Your company has a CIN, a bank account and its first invoice ready to go. Then your CA asks whether INC-20A is on file, and you realise nobody mentioned it during incorporation. Until it is filed, the law says your company cannot commence business or borrow, however busy it already is.
Form INC-20A is short, but missing it costs far more than filing it. This guide covers who has to file, the 180-day due date, what you need in hand, the fee, the penalties, what the ROC can do if you never file, and the exact steps on the MCA V3 portal.
What Form INC-20A Is
INC-20A is the declaration for commencement of business under Section 10A of the Companies Act, 2013, read with Rule 23A of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014. A director declares to the Registrar of Companies (ROC) that every subscriber to the memorandum has paid for the shares they agreed to take.
Section 10A came in through the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, and was then enacted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019, which is deemed to have come into force on 2 November 2018. It says a company with share capital “shall not commence any business or exercise any borrowing powers” until two things are done:
- A director files the declaration within 180 days of incorporation, confirming every subscriber has paid the value of their shares on the date of the declaration.
- The company has filed a verification of its registered office under Section 12(2).
This is not the first time India has had such a rule. The original Section 11 of the 2013 Act required a similar declaration in Form INC-21, but the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 omitted it. For about three and a half years companies could start trading on the day they were incorporated. Section 10A brought the check back.
Who Must File INC-20A
The test has two parts: when the company was incorporated, and whether it has share capital. The MCA instruction kit for the V3 form puts it plainly: “this form can be filed only by a company having share capital.”
| Type of company | INC-20A needed? |
|---|---|
| Private or public company with share capital, incorporated on or after 2 November 2018 | Yes |
| One Person Company with share capital | Yes |
| Section 8 company with share capital | Yes. Section 10A has no Section 8 exception |
| Company limited by guarantee without share capital | No |
| Company incorporated before 2 November 2018 | No |
If you are not sure when a company was incorporated, or whether it is still active, look it up in the free WeeDoo company search. The date of incorporation and status are in its master data.
INC-20A Due Date: The 180-Day Clock
The INC-20A due date is 180 days from the date of incorporation shown on your certificate of incorporation. It is not linked to the financial year or the date you opened the bank account, and there is no statutory extension built into the Act.
A company incorporated on 15 May 2026, for example, should file by 10 November 2026. ROC adjudication orders count the date of incorporation as day one, so 11 November would already be a day of default. Don’t count it down to the last day. The form needs two digital signatures and a payment, and the subscription money has to be in the bank before the director can sign.
MCA has extended the window once before. Companies incorporated during the COVID period (1 April 2019 to 30 September 2020) got 360 days, as the instruction kit notes. We found no extension for companies incorporated in 2026. Check the news section on mca.gov.in before you rely on a later date.
What You Need Before You File
- Subscription money in the company’s bank account. Every subscriber must have paid for the shares they took in the memorandum. The V3 form asks, shareholder by shareholder, for the name, the bank and IFSC code where the money arrived, the account number, the date of receipt and the amount. A bank transfer from each subscriber’s own account makes those rows easy to match to the statement.
- A verified registered office. The V3 form checks that the address is on record through SPICe+ Part B or Form INC-22. Most companies gave the address in SPICe+, so this is already done. If yours did not, or the office has moved, file INC-22 first.
- A photograph of the registered office. This is the one mandatory attachment. It must show the outside of the building and the inside of the office, with at least one director or KMP in the picture. Each attachment can be up to 2 MB, in PDF or JPG.
- A board resolution authorising a director to sign the form. You enter its number and date in the declaration.
- Digital signatures. The signing director needs a valid, registered DSC and a DIN that is not flagged as disqualified. A practising CA, CS or cost accountant then certifies the form with their own DSC. Our DSC guide for MCA filings covers getting and registering one.
- Sectoral approval, if your business needs one. Rule 23A requires a company whose objects need registration or approval from a regulator such as RBI or SEBI to obtain it and attach it. If you declared in SPICe+ that you need such an approval and then answer “No” to the regulator question in INC-20A, the portal will not let you file.
Many founders keep the authorised capital high and the subscribed amount small. Only the shares the subscribers actually took in the memorandum have to be paid up for INC-20A. If the difference is not clear to you, read our explainer on authorised vs paid-up capital.
INC-20A Fees by Authorised Capital
The fee follows the document filing table in the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014, which is based on the company’s nominal (authorised) share capital. These are the bands in MCA’s INC-20A instruction kit:
| Authorised capital | Normal fee |
|---|---|
| Below ₹1,00,000 | ₹200 |
| ₹1,00,000 to ₹4,99,999 | ₹300 |
| ₹5,00,000 to ₹24,99,999 | ₹400 |
| ₹25,00,000 to ₹99,99,999 | ₹500 |
| ₹1 crore or more | ₹600 |
If you file after day 180, an additional fee is charged on top of the normal fee:
| Delay after the due date | Additional fee |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 days | 2 times the normal fee |
| 31 to 60 days | 4 times |
| 61 to 90 days | 6 times |
| 91 to 180 days | 10 times |
| More than 180 days | 12 times |
For a company with ₹15 lakh authorised capital that files 200 days late, that works out to ₹400 plus ₹4,800, so ₹5,200. That is small next to the penalty below. These are government fees only; your CA or CS charges separately for certifying the form. For the full set of incorporation costs, see our company registration cost breakdown.
Penalty for Not Filing INC-20A
Section 10A(2) has been a civil penalty from the start, not a criminal fine. The 2020 decriminalisation amendments did not change Section 10A itself. They did rewrite Section 446B, which caps penalties for smaller companies:
| Who is penalised | Penalty |
|---|---|
| The company | ₹50,000 |
| Every officer in default | ₹1,000 per day of default, up to ₹1,00,000 |
| OPC, small company, recognised start-up or producer company, and its officers | Not more than half of the above (Section 446B) |
The officer penalty reaches its ₹1 lakh cap after 100 days. If several directors are in default, each one is liable separately. The ROC imposes these through adjudication under Section 454: you get a notice, a chance to reply, then an order. A February 2026 order by the ROC in Bangalore, for example, imposed ₹50,000 on a private company that filed INC-20A 433 days late and ₹1 lakh on each of its three directors. It refused the Section 446B discount because the company was not a small company.
Strike-Off: The ROC’s Bigger Power
The penalty is not the worst outcome. Section 10A(3) says that if no declaration is filed within 180 days and the ROC has reasonable cause to believe the company is not carrying on business, the ROC may start action to remove the company’s name from the register. The same 2019 amendment added two matching grounds to Section 248(1):
- Clause (d): subscribers have not paid the subscription they undertook, and no INC-20A declaration was filed within 180 days.
- Clause (e): the company is not carrying on business, as revealed by a physical verification of its registered office under Section 12(9).
Before striking a company off on its own initiative, the ROC sends a notice in Form STK-1 to the directors, giving 30 days to send representations. Reply to it. A struck-off company shows as “Strike Off” in its master data, and getting it restored means going to the NCLT. You can see how these statuses appear in our guide to checking company status.
Missed the 180 Days? What to Do Now
- Check the company is still Active. The V3 form can only be filed for a company whose status is Active. If it already shows Strike Off, INC-20A is no longer the fix; talk to a CS about restoration.
- Get the subscription money in. If any subscriber has not paid, collect it into the company account now. The declaration speaks to payment on the date you make it.
- File INC-20A with the additional fee. The portal accepts late filings; the fee table above applies. Filing stops the per-day clock for officers, though it does not undo the default that already happened.
- Answer any adjudication or STK-1 notice on time. Show that the form is now on record and the company is actually operating.
- Watch for amnesty schemes. MCA runs one-off schemes that cut additional fees on late filings, and the forms they cover change each time. Check the MCA site for one that is open now and covers INC-20A before you pay full additional fees.
How to File INC-20A on the MCA V3 Portal
INC-20A is a V3 web form. The steps below follow MCA’s instruction kit. If you have not used the new portal yet, start with our guide to MCA V3 login and registration.
- Log in to the MCA portal. Go to MCA Services, then E-Filing, then Company Forms Download, and open Form INC-20A. You can also find it through the search bar on the MCA homepage.
- Enter or select the CIN. Company users see it pre-filled; professionals can search by company name. The name, registered office, email and location coordinates fill in automatically.
- Answer whether a sectoral regulator such as RBI, SEBI or IRDAI regulates the company’s activities. If yes, pick the regulator and enter the approval or registration number and date.
- Enter the number of shareholders you are reporting, then for each one: name, bank and IFSC code, account number, date of receipt and amount.
- Attach the registered office photograph, plus the RBI certificate for an NBFC or the Nidhi declaration where it applies. Up to five optional attachments are allowed; a copy of the bank statement is a sensible one to add.
- Fill in the board resolution number and date, the director’s DIN and the certifying professional’s details. Then submit. An SRN is generated.
- Download the PDF, have the director and the professional sign it with their DSCs, and upload it. Pay the fee. The SRN is cancelled if the signed PDF is not uploaded within 15 days of the SRN, or if payment is not made within 7 days of the upload (sooner if the filing due date is close).
INC-20A is processed in straight-through (STP) mode and taken on record electronically. There is no provision to resubmit it, so check every row against the bank statement before you sign.
What INC-20A Unlocks
Legally, the declaration unlocks two things: commencing business and exercising borrowing powers. Without it, a bank loan, a secured facility or a loan from a director is borrowing that Section 10A says the company cannot yet do.
Practitioner guides also report that the V3 portal holds back some later company forms until INC-20A is on record, most often naming the change of registered office and MGT-14. We could not find an MCA list of these blocks, and the CHG-1 instruction kit we checked does not mention INC-20A. Treat it as a practical warning, not a fixed rule: if a form refuses to go through for a young company, check INC-20A first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the due date for INC-20A?
Within 180 days of the date of incorporation. It runs from your company’s own incorporation date, not from a common annual deadline, so every company has a different INC-20A due date.
Is a commencement of business certificate issued after INC-20A?
No separate certificate is issued. The form is taken on record electronically, and the filed form, SRN and payment receipt are your proof that the declaration was made.
Does an OPC need to file Form INC-20A?
Yes, if it was incorporated on or after 2 November 2018 with share capital. An OPC benefits from Section 446B, so any penalty is capped at half the normal amounts.
Can a company file INC-20A after 180 days?
Yes, as long as the company is still Active. You pay the normal fee plus an additional fee of 2 to 12 times the normal fee, depending on the delay. The ROC can still adjudicate a penalty for the period of default.
Who certifies INC-20A?
A chartered accountant, company secretary or cost accountant in whole-time practice. A director signs the declaration; the professional certifies that they checked it against the company’s records.
