CA K Sanjay BhargavChartered Accountant
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RERA certification and compliance for developers

For promoters with projects registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority (K-RERA): the chartered accountant’s certificate for every withdrawal from the RERA designated account, the quarterly updates on the K-RERA portal, and the annual audit report on the project accounts.

All done in-house, project by project, and reconciled to your GST returns and books before anything is filed.

Before you write in

  • RERA Compliance for Promoters in Karnataka: The Full Calendar

    Registration is the easy part. After it come four quarterly updates a year, a certificate before every withdrawal, an annual audit report, and a set of events that each carry their own form and their own penalty.

  • K-RERA Form-7 Annual Audit: FY 2025-26 Due 15 November 2026

    Every registered project in Karnataka needs a Form-7 for FY 2025-26, signed by the promoter's statutory auditor and uploaded with the audited accounts by 15 November 2026. K-RERA has already fined promoters a fixed amount per project for missing the last two years.

  • K-RERA Quarterly Progress Report: Q2 Due 15 October 2026

    Every registered project in Karnataka files a quarterly update within fifteen days of the quarter end, and for FY 2026-27 each late one costs Rs 25,000. The figures in it are public, and they are compared with the annual audit report and with GST returns.

What is covered

  • Withdrawal certificates in Form-4 — the CA’s certificate of land and construction cost incurred and the proportion of completion, issued alongside the architect’s (Form-5) and engineer’s (Form-6) certificates, so money can move out of the designated account. See the RERA account and the CA withdrawal certificate.
  • Quarterly updates on the K-RERA portal — bookings, approvals, construction progress and the financial position, with the quarter’s Form-4, Form-5 and Form-6 certificates, filed within 15 days of each quarter end. See K-RERA quarterly updates and the late-filing penalty.
  • Annual audit report in Form-7 — the audit of the project accounts within six months of the year end and the report on the K-RERA portal, where we are the promoter’s statutory auditor. See the K-RERA annual audit report.
  • Registration and cost estimates — the estimated cost of the project and the financial information that goes into registration, and whether a project or phase has to register at all. See which projects need RERA registration.
  • Extensions and delay — the financial position and the cost-to-complete working behind an application to extend registration, and the interest exposure on delayed possession. See extension, delay and interest under RERA.

The calendar, in outline

ObligationWhen
Quarterly update on the K-RERA portal, with Forms 4, 5 and 6Within 15 days of each quarter end: 15 July, 15 October, 15 January, 15 April
Withdrawal from the RERA designated accountEach time, against the architect’s (Form-5), engineer’s (Form-6) and CA’s (Form-4) certificates
Audit of project accounts and annual report (Form-7)Within six months of the year end; for FY 2025-26, K-RERA has set 15 November 2026

Every obligation, event-based ones included, is in the RERA compliance calendar for Karnataka promoters, with a downloadable checklist.

Where RERA meets GST and income tax

What you report to K-RERA each quarter is visible to the tax department, and it is compared with your GST returns. Bookings and collections that appear in one and not the other are the most common source of notices to developers — see RERA filings vs GST returns. The project-wise cost records the RERA certificates need are also the ones that decide the tax position at the completion certificate, covered in unsold inventory at the completion certificate. The wider tax work for developers and landowners is on real estate and developer taxation.

How the work runs

It starts with the registered estimate and the cost ledger for the project. Each quarter, the bookings, collections and cost incurred are reconciled to the RERA account statement and to the GST returns before the update is filed. Withdrawal certificates are issued against that same reconciled position, so the annual audit at the year end confirms figures that have already been checked four times rather than reconstructing them.

Certificates are issued by a practising chartered accountant and signed with a UDIN. Karnataka separates the two roles: the Form-7 annual report comes from the promoter’s statutory auditor, and the Form-4 withdrawal certificates from a different firm. For any promoter we take one of those roles, never both, and the other firm works from the same reconciled quarterly position.

Frequently asked questions

When can we withdraw money from the RERA account?

Only in proportion to the completion of the project, and only against certificates from the project architect, the engineer and a practising chartered accountant. The CA certifies the land and construction cost actually incurred and the proportion it bears to the total estimated cost, which sets the most that can be withdrawn. The certificates have to exist before the money moves, so a withdrawal planned for month-end needs the cost records ready well before it.

How much of what buyers pay has to go into the RERA account?

Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the Act requires 70% of the amounts realised from allottees to be deposited in a separate account and used only for the land and construction cost of that project. Karnataka's directions on the RERA bank account set out what is excluded from the collections, such as pass-through charges and indirect taxes, and when the requirement rises above 70%. The account cannot be used as security for a loan.

What are the K-RERA quarterly updates, and what does missing one cost?

Every registered project must upload an update on the K-RERA portal within 15 days of the end of each quarter, covering bookings, approvals, construction progress and the financial position. Each update carries the quarter's Form-4 (CA), Form-5 (architect) and Form-6 (engineer) certificates. K-RERA levies ₹25,000 for each update filed late or not at all, capped at ₹1,00,000 a year, and has confirmed that the penalty continues for FY 2026-27. The quarter ending 30 September is due by 15 October.

What is the RERA annual audit, and when is it due?

The Act requires the promoter to have the project accounts audited by a practising chartered accountant within six months of the end of each financial year, with a statement confirming that collections were used for the project and withdrawals matched the stage of completion. In Karnataka the report is uploaded on the K-RERA portal with the audited financial statements; for FY 2025-26 the Authority has set 15 November 2026 as the date.

Can our statutory auditor also issue the RERA withdrawal certificates?

Not in Karnataka. Regulation 3 of the Karnataka RERA (General) Regulations 2022 requires the annual report in Form-7 to be certified by the promoter's statutory auditor, and the Form-4 certificates for withdrawals to come from a chartered accountant who is a different entity from that auditor. So a developer needs two firms: its statutory auditor for Form-7, and another CA for Form-4. We act in one of those roles for any given promoter, and say which at the outset.

Our RERA figures and our GST returns don't agree. Is that a problem?

It is the most common reason a developer receives a GST notice. Bookings and collections reported to K-RERA each quarter are compared with what was declared in GST returns, and differences in timing or classification show up as apparent short payment. Reconciling the two every quarter, before the RERA update goes in, is far cheaper than explaining the gap after a notice.

A RERA certificate or filing due?

Send the project's RERA registration number, the estimated cost as registered, the cost incurred to date, and the last quarterly update and certificate filed. What can be withdrawn now, what is pending on the portal and what it will take to bring it current are set out before any certificate is signed.