what is a fiscal year fy 
a fiscal year is a one year period that companies and governments use for financial planning and budgeting fiscal years are most commonly used by entities that depend on a cycle that doesn t correspond to the calendar year for example the u s government s fiscal year starts on oct 1 and ends on sep 30 it is structured this way so that the government can collect taxes accept funding requests from its agencies create a budget proposal and route the proposed budget through the appropriate channels to congress for approval investopedia julie bangunderstanding fiscal yearsa fiscal year is a period lasting one year but not necessarily starting at the beginning of the calendar year countries companies and organizations can start and end their fiscal years differently depending on their needs and practices fiscal years that vary from a calendar year are typically chosen due to the specific nature of the business for example nonprofit organizations often align their fiscal years with the timing of grant awards at the same time a for profit business might choose a year that ends after it traditionally has its largest revenue intake such as a retailer ending its fiscal year on jan 31 1fiscal years are referenced by their end date or end year for example to reference a nonprofit organization s fiscal year you may say fy 2024 or fiscal year ending june 30 2024 similarly if you referred to government spending that occurred on nov 15 2024 you would label that as an expenditure for fy 2025 according to the irs a fiscal year consists of 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except december 2 alternatively instead of observing a 12 month fiscal year u s taxpayers may observe a 52 to 53 week fiscal year in this case the fiscal year would end on the same day of the week each year whichever is the closest to a certain date such as the nearest saturday to dec 31 this system automatically results in some 52 week fiscal years and some 53 week fiscal years fiscal years are commonly referred to when discussing budgets and are a convenient period to reference and review a company s or government s financial performance irs requirements for fiscal yearsthe default irs system is based on the calendar year so fiscal year taxpayers have to make some adjustments to the deadlines for filing certain forms and making payments while most taxpayers must file by april 15 following the year for which they are filing fiscal year taxpayers must file by the 15th day of the fourth month following the end of their fiscal year 3 for example a business observing a fiscal year from june 1 to may 31 must submit its tax return by sept 15 in the united states eligible businesses can adopt a fiscal year for tax reporting purposes simply by submitting their first income tax return observing that fiscal year at any time these businesses may elect to change to a calendar year however companies that want to change from a calendar year to a fiscal year must get special permission from the irs or meet one of the criteria outlined on form 1128 application to adopt change or retain a tax year 2examples of fiscal years for corporationsinvestors might ask what fiscal year is it and it can vary from company to company below are 10 k reports from popular companies with fiscal years that don t follow the calendar a 10 k is an annual financial performance report filed by publicly traded companies with the securities and exchange commission sec apple inc aapl ends its fiscal year on the last saturday of september 4microsoft corporation msft ends its fiscal year on the last day of june every year 5macy s inc m ends its fiscal year on the fifth saturday of the new calendar year 6 many retailers generate a large chunk of their earnings around the holidays which could explain why macy s chooses this end date 