Also known as a ‘financial year’ or ‘budget year’, it is a period of 12 consecutive months used for calculating the annual financial statements of a business. A Fiscal Year need not be a calendar year and, in South Africa for example, the government’s Fiscal Year begins on March 1 and finishes on February 28 the following year. In such cases, it carries the name of the year in which it ends.

[BACK TO ACCOUNTING TERMS]