A fiscal year — also called a financial year — is the 12-month period an organisation uses to budget, keep its accounts and report its results. The catch that trips everyone up: it often doesn't line up with the calendar year. A government, a school or a shop can start its year in April, July or October instead of January. Here's how fiscal years work, the common ones around the world, and how those FY2026 labels are decided.
A fiscal year is any 12-month period chosen for budgeting and accounts — not necessarily 1 Jan to 31 Dec.
It's always twelve months long and split into four quarters, but it can begin in any month. Common starts are January (calendar year), April, July and October.
There's no single global rule — each country and organisation picks its own. These are the ones you'll meet most often. Where a country has a separate tax year for individuals, that's noted too.
| Where | Fiscal year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| US federal government | Oct 1 – Sep 30 | Named by the year it ends: FY2026 = Oct 2025 → Sep 2026. |
| United Kingdom | Apr 1 – Mar 31 | Government & corporation tax. The personal tax year is the quirky Apr 6 – Apr 5. |
| Australia / NZ | Jul 1 – Jun 30 | Used for tax and most government budgeting. |
| Japan & India | Apr 1 – Mar 31 | The standard government and corporate year in both. |
| Canada (federal) | Apr 1 – Mar 31 | Government year; many companies use the calendar year. |
| Many companies | Jan 1 – Dec 31 | The simplest choice — the fiscal year is the calendar year. |
Big companies often pick their own end date entirely: plenty of retailers close their year in late January, and various tech and consumer firms end in June or September. The fiscal year is a choice, not a fixed date.
The calendar year is fixed: 1 January to 31 December, the same for everyone. A fiscal year is whatever 12 months an organisation decides to run its accounts on. When the two happen to match — January to December — people sometimes call it a "calendar fiscal year." When they don't, the fiscal year is named after one of the two calendar years it touches, which is where the confusion starts.
A fiscal year spans parts of two calendar years, so a single number has to stand in for it. There are two conventions, and almost every mix-up comes from not knowing which one is in play:
FY2026 runs 1 Oct 2025 to 30 Sep 2026, taking the name of the year it finishes in.FY2025–26 or FY26 to be unambiguous.FY2026 → for the US federal government, that's Oct 2025 → Sep 2026.
When a date matters, it's safest to read it as the literal span rather than trusting the label — "the year ending September 2026" leaves no room for doubt.
Like any year, a fiscal year divides into four quarters of three months — but they're counted from the start of that fiscal year, not from January. For an October-start year, Q1 is Oct–Dec, Q2 is Jan–Mar, Q3 is Apr–Jun and Q4 is Jul–Sep. That's why a company can report "record Q1 results" in what looks to everyone else like the last quarter of the calendar year. If you think in calendar quarters, our quarters of the year page lines those up; a fiscal year just slides the same four blocks to a different start month.
The usual reason is the quiet season. Closing the books means counting stock and squaring accounts, and you'd rather do that when things are calm than at your busiest. A shop that lives or dies by the December holidays gains nothing from ending its year on 31 December — so many retailers run to the end of January instead, after the rush and the returns have settled. A seasonal tourism business might end in autumn; a school often runs its year around the academic calendar. The fiscal year is set to land its admin in the lull.
Some businesses — retailers especially — don't end on a fixed date at all. They run a 52- or 53-week year so that every period always ends on the same weekday (say, the Saturday nearest the end of January). That keeps weekly sales comparable year to year, instead of comparing a five-weekend month against a four-weekend one.
This is usually arranged as a 4-4-5 calendar: each quarter is split into months of 4, 4 and 5 weeks, adding up to 13 weeks a quarter and 52 weeks a year. Because 52 weeks is only 364 days, the year drifts about a day short, so roughly every five or six years a 53rd week is added to catch up — the same reason the ISO calendar occasionally has 53 weeks. It's the planning twin of how pay periods sometimes produce a 27th paycheck.
For a company, the cover or first page of its annual report states it — look for "for the year ended …". For a government, the figure is set in law and easy to look up. A quick tell is the quarter labels: if you see a Q1 that covers October, you're looking at an October-start year; an April Q1 points to an April-start year. Once you know the start month, the rest of the year follows three months at a time.
A calendar year always runs 1 January to 31 December. A fiscal year is any 12-month period an organisation chooses for its budgeting and accounts — it can match the calendar year or start in another month, like the US federal October–September year or the UK and Japanese April–March year.
FY means fiscal year, and the number is usually the calendar year the fiscal year ends in. So the US federal FY2026 is 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Some bodies instead name it by where most of the year falls, so it's worth checking which convention applies.
Many do, but a business often ends its year at its quietest point so the stock-take and accounts fall in a calm period. That's why plenty of retailers close their year in late January, after the holiday season, rather than in the middle of December.
Four — Q1 to Q4, three months each, counted from the start of that fiscal year rather than from January. For an October-start year, Q1 is October to December and Q4 is July to September.
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