Form AOC-4| Due Date, Fees and Penalty Details

It has been mandated that a company’s financial statements are filed with the MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs) on an annual basis. The form for filing these financial statements with the MCA is the Form AOC-4. Form AOC-4 is filed with the MCA within a time period of 30 days from the annual general meeting of the company for each FY. In addition to the Form AOC-4. Certain documents like the report of the Board, the report of the auditor, statement of the subsidiaries in Form AOC-1, etc are also filed by the company. The Form AOC-4 needs to be certified by the Chartered Accountant or the Secretary of the Company. In this blog, we will discuss in detail the process to file Form AOC-4.

Documents that are filed in Form AOC-4

Financial statements of a company constitute balance sheets, profit and loss account, statement of cash flow, statement of equity change and any other explanatory notes which are annexed to the Financial Statements. In order to provide a spread-out financial picture of the company during a specified FY, the financial statements are filed along with the report of the board for all the companies that have been registered in India either private limited company or a one person company or a limited company or a section 8 company or others.

The documents that need to be filed with the Form AOC-4 are listed below:

1. Copy of financial statements that have been authenticated according to Section 134
2. Statement of subsidiaries according to section 129(Form AOC-1)
3. Statement of the facts and reasons to not adopt the Financial statements in the annual general meeting
4. Statement of the facts and reasons to not hold the annual general meeting
5. Approval letter in order to extend the FY or annual general meeting
6. Supplementary or test audit report according to section 143
7. Company CSR policy according to section 135(4)
8. Details of other entity or entities
9. Details of the salient features and justification for the acts of entering into contracts or transactions with concerned parties according to section 188 (1) – Form AOC-2
10. Detailed comments of CAG of India
11. Secretarial Audit Report
12. Directors’ report according to section 134 (3)
13. Details of remaining CSR activities
14. Optional attachment(s), if there are any.

Filing the Form AOC-4

Along with the Form AOC-4, the financial statements of the company are also needed to be filed with the Registrar annual for each FY. All the documents uploaded along with the Form AOC-4 need to be signed according to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. Only hand signed copies will be accepted in the case of Form AOC-4.

For the companies that are covered under the XBRL requirement of the Companies Act(Document and form filing in extensible business reporting language) Rules, the financial statements will have to be uploaded in the XBRL format on the portal of ministry of corporate affairs. These companies are as follows:

1. Companies that are listed with a stock exchange or their subsidiary in India.
2. Companies whose paid-up capital exceeds 5 crore.
3. Companies whose turnover is either Rs. 100 Crore or more.
4. Companies which were till now covered under the Companies rules, 2011.

Due Dates

All the companies that have been registered in India have to file a copy of financial statements under the Companies Act, 2013 along with all the required documents that were adopted in the annual general meeting also need to be attached. These need to be filed within 30 days from the date of conducting the Annual general meeting. However, a one person company does not hold annual general meetings, therefore, an OPC will have to file the financial statements that have been adopted by the members of the company within a time period of 180 days of closure of the FY.

In case  company did not hold an annual general meeting for an year, then the financial statements including the required documents which have been signed along with the statement of facts and reasons for which the annual general meeting was not held must be filed with the registrar within 30 days of the due date before which the meeting should have been conducted.

Fee for filing Form AOC-4

The fee to file the Form AOC-4 within the stipulated time period is listed below:

1. If the nominal share of the company is up to Rs. 1 lakhs, then the fee will be Rs. 200.
2. If the nominal share of the company is between Rs. 1 lakhs and 5 lakhs, then the fee will be Rs. 300.
3. If the nominal share of the company is between Rs. 5 lakhs and 25 lakhs, then the fee will be Rs. 400.
4. If the nominal share of the company is between Rs. 25 lakhs and 1 Crore, then the fee will be Rs. 500.
5. If the nominal share of the company is Rs. 1 Crore or more, then the fee will be Rs. 600.

Penalty

In case a company is unable to file the Form AOC-4 in addition to the copy of the financial statements within the stipulated time, then the company will have to pay a fine of Rs. 1000 for each day till the maximum penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs is accumulated. It is also possible that the MD, Director and Chief Financial Officer have to face imprisonment for at least 6 months or may have to pay a fine of up to Rs. 5 lakhs.

In addition to the penalties mentioned above, the fee for filing the Form AOC-4 also increases as listed below:

1. For a delay of 30 days, the government fee will be 2 times of normal fees
2. For a delay of 30 to 60 days, the government fee will be  4 times of normal fees
3. For a delay of 60 to 90 days, the government fee will be 6 times of normal fees
4. For a delay of 90 to 180 days, the government fee will be 10 times of normal fees
5. For a delay of 180 to 270 days, the government fee will be 12 times of normal fees

Conclusion

In this blog, we discussed in detail the Form AOC-4 and the documents that are required to be filed with it. We also discussed the due dates for filing the form and the penalties levied for late filing and the fee to file the Form AOC-4 by the government.