Statutory filings every Indian employer must make
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Every employer in India is legally required to make periodic filings with tax authorities, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation, the Employees' State Insurance Corporation, and other labour regulators. Missing a deadline or filing incorrectly can trigger penalties, interest and, in some cases, prosecution.
Income tax: TDS and quarterly returns
If you pay salaries, you must deduct tax at source under the TDS mechanism before each salary is credited. The amount deducted depends on the employee's applicable slab under the income tax regime they have chosen — the new regime has slabs rising to 30%, with a 4% health and education cess applied on top of the tax computed. Lower-income employees may have no liability at all because of the section 87A rebate, but you still have a filing obligation even where deduction is nil.
Your core returns:
- Form 24Q — filed quarterly, covering salary TDS for each quarter of the financial year. The Q4 filing (covering January to March) carries additional annexures and is more detailed than the first three.
- Form 16 — not a return but a certificate you must issue to every employee by the prescribed date each year, summarising their gross salary and TDS for the year. Employees need this to file their own income tax returns.
TDS collected must be deposited with the government by the seventh of the following month (with a different rule applying for March). Late deposit attracts interest; late filing attracts a fee per day.
Provident Fund: monthly contributions and returns
Any establishment that meets the coverage threshold under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act must register with the EPFO and comply with monthly obligations.
The contribution structure is straightforward: the employee contributes 12% of their basic wages and the employer contributes a matching 12%. The employer's share is split between the EPF and the Employees' Pension Scheme at rates set by EPFO.
Monthly obligations:
- ECR (Electronic Challan cum Return) — a combined challan and return filed on the EPFO portal each month. It lists every member, their wages and their contribution. The payment and filing are integrated; you cannot file without remitting.
- The deadline is the 15th of the following month.
Late payment attracts damages and interest under the Act. Employers must also issue UAN (Universal Account Number) passbooks and maintain member records.
ESI: monthly contributions and half-yearly returns
The Employees' State Insurance Act applies to establishments and factories above a minimum employee count, covering employees whose wages fall below the applicable threshold. Once covered, both the employer and employee contribute a percentage of gross wages each month.
The compliance calendar:
- Monthly contribution — due by the 15th of the following month, filed through the ESIC portal.
- Half-yearly returns — filed twice a year covering the contribution periods April to September and October to March. These reconcile the monthly payments and declare each employee's contribution record for the period.
Employers also have obligations around accident reporting and maintaining an accident register under ESI rules.
Gratuity
Gratuity is not a periodic filing in the same sense, but it is a statutory obligation with an administrative dimension. Under the Payment of Gratuity Act, an employee becomes eligible after five years of continuous service. When the liability falls due — on resignation, retirement, death or disablement — you must process and pay it within the prescribed timeframe.
Establishments are required to display a notice of the gratuity scheme and, in some cases, obtain insurance coverage for the liability. A gratuity nomination form must be obtained from each employee.
Labour law filings under the four Labour Codes
India's four consolidated Labour Codes — covering wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety — were brought into force from 2025. These consolidate dozens of earlier Acts, but the filing obligations they create continue to evolve as states issue their own rules.
Across the codes, employers typically owe:
- Annual returns — consolidated returns to the relevant labour authority covering headcount, wages paid, and statutory compliance status. Previously these were separate returns for the Minimum Wages Act, the Contract Labour Act, the Maternity Benefit Act and others; the codes aim to unify them.
- Registers and records — wage registers, attendance registers, leave records and accident registers must be maintained digitally in the format prescribed under each code.
- Notices — display obligations on the premises covering working hours, leave entitlement, wages and grievance contacts.
Because state-level rules under the codes vary and some states are still notifying their rules, check the specific requirements for each state where you have employees. The obligations in Maharashtra will not be identical to those in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu.
Keeping track
The total number of deadlines across income tax, EPF, ESI and the Labour Codes runs into dozens each year. A practical way to manage this is to build a compliance calendar mapped to each statute, each state and the size thresholds that trigger coverage — because not every obligation applies to every employer. Knowing which filings apply to you is the first step; meeting the deadlines is simply a matter of process after that.
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