Chartered Accountant in Chennai: CA in Chennai and CA Firm in Chennai

What does a CA firm in Chennai actually handle for you?

A CA firm handles your tax returns, statutory filings, books and replies to department notices, so that your GSTIN, PAN and company records stay clean.

The scope depends on what kind of entity you run. Below is how the work usually splits for the people who call us from the city.

For a small trader, a CA firm is mostly about monthly discipline. For a company, the role widens: directors need someone who keeps the statutory calendar, checks the accounts before audit, and reads a notice before anyone replies to it.

One thing we tell every new client: the GST portal and the income tax portal now talk to each other. Your GSTR-3B turnover, your TDS credits in Form 26AS, and your bank deposits in the AIS all get compared. A gap of a few lakhs between them is enough for a system notice. Good compliance today means making those three numbers agree before you file, not explaining the difference later.

That is why our first month with any business is spent reconciling. We pull the last year of returns, compare them line by line, and give you a short note of what is fine, what is risky, and what needs correction while the window to amend is still open.

Exporting through Chennai Port or Kamarajar Port: LUT, refunds and shipping bills

Exports are zero-rated under GST, so either you export under LUT without paying tax and claim back input credit, or you pay IGST and get it refunded through the shipping bill.

The city's export trade covers cars, leather, garments, engineering goods, seafood and software services. Goods move through Chennai Port, Kamarajar Port at Ennore and Kattupalli. Services usually leave through an invoice and a SWIFT message. The GST rules for both are the same in principle, but the paperwork is very different.

A refund claim generally has to be filed within two years of the relevant date. That sounds generous, but small exporters often lose months because the first claim was rejected for a missing statement and nobody refiled.

What a software exporter on OMR should watch

A services company billing a US parent does not need customs paperwork, but it does need the LUT, an invoice that clearly shows export of services, and proof that the payment arrived in foreign exchange. Intermediary services and services where the supplier and recipient are related establishments of the same person are treated differently, and that is where many local IT subsidiaries go wrong. We read the agreement first and then decide how the invoice should be worded.

For goods exporters, we keep a monthly sheet that ties each shipping bill to its invoice, its GSTR-1 entry and its refund status on ICEGATE. When something gets stuck, we know exactly which number is wrong.

Professional tax in Chennai is collected by the Corporation, not the GST office

Here, professional tax is a half-yearly local body tax paid to the Greater Chennai Corporation, and employers must deduct it from salaries.

Many new employers assume professional tax is handled by the Commercial Taxes Department, as it is in some states. In Tamil Nadu it is a local body levy. Within city limits, the Corporation collects it from employers, companies and people in a profession or trade.

The slabs work on half-yearly income. The Corporation revised them from the second half of 2024-25. The current table is below.

The two halves run April to September and October to March. The usual due dates are 30 September and 31 March. Employers recover each half's tax from salary before these dates and deposit it with the employee list.

Where local employers slip

• They deduct the tax from salaries but deposit it late, or deposit it in a lump sum without the employee list.
• A unit just outside Corporation limits, say in a municipality or town panchayat, pays a different local body at that body's rates.
• The company forgets its own professional tax as an entity, separate from what it deducts for staff.

For employees, professional tax paid is deductible from salary only under the old regime. Under the new regime it does not reduce taxable income, so do not be surprised when your Form 16 shows no deduction for it.

Rates differ between local bodies in Tamil Nadu, so if your staff work from Coimbatore or Madurai as well, we check each body's current table before payroll is run.

Mistakes we fix most often for Chennai businesses

Most problems we see here come from a handful of habits: late supplier filings, ignored portal messages and accounts that are prepared only at year end.

These are the cases that reach us again and again. None of them are exotic. They are simply the gaps that grow when a busy owner has no one checking the monthly numbers.

1. Claiming credit that is not in GSTR-2B

Example: a trader books purchase bills and claims credit in GSTR-3B, but some suppliers file late or not at all. The credit is not in GSTR-2B. Months later, a DRC-01C intimation or a scrutiny notice asks for it back with interest. The fix is a monthly match before filing, and a polite but firm message to the suppliers who keep slipping.

2. Treating the AIS as someone else's problem

Fixed deposit interest, share sales, rent received and large cash deposits all show up in the Annual Information Statement. People file ITR-1 from Form 16 alone, leave out the interest, and receive a mismatch notice. We open the AIS before every return, not after.

3. ROC filings left for the auditor

Small private limited companies often assume the statutory auditor files AOC-4 and MGT-7. Many auditors only sign the accounts. When nobody files, additional fees run per day of delay, and directors can be disqualified after continuous default. We check the MCA master data of every new company client in the first week.

4. Wrong place of supply on services

Example: a consultant here bills a client in Bengaluru and charges CGST and SGST instead of IGST. The client cannot take the credit, and the consultant has to pay IGST again before claiming a refund of the wrong tax. A five-minute check on the invoice template prevents this.

5. Cash payments above the limit

Expenses paid in cash above Rs 10,000 to one person in a day (Rs 35,000 for payments to goods transport operators) are disallowed for income tax. Small units in the industrial estates still pay transporters and casual contractors in cash. We flag these during monthly bookkeeping, so the owner can move them to UPI or bank transfer.

If you recognise two or more of these in your own business, a short review call is worth it before the next return.

Annual company and LLP filings with ROC Chennai

Companies registered in the city file their annual returns and financial statements on the MCA portal, under the jurisdiction of the Registrar of Companies, Chennai.

The Registrar of Companies at Chennai covers companies and LLPs registered in the city and most of Tamil Nadu; the western districts around Coimbatore have a separate ROC office. All filing is online through the MCA V3 portal, so the office location matters only for jurisdiction, not for visits.

The AGM of a company must be held within six months of the year end, so for most companies the meeting falls by 30 September and the forms follow in October and November.

Why delays cost so much

MCA charges additional fees for each day of delay on annual forms, and the amount adds up quickly over a year or two. Separately, directors of a company that has not filed financial statements or annual returns for three continuous years can be disqualified. We see this with startups that went quiet for a while and then want to raise money or close down.

If you are still planning the company, start with our company registration service. We set up the statutory calendar on the same day the certificate of incorporation arrives, so INC-20A and the first auditor appointment do not slip.

A CA firm in Chennai that only does tax may not track these dates. Ask about it directly.