Corporate fiscal calendars are, IMO, best thought of as essentially made up. They start and end at arbitrary-ish¹ points in the year, and thus their numbering does not always match the "calendar year" (the one you're normally familiar with).
The fiscal year is a pretty standard finance concept, so anything in that area isn't going to bother with an explainer; you're just expected to know.
From the outside looking in, it just seems nuts. If I ever found a company I'm going to do my best to get my fiscal year to == calendar, if I can. It also annoys me when companies needlessly use it internally. Mine does, I have no idea when the quarter ends anymore.
This is incorrect. Fiscal years have nothing to do with when you pay tax. They're pretty much totally arbitrary, with different companies using different values.
To demonstrate: The earnings Microsoft reported for this same quarter (calendar Q1 2024) a month ago were reported as their Q3 2024 fiscal year results. Apple's were fiscal Q2 2024. Google's were fiscal Q1 2024.
Yes, your link also explains that there's no single fiscal year, and every company just chooses to define it however they want.
And while the fiscal year affects when the company needs to file a tax return, that's not when the company pays taxes which is what the GP claimed. They make estimated payments continuously, once per quarter.
It's a fiscal year convention. Companies use the following year to reference the fiscal year because the fiscal year is named after the year in which it ends.
