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Ending their fiscal years in January gives retailers a more accurate financial picture to report. A fiscal year is a one-year period that companies and governments use for financial reporting and budgeting. A fiscal year is most commonly used for accounting purposes to prepare financial statements. Although a fiscal year can start on Jan. 1 and end on Dec. 31, not all fiscal years correspond with the calendar year. For example, universities often begin and end their fiscal years according to the school year. Depending on your fiscal year, you may have different income tax deadlines, as well.

• For example, in the United States, though the fiscal year begins in October, the tax year is usually the calendar year for individuals.
• The fiscal year for many nonprofit organizations runs from July 1 to June 30.
• Your business fiscal year is almost always your tax year, but it doesn’t have to be.
• Accountants are often busiest around the end of the calendar year, when many businesses are closing their books.
• Because many companies and entities follow the calendar year for accounting and auditing purposes, tax and accounting professionals may be in high demand in the months leading up to Dec. 31.

For example, if a company brings in most of its revenue during the spring and incurs most of its expenses during the winter, then a fiscal year ending in July or August might make more sense than one ending in December. However, some businesses, governments, non-profits and self-employed individual taxpayers use a different year known as a fiscal year. Partnerships, limited liability companies, and S corporations can use a fiscal year that is not a calendar year, as long as it meets the IRS definition of a tax year and it has approval to do so. In Iran, for example, the fiscal year is set according to the Hijrī calendar, often called the Islamic calendar. Consequently, the start of the Iranian fiscal year, which usually begins on March 21, does not correspond to the beginning of any month in the Gregorian calendar, which is used in much of the rest of the world. For companies that operate on a seasonal basis, using a fiscal year may be beneficial.

But for businesses whose primary operating season doesn’t fall neatly within a single calendar year, choosing a fiscal year end can make more sense. Usually a fiscal year begins on the first day of the beginning month and ends on the last day of the 12th month. However, some companies choose to have fiscal years that comprise only full weeks and end on a particular day of the week. In those cases, fiscal years are not exactly twelve months long, some being 52 weeks long and others 53. Although many organizations follow the calendar year, a fiscal year can start at any point in the year and end 12 months later. The fiscal year of the United States government, for example, runs from October 1 to September 30.

IRS Requirements for Fiscal Years

A fiscal year consists of 12 consecutive months that don’t begin on January 1 or end on December 31 — for example, July 1 of the current year through June 30 of the following year. These might not end on the last day of a month, but instead might end on the same day each year, such as the last Friday in March. It’s intuitive and aligns with most owners’ personal returns, making it about as simple as anything involving taxes can be.

According to the NRF, this calendar lines up holidays and ensures comparable months have the same number of Saturdays and Sundays. The calendar also adds a 53rd week when applicable—its fiscal calendar for 2021 through 2023 adds a 53rd week in the fiscal year 2023. Fiscal years are often designed to accommodate 364 days (52 weeks multiplied by seven days), leaving 1.25 days per year unused. The extra days—including leap days—are totaled up into another week which is tacked onto a future fiscal calendar every five or six years. One, a fiscal period can encapsulate the full 12 months of a company’s tax year.

A fiscal year is any 12-month reporting period that may not align with a calendar year. A company may switch from calendar year reporting to fiscal year reporting, or shift their fiscal year reporting, to align with peers, appear more attractive to investors, and ease pricing demands from customers. The bill also provides $35 million above fiscal year 2023 for geographic restoration programs. This funding will help protect local ecosystems and communities from climate change, habitat loss, and pollution in places like the Great Lakes, Long Island Sound, Puget Sound, and Southern New England Estuaries. A fiscal year could be a 12-month period of time or a 52/53-week period of time.

What Is the Difference Between a Fiscal Year and a Tax Year?

In a similar fashion, many nonprofit performing arts organizations will have a fiscal year which ends during the summer, so that their performance season that begins in the fall and ends in the spring will be within one fiscal year. Fiscal years are commonly referred to when discussing budgets and are a convenient time period to reference and review a company’s or government’s financial performance. Knowing a company’s fiscal year is important to corporations and their investors because it allows them to accurately measure revenue and earnings year-over-year.

Splitting the revenue between December and January to adhere to a calendar year end would make obtaining a solid picture of the company’s performance over a single season difficult. Large corporations use different fiscal years to track revenue, costs, profits, and file reports with regulatory authorities. A corporation’s taxes are due on the 15th day of the fourth month after its fiscal year ends. Fiscal years provide companies with the ability to establish their accounting year in a way that presents an accurate picture that would be otherwise compromised by using calendar year cutoff. In the Southern Hemisphere, that is the calendar year, January to December.

Examples of Fiscal Years for Corporations

Other than reporting your accounting year on your Employer ID application, you don’t have to report your fiscal year to the IRS. The IRS says, “Unless you have a required tax year [sole proprietors, for example], you adopt a tax year by filing your first income tax return using that tax year.” Benefits of operating on a fiscal yearSome companies opt to follow a fiscal year instead of a calendar year because their fiscal year better fits their natural business cycles. School districts, for instance, like to follow fiscal years of July 1 through June 30, because that time frame aligns most closely with the school year and the related financial milestones. The reason is that December tends to be an extremely busy month for retailers because of the holidays. As such, many see a tremendous influx of revenue in December, much of which then needs to be adjusted come January, when consumers have a tendency to return unwanted gifts.

For example, a university with a fiscal year that starts July 1, 2022, and ends June 30, 2023 —typical for the education industry — would file its corresponding tax return for FY 2023 after its June year end. According to the IRS, a fiscal year consists of 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December. Alternatively, instead of observing a 12-month fiscal year, U.S. taxpayers may observe a 52- to 53-week fiscal year.

Fiscal Year: What It Is and Advantages Over Calendar Year

Using fiscal years that are separate from or organized differently than calendar years has several advantages. For the U.S. government, the fiscal year timing allows Congress to process legislation for appropriations. Additionally, it helps federal agencies implement the current years’ budget, how to calculate after-tax salvage value when the project ends find funding for the following year’s budget, and plan for the budget two fiscal years ahead of time. Unless a business has a required tax year, as stipulated by the IRS, its tax return due date is determined by the fiscal year’s end set by the company and, if necessary, approved by the IRS.

• A fiscal year is the 12-month period a company uses for accounting purposes.
• Although just about any business can choose to use a calendar year as its tax year, the IRS requires some businesses to do so.
• Working in collaboration with federal agencies, the Small Business Administration annually assists in establishing individual prime and subcontracting goals.
• Ten federal agencies earned an “A+” for their agencies’ achievements in small business contracting, and an additional ten agencies received an “A” grade.
• The company must fulfill the criteria explained on Form 1128, Application to Adopt, Change, or Retain a Tax Year.

Moreover, the SBA ensures that the federal government, as a whole, meets or surpasses the government-wide statutory goals mandated in 15(g)(1) of the Small Business Act for each category. Companies planning to go public may also choose to shift from a calendar year to a fiscal year, to present a more enticing financial picture to potential investors. That is, by choosing a fiscal year that ends on a historically high note, the company may look like a better buy. Companies often use fiscal year reporting for seasonality or timing purposes. In most cases, the reporting type is selected based on the nature of the business. Given that so many companies are in need of tax professionals at the end of the calendar year, a fiscal-year company might be able to get a lower rate at a less busy time.

Retailers tend to end fiscal years on January 31 because many do an outsized portion of their sales each December and also have a large influx of returns during January. A fiscal year is also referred to as a budget year or natural business year, because it ends when sales or other activities are at a natural low point. In roughly two-thirds of all countries, the government’s fiscal year is the calendar year.

Taxation laws generally require accounting records to be maintained and taxes calculated on an annual basis, which usually corresponds to the fiscal year used for government purposes. The calculation of tax on an annual basis is especially relevant for direct taxes, such as income tax. Many annual government fees—such as council tax and license fees, are also levied on a fiscal year basis, but others are charged on an anniversary basis. Additional benefits include real-time insights about the company’s financial performance, as well as compliance with government regulations and accounting standards. Every 12 months, companies are required to report their income and expenses to the government to calculate and pay their taxes.

Additionally, when browsing financial data on sites like Stock Analysis, the fiscal year should be noted if the period differs from a calendar year. It’s worth noting that switching from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting requires permission from the IRS. The company must fulfill the criteria explained on Form 1128, Application to Adopt, Change, or Retain a Tax Year. For example, a company that regularly experiences a surge in holiday business may decide to choose a fiscal year that ends on January 31 to better reflect the seasonality of their business.

Working alongside federal agency procurement staff, the SBA provides crucial analyses and tools to facilitate data review, enhance procurement systems, and conduct training to improve accuracy. This collaborative effort ultimately strengthens the federal government’s commitment to small business participation and success in government contracts. When comparing the financial figures of two companies, it’s important to note the reporting periods for both. An investor can see if a company uses a calendar year or a fiscal year by looking at the first page of their 10-K found on the company’s investor relations page or on the SEC site.