What Is a Fiscal Year? Federal, State and UK Dates With Quarter Tables

The U.S. federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following year, according to 31 U.S.C. 1102, the fiscal-year section of the United States Code as published by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. A fiscal year, as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines it, is 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December. This guide compares the main year types side by side and splits each into quarters for 2027; our fiscal year calendar guide covers the printable planners.

Fiscal year and calendar year: what differs

The IRS describes a calendar year as 12 consecutive months beginning January 1 and ending December 31. A fiscal year also has 12 months, but it ends in any month except December. The table lists the year types with a source for each.

Year type	Dates	Source
Calendar year	Jan. 1 to Dec. 31	IRS, Tax years
U.S. federal fiscal year	Oct. 1 to Sept. 30	31 U.S.C. 1102
State fiscal year (46 states)	July 1 start	National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), July 1, 2025
United Kingdom (UK) financial year	April to March	Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Microsoft fiscal year	Ended June 30, 2025	Microsoft Form 10-K
Apple fiscal year	52 or 53 weeks, ending the last Saturday of September	Apple Form 10-K

NASBO wrote on July 1, 2025 that “forty-six states begin their fiscal year on July 1.” That sentence is about the 2026 budget cycle, and we do not name the other four states here. Companies pick their own year: Microsoft’s annual report reads “For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2025,” and Apple’s covers “the fiscal year ended September 27, 2025.” Each company’s label names the year by the date it ends.

How the federal fiscal year is dated, 2026 to 2030

Fiscal year 2027 began Oct. 1, 2026 and ends Sept. 30, 2027, so the label matches the calendar year in which it ends. It holds 365 days. Fiscal year 2028 starts Oct. 1, 2027 and holds 366, because Feb. 29, 2028 falls inside it. The same is true of a July 1 year: the state year named 2028 runs July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028.

Label	Federal year	Days	July 1 state year	Days
Fiscal year 2026	Oct. 1, 2025 to Sept. 30, 2026	365	July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026	365
Fiscal year 2027	Oct. 1, 2026 to Sept. 30, 2027	365	July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027	365
Fiscal year 2028	Oct. 1, 2027 to Sept. 30, 2028	366	July 1, 2027 to June 30, 2028	366
Fiscal year 2029	Oct. 1, 2028 to Sept. 30, 2029	365	July 1, 2028 to June 30, 2029	365
Fiscal year 2030	Oct. 1, 2029 to Sept. 30, 2030	365	July 1, 2029 to June 30, 2030	365

Day counts and the year ranges are our calculation from the start rules above, checked two ways. They are not figures published by the Treasury or NASBO. For counting workdays inside any of these years, see how many business days are in a year and the month-by-month 2027 working days table.

Fiscal quarter dates for 2027

We split each 12-month year into four three-month blocks. The sources above define the year, not the quarters, so treat the quarter edges as our arithmetic and check an organization’s own calendar before relying on them.

Quarter	U.S. federal fiscal year 2027	July 1 state fiscal year 2027	Calendar year 2027	UK financial year starting April 2026
Q1	Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026	July 1 to Sept. 30, 2026	Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2027	April to June 2026
Q2	Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2027	Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2026	Apr. 1 to June 30, 2027	July to September 2026
Q3	Apr. 1 to June 30, 2027	Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2027	July 1 to Sept. 30, 2027	October to December 2026
Q4	July 1 to Sept. 30, 2027	Apr. 1 to June 30, 2027	Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2027	January to March 2027

Days per quarter, also our calculation:

Year	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
U.S. federal fiscal year 2027	92	90	91	92	365
July 1 state fiscal year 2027	92	92	90	91	365
Calendar year 2027	90	91	92	92	365

A federal Q2 is the same set of dates as a calendar-year Q1, which is why a “first quarter” in two reports can describe different months. The ONS says the UK financial year “runs from April to March,” so we give months only for the UK column. A one-page printable version of the quarter table is in the downloads.

Is a fiscal year the same as a tax year?

Not always. The IRS lists three kinds of tax year: a calendar year, a fiscal year, and a 52-53-week year. It describes the last as “a fiscal tax year that varies from 52 to 53 weeks but does not have to end on the last day of a month.” To adopt or change a tax year, the IRS says a business must file Form 1128, “Application To Adopt, Change, or Retain a Tax Year,” to get approval. This is a summary of an IRS page, not tax advice; the IRS page and a tax professional decide what applies to a given business.

The UK keeps two dates. The ONS financial year runs April to March, while GOV.UK says the current Income Tax year “is from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.”

Week-based fiscal years and the 53rd week

Apple’s filing sets its year as the 52- or 53-week period ending on the last Saturday of September. The National Retail Federation (NRF) divides its retail year “based on a 4 weeks – 5 weeks – 4 weeks format” and says it is “sometimes necessary to add a 53rd week to the end of the calendar for sales reporting purposes only.” Our NRF 4-5-4 calendar story lists the 2027 dates, and why some years have 53 weeks explains the extra week.

How to read an FY label

“Fiscal year (FY) 2027” does not tell you which months it covers. Four checks settle it:

1. Find the end date in the document, as Apple and Microsoft print it in their annual reports.
2. Note whether the year starts in the prior calendar year. A federal FY2027 starts in October 2026.
3. Check whether the year is month-based or week-based (52 or 53 weeks).
4. Map “Q1” to months from the organization’s own start date, not from January.

Pair the dates with the printable yearly calendar or the broader set of free printable calendars when you plan across years.