Getting your Certificate of Incorporation is the starting line, not the finish. The Companies Act 2013 and a handful of tax and labour laws put your new company on the clock from day one, and missing an early deadline can mean penalties, blocked bank operations, or an inability to legally start trading. Here is a single consolidated checklist of what a newly incorporated private limited company should do in its first 90 days, roughly in the order the deadlines fall. Treat it as a sequence, not a menu.
Days 1 to 30: Lay the legal foundations
- Open a current bank account in the company's name using the Certificate of Incorporation, PAN, and a board resolution. Have every subscriber deposit the share subscription money they committed to in the memorandum into this account.
- Hold your first Board meeting within 30 days of incorporation (Section 173). At it, each director files a disclosure of interest in other entities (Form MBP-1), and the board passes its opening resolutions.
- Appoint the first statutory auditor within 30 days by board resolution (Section 139(6)), then file Form ADT-1 within 15 days of the appointment. If the board fails to do so, the members must appoint one within 90 days at an extraordinary general meeting.
- Locate your PAN and TAN, which are allotted automatically inside the SPICe+ incorporation process. You need the TAN to deduct and deposit TDS on salaries, rent, and professional fees.
- Set up statutory registers (members, directors, charges) and begin double-entry books of accounts.
Days 30 to 60: Registrations and share formalities
- Issue share certificates to every subscriber within 60 days of incorporation (Section 56), and pay the applicable state stamp duty on them.
- Apply for DPIIT Startup India recognition on the Startup India portal. It is free, fully online, and typically approved within a few working days. You are eligible if you are a Private Limited Company, LLP, registered partnership, or cooperative society, under 10 years old, with turnover below Rs 200 crore, working on an innovative or scalable idea, and not formed by splitting an existing business.
- Register for GST if your aggregate turnover crosses the threshold (Rs 40 lakh for goods or Rs 20 lakh for services in normal states, and Rs 20 lakh or Rs 10 lakh respectively in special category states), or immediately if you make inter-state supplies or sell through an e-commerce operator.
- Complete state-specific registrations that apply to you, such as Professional Tax and Shops and Establishment registration.
Days 60 to 90: Commencement and conditional filings
- File Form INC-20A, the declaration of commencement of business, once every subscriber has paid for their shares. The law allows up to 180 days (Section 10A), but file it early: until you do, the company cannot legally start operations or borrow money.
- Report any foreign investment. If a non-resident invests, allot shares within 60 days of receiving the funds, then file Form FC-GPR on the RBI FIRMS portal within 30 days of allotment, routed through your authorised dealer bank.
- Register for EPF and ESI when you hit the headcounts. EPF applies once you employ 20 or more people, and ESI once you employ 10 or more (with at least one earning Rs 21,000 or less a month). Contributions are due from the day you cross the threshold, not the day you register.
A note on the tax benefits
DPIIT recognition on its own gives you self-certification on labour and environment laws plus IPR support, but the headline 100 percent profit-linked tax holiday under Section 80-IAC, claimable for three consecutive years chosen from your first ten, needs a separate application to the Inter-Ministerial Board. Startups incorporated up to 1 April 2030 are eligible. Separately, the angel tax under Section 56(2)(viib) was abolished from 1 April 2025, so priced equity rounds no longer attract it. Build this checklist into a shared tracker with owners and dates, and revisit it at your next board meeting.