The basic definition
India's fiscal year (also called the financial year, abbreviated FY) runs from 1 April of one calendar year to 31 March of the next. It's written as a range spanning both calendar years it touches — FY 2026-27 means 1 April 2026 through 31 March 2027 — because the 12-month period genuinely straddles two different calendar years.
Why this trips people up
A date in January, February, or March feels like it belongs to that calendar year, but for fiscal-year purposes it actually belongs to the fiscal year that started the previous April. 15 January 2027 is fiscal year 2026-27 (which started 1 April 2026), not "FY 2027" — the calendar year in the date and the fiscal year it belongs to are offset by one for exactly nine months of the year (January through March).
Fiscal quarters within the year
Within a fiscal year, Q1 is April-June, Q2 is July-September, Q3 is October-December, and Q4 is January-March — again offset from the calendar-year quarters most people default to thinking in. 13 September 2026 falls in FY 2026-27, Q2 (166 days into that fiscal year, with 199 days remaining). 31 March 2026, the very last day of FY 2025-26, is Q4 of that fiscal year (365 days elapsed, 0 remaining) — one day later, 1 April 2026, resets to FY 2026-27, Q1, day 1.
Where this matters in practice
Income tax returns, company financial statements, government budgets, and most Indian business reporting all run on the April-March fiscal year, not the calendar year — this is why Indian tax forms reference "Assessment Year" and "Financial Year" instead of a plain calendar year, and why a salary slip's "FY 2026-27" heading covers income earned from April 2026 through March 2027, not January through December 2026 or 2027.
The relationship between Financial Year and Assessment Year
Indian income tax terminology adds one more layer: the Financial Year (FY) is the year income is earned, while the Assessment Year (AY) is the following fiscal year, in which that income is assessed and tax is filed. Income earned in FY 2026-27 is assessed in AY 2027-28 — the AY is always the FY immediately after the one in which the income was actually earned, which is why tax documents commonly reference both years together rather than just one.