Diwali 2026 at a CA firm: the closure notice and client messages for the deadlines around it

For a CA firm, Diwali week is a deadline week with a holiday in the middle. October's TDS is due the day before the festival, and GSTR-1 three days after it, so clients' papers have to come in while everyone is busy with shopping and family. A clear notice ten days ahead and a few short messages turn that into an ordinary week.

The dates around Diwali

The Central Government's list of holidays for 2026 puts Diwali on Sunday 8 November.¹ The dates your clients need in the same fortnight:

The audit-case date is this year's extended one: on 28 September 2026, Circular No. 07/2026 moved it from 31 October to 21 November 2026.⁴ That leaves less than two weeks after Diwali for the returns still open, which is why the papers for them belong in the same notice. The whole year's dates are in our compliance calendar.

The closure notice

Our recommendation is to send it about ten days before you close, so around 29 October, to every client, by email and by WhatsApp to those who agreed to it. It should say three things: the days the office is closed, the date by which October's papers must reach you, and who to call if something cannot wait. If you close on the Saturday before Diwali, say who will deposit TDS that morning, because 7 November is the last day for it.²

Greetings and deadlines in separate messages

A message that says "Happy Diwali" and asks for October's invoices does both jobs badly. Clients read a greeting and put the phone down. Our recommendation is to send the deadline messages on working days, and the greeting on its own.

WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy says to message people only after they have given you their number and agreed to receive messages from you, and to respect any request to stop.⁶ If your firm sends from the WhatsApp Business platform, message templates are sorted into marketing, utility and authentication. A utility message has to relate to the client's account or service and contain nothing promotional, and WhatsApp's guidelines give a birthday greeting as an example of a marketing message.⁷ From the WhatsApp Business app, a broadcast reaches only clients who have saved your number.⁸

Messages you can copy

Replace the words in brackets, and write them in English or Hindi, whichever the client uses. The dates are our recommendation.

The GST messages for the rest of the year are in our GST reminder templates, and the papers behind each TDS statement in our TDS return checklist. If fees are also due before the festival, our fee reminder templates keep that request separate too.

What can run by itself

• The notice and the greeting, written once, scheduled for their days and sent from your firm's own number and email.
• The papers request, sent only to the clients who deduct TDS or file GST monthly, with a follow-up that names only what is still missing, as in our client reminders.
• The papers themselves, read as they arrive and filed under each client, so the team knows on the first day back what is still open, as in our document processing.
• The back-at-work message, sent on the first working day only to clients whose papers have not come in.

What stays with your team

• The days you close, and who is on duty for the TDS deposit on 7 November.
• Clients who cannot send in time, where a partner decides what can be filed now and what waits.
• Greetings to your closest clients, which mean more as a call or a visit than as a message.

More of what we write for CA practices is on the blog.

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