buffer is that an employee’s share deposited late is permanently disallowed as a business deduction, so a short slip costs more than the interest on it.

DGFT & RBI – August 2026

Three of this month’s four foreign-trade and exchange-control dates are one-off, which is exactly why they get missed. Importers under the India-UK Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) have until 4 August to apply for the vehicle tariff-rate quota, and the automatic export-obligation extension for Advance Authorisation and EPCG holders expires on 31 August. External commercial borrowing reporting, meanwhile, changed shape in February 2026.

Due Date	Purpose (Form)	Period	Description
04-08-2026	India-UK CETA tariff-rate quota applications close	CY 2026	Online applications for the 9,316-unit vehicle quota under DGFT Public Notice No. 22/2026-27 dated 20 July 2026. A pre-purchase agreement from the UK manufacturer is required, and late applications are not considered for allocation.
07-08-2026	RBI Form ECB-2	Jul 2026	Within seven calendar days of month-end, and only for a month in which a drawdown or debt servicing took place, under Notification No. FEMA 3(R)(5)/2026-RB dated 9 February 2026. Borrowers with loan registration numbers issued before 16 February 2026 should confirm the position with their AD bank.
31-08-2026	Extended export obligation period ends	Advance Authorisation / EPCG	Automatic extension for export obligation and block-wise obligation periods that expired between 1 March and 31 May 2026, with no application and no composition fee, under DGFT Public Notice No. 51/2025-26 dated 6 March 2026.
Coming next: 30-09-2026	FLA return, audited revision	FY 2025-26	The FLA return itself was due 31 July 2026 after the RBI’s extension. Entities that filed on provisional figures must revise with audited figures by 30 September.

Professional Tax – August 2026

Professional tax is state law, and filing frequency can turn on registration type, employee count, the previous year’s liability and local notifications. The table gives the indicative August date for six states and names the governing provision where one was confirmed; treat it as a planning aid and check your state portal before filing. Maharashtra is the row to look at twice: PTRC moved from month-end to the 15th with effect from 1 March 2026, so it now collides with the EPF and ESI date.

No	State	Due Date	Frequency	Basis
1	Andhra Pradesh / Telangana	10-08-2026	Monthly	State PT Rules; verify on the state portal
2	Madhya Pradesh	10-08-2026	Monthly	Rule 13(1), MP Vritti Kar Rules
3	Maharashtra (PTRC)	15-08-2026	Monthly	Rule 11(3), MSTPTCE Rules, 1975, as amended w.e.f. 01-03-2026
4	Gujarat	15-08-2026	Monthly	State PT Act and Rules; verify on the state portal
5	Karnataka	20-08-2026	Monthly	Section 6-A, KTPTCE Act, 1976
6	West Bengal	21-08-2026	Monthly	State PT Rules; verify on the state portal

Tamil Nadu has no August date at all. Its professional tax is half-yearly, with the April to September half payable by 30 September 2026.

Penalty Matrix – Quick Reference

The figures below are the ordinary positions and are meant for planning; compute the actual liability on the respective portal, and read each row against your own facts, because caps and exceptions apply. One distinction runs through the whole table. TDS consequences now sit under the Income-tax Act, 2025, because they relate to FY 2026-27 deductions, while the return consequences for AY 2026-27 remain under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Compliance	Fee, interest or penalty	Additional consequences
ITR (non-audit, AY 2026-27)	Fee under Section 234F of ₹5,000, or ₹1,000 where total income is ₹5 lakh or less; interest under Section 234A at 1% per month on unpaid tax	Carry-forward of specified business and capital losses barred under Section 80; unabsorbed depreciation and house-property loss are not affected; belated return only up to 31 December 2026
TDS deposit	Interest under Section 398(3)(a) at 1% per month to the date of deduction and 1.5% per month from deduction to payment	Disallowance under the expenditure provisions where tax is not deducted or paid in time
TDS / TCS statements	Fee under Section 427 at ₹200 per day, which cannot exceed the tax deductible or collectable	Penalty under Section 461 of ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000, with no penalty where tax, fee and interest are paid, and the statement is filed within one month of the due date
GSTR-1 / GSTR-3B	Late fee under Section 47 at ₹50 per day, or ₹20 for a nil return, subject to turnover-linked caps; interest under Section 50 at 18% per annum on tax paid in cash	Buyer’s input tax credit delayed; the GSTR-1A correction window closes once the GSTR-3B is filed
CCFS-2026 (missed by 31 Aug)	The scheme concession and immunity end. The ordinary additional fee, penalty and enforcement position must then be worked out separately for each form and default; the ₹100 per day additional fee is the annual-filing rule and does not apply to every CCFS form	Continuing default exposes directors to disqualification under Section 164(2), and the company to strike-off and prosecution
EPF / ESI	Interest and damages under the Code on Social Security, 2020, with damages on the slab in Paragraph 23 of the EPF Scheme, 2026	Late-deposited employees’ contributions permanently disallowed for income tax
Export obligation default	Duty saved on the imports becomes payable with interest, with penalty under the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992	Regularisation through the Regional Authority; risk to future authorisations

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 31 August 2026 the ITR due date for everyone filing ITR-3 or ITR-4?

No. The due date depends on the nature of the taxpayer’s income rather than the ITR form itself. Under Explanation 2 to Section 139(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as substituted by the Finance Act, 2026), 31 August 2026 applies to assessees having income from business or profession whose accounts are not required to be audited, partners of non-audited firms, and many non-audit firms and LLPs filing ITR-5. Taxpayers whose accounts are subject to audit have a due date of 31 October 2026, while cases involving a Section 92E transfer pricing report have a due date of 30 November 2026.

Did CBDT extend the ITR deadline to 31 August 2026?

No. The due date of 31 August 2026 is a statutory amendment introduced by the Finance Act, 2026, not an extension through a CBDT circular. Accordingly, returns filed by the statutory due date are treated as timely for the purposes of interest under Section 234A, fee under Section 234F, and the carry forward of eligible losses.

Has the CCFS-2026 window really been extended to 31 August 2026?

Yes. MCA General Circular No. 03/2026 dated 8 July 2026 extended the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme (CCFS), 2026 up to 31 August 2026. The scheme continues with the same concessions, while companies already under a final strike-off notice, or those that are dormant, amalgamated, or dissolved, remain outside its scope.

EPF and ESI fall due on 15 August 2026, a national holiday. Does the date move?

No. The statutory due date remains 15 August 2026. Since this date is both Independence Day and a Saturday, employers should preferably complete EPF and ESI payments by 14 August 2026 to avoid banking delays. Late payments may attract interest, damages, and other statutory consequences.

Which GST returns are due in August 2026, and is anything due on the 22nd or 24th?

The regular August filing schedule includes GSTR-7 and GSTR-8 (10th), GSTR-1 (11th), IFF, GSTR-5 and GSTR-6 (13th), GSTR-3B and GSTR-5A (20th), and PMT-06 (25th). There are no statutory GST return due dates on the 22nd or 24th of August 2026. Those dates apply only to certain quarterly QRMP filings in the relevant quarter.

Do the new Income-tax Rules, 2026 form numbers replace Form 16A and Form 26QB?

Yes. For FY 2026-27, the Income-tax Rules, 2026 introduce new form numbers. Form 131 replaces Form 16A, Form 132 replaces Forms 16B to 16E, Form 133 replaces Form 27D, and Form 141 replaces the earlier challan-cum-statement forms including Form 26QB, 26QC, 26QD, and 26QE. However, filings relating to FY 2025-26 continue to follow the forms prescribed under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the corresponding rules.

Conclusion

Plan August around two dates. Everything transactional lands between the 7th and the 25th, and everything consequential lands on the 31st: the non-audit income-tax return and the last day of the extended CCFS-2026 window. Treat both as hard planning dates, subject to any later official extension or portal advisory issued before you file.

The subtler risk this month is citation, not timing. TDS and TCS acts in August sit under the Income-tax Act, 2025 with renumbered forms, while the return you file on the 31st still sits under the 1961 Act. If you want the whole month handled, whether that is the ITR, the July TDS cycle, GST returns or a CCFS-2026 catch-up filing before the window shuts, Setindiabiz’s process experts can take it end to end.

Disclaimer: This is general information reflecting the law and notifications as of 1 August 2026, not advice on any specific case. Deadlines can be extended, and portal advisories can change a filing route, so check the official portal for your filing before you act: incometax.gov.in, gst.gov.in, mca.gov.in, epfindia.gov.in, esic.gov.in, flair.rbi.org.in and dgft.gov.in. Professional tax is governed by state law, and dates vary. Take professional advice on your own facts.

Author Bio

Editorial Team

Setindiabiz Editorial Team is a multidisciplinary collective of Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, and Advocates offering authoritative insights on India’s regulatory and business landscape. With decades of experience in compliance, taxation, and advisory, they empower entrepreneurs and enterprises to make informed decisions.