Statutory audit vs tax audit: two different things
The word "audit" gets used for two separate requirements, and confusing them leads founders either to over-worry or to miss one.
A statutory audit is required of every Indian company under the Companies Act, full stop. There is no turnover floor below which a company is exempt; a company that did almost no business still needs its financial statements audited by an independent chartered accountant. This is the audit that supports the AOC-4 financials filed with the ROC.
A tax audit under Section 44AB of the Income-tax Act is different. It is triggered by size. It applies once the company's turnover (or gross receipts) crosses the threshold set in the law. A small company below that threshold may have no tax-audit obligation at all, even though it still must have its statutory audit. The exact threshold figure has changed over the years and varies with conditions, so it's confirmed against the current rule rather than assumed.
| Audit | Who needs it | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory (Companies Act) | Every company | Always. Any turnover |
| Tax audit (Section 44AB) | Companies over the limit | Turnover above the threshold |
The takeaway is simple: the statutory audit is unavoidable, while the tax audit depends on how much the company turned over. A company may need one, or both.
The company files its own tax return
A private limited company is a separate taxpayer from its shareholders and directors. It files its own corporate income-tax return, declaring its income at the company rate, entirely separate from your personal NRI return.
The due date depends on whether a tax audit applies. A company that needs a 44AB audit has a later filing deadline, because the audit report must be completed and filed before the return. Where no tax audit is required, the earlier due date applies. Filing your personal NRI return does nothing for the company's obligation; they are distinct returns on their own footing.
Quarterly payroll TDS on salaries (Form 24Q)
When your company pays a salary it must deduct tax at source from each employee's taxable pay, deposit it with the government, and report it quarterly on Form 24Q. The quarterly return reconciles salary paid and TDS deducted for each employee; at year end, the figures feed each employee's Form 16 : the TDS certificate they rely on for their own return. Get 24Q wrong or late and the employees' tax credits go wrong with it.
Payroll TDS is a recurring quarterly obligation, not an annual one, running alongside the company's other TDS duties (such as on vendor payments).
It all rests on the books being kept
None of the above works without proper books of account underneath. The statutory audit examines them, the tax audit (where it applies) reports on them, the company return is built from them, and the payroll TDS reconciles to the salary entries in them. Books kept properly through the year make every downstream filing routine; books left to year end make all of it a scramble.
For an overseas owner, all of this is a fully remote operation. Cloud accounting, shared documents and digital signatures mean the bookkeeping, the audit coordination, the company return and the quarterly 24Q can all be run with you abroad and a CA in India. You approving and signing, them preparing and filing.
The order is what matters: the books are kept current month by month, the audit is done after year end, the return follows the audit, and the payroll TDS runs on its own quarterly track throughout. Kept in that rhythm, the company's compliance is steady rather than a once-a-year emergency.
A worked example: why Rohan's company needs one audit, not two
Rohan, an NRI in London, owns an Indian private limited company, software for overseas clients, four employees in Bengaluru, ₹70 lakh turnover for FY 2025-26. He's been told the company "needs an audit" and assumes its size determines whether that's true. It doesn't. The two audits work on entirely different triggers.
The statutory audit applies regardless of turnover. Under the Companies Act 2013, every company has its financial statements audited by an independent CA (auditor appointed under Section 139). At ₹70 lakh or at zero, the statutory audit is owed; it supports the AOC-4 filed with the ROC.
The tax audit turns on size. Section 44AB triggers it only once turnover crosses ₹1 crore for a business (₹10 crore where cash receipts and payments each stay within 5% of total; ₹50 lakh for professions). Rohan's ₹70 lakh is below ₹1 crore, no tax audit for FY 2025-26. One audit, not two. Without a 44AB audit, the corporate ITR also falls on the earlier filing deadline.
Because the company pays salaries, the CA files Form 24Q each quarter and issues the team's Form 16 at year end, and confirms each year, against the actual turnover, whether the ₹1 crore mark has since been crossed.