Accounting for a One Person Company
A One Person Company is a company, and that is the part people underestimate. You owe a statutory audit at any turnover and annual filings to the Registrar exactly as a Private Limited company does. What is lighter is the machinery around it: a simpler annual return, no annual general meeting, and one director instead of two. The filings themselves do not go away because there is only one of you.
What applies to you
The rules that apply because of how you are registered.
A statutory audit, at any turnover. Same as any company. Being a single owner changes nothing here.
Annual ROC filings, trading or not. Annual accounts and a simplified annual return. The ₹100 per day per form additional fee applies, with no upper limit.
No annual general meeting. One of the genuine reliefs. The resolution goes into the minute book instead.
A nominee, named from the start. An OPC must name the person who takes over if something happens to you, and their consent is on record. If that person changes, it is a filing.
The first-year forms still apply. Appointing your first auditor and declaring commencement of business. Same tight windows as any company.
Director KYC every year. There is one of you, so there is nobody to notice you missed it.
What we do about it
What we take over.
Books every month. Including a clean line between company money and your own, which is the thing most often blurred in an OPC.
GST, TDS and the company's income tax return. Prepared and filed once you approve.
Every ROC form, tracked and filed. Annual accounts, annual return, director KYC and any change during the year.
Your auditor gets closed books. Which is what keeps a single-owner audit from turning into a month of questions.
Notices handled. Forward it on WhatsApp. Routine notices are inside the fee.
There is no colleague who might catch a missed date. That is the actual risk of running an OPC.
Questions
What people in your position ask.
Is an OPC audited even with no revenue?
Yes. An OPC is a company under the Companies Act, and every company is audited regardless of turnover. Registering an OPC and leaving it idle still costs you an audit and two annual filings each year.
What is different from a Private Limited company?
Less machinery, not fewer filings. An OPC files a simplified annual return, holds no annual general meeting, and can run with one director. The audit, the annual accounts filing, the director KYC and the first-year forms are all the same.
Can I take money out of the company whenever I want?
Not freely, and this is the most common mistake in an OPC. The company's money is not your money. Drawing it as salary, as a loan or as a dividend each has a different tax consequence, and mixing them is what makes a first audit painful. We keep the line clean from the start and tell you the cleanest way to pay yourself.
Do I need to change my nominee if my situation changes?
Yes, and it is a filing, not a note in a drawer. Tell us and we will handle it.
By business structure
Not quite you?
- Private Limited
The heaviest compliance load, and the one with the uncapped late fee.
- LLP
Lighter than a company, but the uncapped ROC fee still applies.
- Partnership Firm
No ROC at all. The tax work is where the money is won or lost.
- Proprietorship
You and the business are one taxpayer. Simplest structure, easiest to neglect.