STATEMENT & CERTIFICATE SEC 80G

STATEMENT & CERTIFICATE SEC 80G

Every charitable institution registered under Section 80G of the Income-tax Act 1961 must file Form 10BD — the annual donation statement — by 31 May 2026 for FY 2025-26. From that data, the income-tax portal auto-generates Form 10BE, the only document a donor can legally use to claim a Section 80G deduction in AY 2026-27. If your NGO misses the deadline or submits inaccurate donor identifiers, your donors lose their deduction and your 80G registration faces heightened scrutiny at renewal.

Why Form 10BD and Form 10BE Replaced the Old Receipt System

Before FY 2021-22, an NGO could print an 80G receipt on letterhead and a donor could claim a deduction on that paper alone. This created obvious scope for misuse — receipts for donations that never arrived, inflated amounts, and no mechanism for the tax department to cross-verify in real time.

CBDT closed this gap through Rule 18AB of the Income-tax Rules 1962 (inserted by the Income-tax (6th Amendment) Rules 2021). Every approved institution must now file a machine-readable, donor-wise statement electronically on the income-tax portal. The portal then generates a standardised Form 10BE linked to the institution's PAN and the donor's PAN or Aadhaar. When the donor's ITR is processed, their AIS/TIS (Annual Information Statement / Tax Information Summary) is pre-filled with the donation data — any mismatch triggers a demand automatically.

Think of Form 10BE as doing for donation deductions what Form 16A does for TDS: it is a server-verified certificate, not a self-generated receipt. A printed 80G receipt on your NGO's letterhead has had no legal standing for deduction purposes since AY 2022-23.

Who Must File Form 10BD

The filing obligation is broader than many finance teams realise. You are required to file Form 10BD if your institution falls into any of the following categories under the Income-tax Act 1961:

• Section 80G(5)(viii): Trusts, institutions, funds, and NGOs holding a valid 80G registration — whether provisional or final
• Section 35(1)(ii): Associations or institutions engaged in scientific research
• Section 35(1)(iia): Companies engaged in scientific research, approved by the prescribed authority
• Section 35(1)(iii): Associations or institutions undertaking statistical or social science research
• Section 35(2AA): Approved in-house research and development facilities
• Section 35AC: Approved projects for rural development, poverty eradication, or national literacy mission activities
• Section 8 companies, registered societies, and public charitable trusts holding a valid 80G certificate

If your 80G registration was provisionally granted and is currently under renewal, you are still required to file for the period the registration was valid. A lapsed registration does not retroactively excuse filing for a year in which you were registered.

Due Date, Frequency, and the FY 2025-26 Deadline

Form 10BD is filed once per financial year, covering every donation received between 1 April and 31 March of that year. Form 10BE certificates must be generated and issued to donors by the same date.

If you are reading this in May 2026, the clock is almost at zero. The deadline for FY 2025-26 is 31 May 2026 — a hard statutory date with no general extension announced as of this publication. Donors typically file their ITRs for AY 2026-27 by 31 July 2026 (non-audit cases), meaning they need Form 10BE in hand well before that date to attach or reference it in their return.

There is no provision for a belated Form 10BD analogous to a belated ITR. Filing after 31 May triggers a per-day fee from 1 June onwards, automatically.

What Information Form 10BD Captures: A Field-by-Field Breakdown

The CSV template has more nuance than the portal's interface suggests. Here is what each section requires — and where data typically breaks down.

Donor Identification

• PAN of donor: Mandatory for Indian resident donors. If a donor refuses to share their PAN, no valid Form 10BE can be generated for that donation.
• Aadhaar of donor: Accepted as an alternative for individuals. A scanned copy is not sufficient — the number is validated against the Verhoeff checksum algorithm when the CSV is run through the offline utility.
• Donor name and address: Must match the PAN database. "Ramesh Kumar" versus "R. Kumar" will generate a validation warning or mismatch, delaying processing.
• Donor type: Choose accurately from Individual, HUF, Company, Firm, AOP/BOI, Trust, or Institution. Misclassifying a company as an individual affects the deduction rate the portal applies to the donor's ITR.

Donation Details

• Section under which reported: 80G(2)(a)(iv) for general 80G donations, or the relevant sub-section of Section 35. You cannot aggregate donations across different sections — each row must match the section under which your institution is specifically approved.
• Mode of receipt: Cash, Cheque, Demand Draft, Electronic Transfer, or In-Kind. Note that cash donations above Rs. 2,000 do not qualify for Section 80G deduction under Section 80G(5D). You may still report them — but the portal will note the limitation, and the donor's deduction will be disallowed even if Form 10BE is generated.
• Transaction reference: UTR number for NEFT/RTGS, cheque number for cheque payments. This field enables bank-statement reconciliation and is critical during any scrutiny.
• Nature of donation: Corpus, Specific Grant (Restricted), or General (Unrestricted). A corpus donation is a permanent endowment contribution — it does not become income of the trust but the donor's 80G deduction is computed the same way.
• Anonymous donations: Report in the anonymous category if the donor does not provide PAN or Aadhaar. Form 10BE is not generated for anonymous donors.

How to File Form 10BD: Step-by-Step on the Income-Tax Portal

You can follow this exact sequence on incometax.gov.in (the new unified income-tax portal — not TRACES, where Form 26QB or TDS returns are filed):

1. Log in using the institution's PAN credentials on incometax.gov.in.
2. Navigate to e-File → Income Tax Forms → File Income Tax Forms and search for "Form 10BD".
3. Select FY 2025-26 from the financial year dropdown. Confirm the institution's name and PAN appear correctly in the header — a wrong PAN here cannot be corrected after submission without filing a revised statement.
4. Download the current CSV template from within the filing utility. Do not reuse last year's CSV — schema changes between versions will cause validation failures.
5. Populate the CSV: enter one row per donation receipt. If a single donor gave six monthly contributions, use six rows. Do not aggregate — the portal's matching engine works at the transaction level.
6. Validate the CSV using the offline utility before uploading:
7. PAN format validation (10-character alphanumeric)
8. Aadhaar checksum validation (12-digit Verhoeff)
9. Section-code validation against the institution's approved category
10. Upload the validated CSV through the Form 10BD filing page.
11. Preview the summary screen: the portal shows total donations by section and by mode. Reconcile this against your donation ledger before proceeding — a discrepancy here means a data error in the CSV.
12. Verify the submission using DSC (Digital Signature Certificate of the authorised trustee or director) or EVC (Electronic Verification Code via net banking or mobile OTP). The signatory must match the authorised representative registered on the portal.
13. Download and archive the acknowledgement — a PDF containing the IRN (Income-tax Reference Number). Store this for at least six years.

Generating and Issuing Form 10BE After Filing

Once Form 10BD is processed (typically 24–48 hours after successful submission):

1. Go to e-File → Income Tax Forms → View Filed Forms → Form 10BD
2. Select the filed statement and click "Download Form 10BE" — the portal generates individual PDFs for each donor
3. Each Form 10BE contains: donor name, PAN or Aadhaar, donation amount, applicable section, the institution's 80G registration number, and the registration's validity period
4. Email Form 10BE to each donor with a subject line that clearly identifies it as their Section 80G deduction certificate for AY 2026-27. Retain timestamped proof of delivery
5. Donors quote Form 10BE details in Schedule 80G of their ITR. Their AIS/TIS will be pre-filled once the portal processes the data

Penalties for Non-Filing and Late Filing: The Numbers That Matter

Section 234G: Mandatory Late Fee

Under Section 234G (inserted by Finance Act 2021), a late fee of Rs. 200 per day accrues from 1 June 2026 until the date of actual filing. This is not discretionary — the portal automatically computes and demands it before accepting a late submission. It must be paid via Challan 280 (Code 0021, Minor Head 500) before the form can be processed.

Section 271K: Penalty for Non-Furnishing

If Form 10BD is not filed at all — or Form 10BE is not issued to donors — an Assessing Officer can levy a penalty ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 under Section 271K. Unlike the per-day fee, this requires an assessment order, but it is a live risk during 80G renewal proceedings and during CSR compliance audits by corporate donors.

Worked Example: Counting the Cost of a 45-Day Delay

Scenario: Priya Welfare Foundation, a trust with a valid Section 80G registration, received donations from 180 donors during FY 2025-26 with a total corpus of Rs. 42,00,000. The finance team was occupied with an audit and filed Form 10BD on 15 July 2026 instead of 31 May 2026.

Late fee under Section 234G:

• Period of delay: 1 June 2026 to 15 July 2026 = 45 days
• Fee: Rs. 200 × 45 = Rs. 9,000
• Payable via challan before the portal accepts the delayed filing

Section 271K exposure: The minimum penalty if a notice is issued = Rs. 10,000. Even assuming the AO levies only the minimum, total out-of-pocket cost reaches Rs. 19,000 — more than the annual salary of one data entry resource who could have managed timely filing.

Donor impact: Of the 180 donors, 55 have already filed their ITRs for AY 2026-27 before 15 July (common for salaried employees and individuals with straightforward returns). Their AIS/TIS will now update with the donation data — but because they filed first, each of these 55 donors must file a revised ITR (possible until 31 December 2026 under Section 139(5) for AY 2026-27) to claim the deduction. Each revision conversation is a reputational drain.

Total real cost of the 45-day delay: Rs. 9,000 in mandatory fees + up to Rs. 1,00,000 in potential penalty + 55 donors needing revised ITRs + reputational friction with corporate CSR donors who track compliance for their own audit trail.

Common Mistakes and Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Collecting PAN only at year-end Problem: Donors who gave in April cannot be traced 11 months later; PAN details cannot be recovered. Fix: Build PAN or Aadhaar capture as a mandatory field in every donation receipt workflow — online forms, mobile payment links, and offline receipt books alike.

2. Aggregating multiple donations into one row Problem: Six monthly SIP-style donations entered as one total row prevents per-transaction matching in the portal. Fix: One row per receipt, always. The CSV has no practical row limit.

3. Reporting cash donations above Rs. 2,000 as fully eligible Problem: Filing them in Form 10BD generates a Form 10BE, but the donor's deduction is still disallowed under Section 80G(5D). Fix: Segregate these in your donation ledger, communicate the disqualification clearly to the donor, and train your fundraising team to redirect donors to electronic transfers for amounts above Rs. 2,000.

4. Selecting the wrong "Nature of Donation" Problem: A corpus donation or restricted grant entered as "General" distorts the trust's corpus accounting and can complicate income-tax treatment of the trust's income. Fix: Match the Form 10BD nature code to the board resolution or donor letter under which the donation was accepted.

5. Mismatched authorised signatory Problem: If the trustee registered as the authorised signatory on the portal has retired or been replaced, DSC verification fails and the filing cannot be completed. Fix: Confirm authorised signatory details on the portal at least two weeks before the due date. Updating them requires a DSC-signed request, which takes time.

6. Treating foreign FCRA contributions as 80G-eligible Problem: Donations from foreign donors received under FCRA are not eligible for Section 80G deductions for the foreign donor. Including them in Form 10BD overstates eligible donations. Fix: Exclude FCRA contributions entirely. Only report donations from Indian residents (including NRIs who qualify as ordinarily resident for tax purposes under Section 6 of the Act) in Form 10BD.

7. Not knowing that a revised Form 10BD can be filed Problem: After discovering a PAN error or a missed donor, many NGOs assume the filing is locked and leave the error in place. Fix: File a revised Form 10BD for the same financial year. The original Form 10BE certificates are superseded; the portal generates fresh ones from the revised data. Inform affected donors promptly to use the new Form 10BE.

Key Takeaways

• 31 May 2026 is the non-negotiable deadline for Form 10BD (FY 2025-26); no extension has been announced and the late-fee meter starts at Rs. 200 per day from 1 June 2026 under Section 234G.
• Form 10BE is the only valid Section 80G deduction proof from AY 2022-23 onwards — a printed receipt on letterhead has no legal standing for income-tax purposes.
• A 45-day delay on a typical NGO costs at least Rs. 9,000 in mandatory fees before any Section 271K penalty (Rs. 10,000–1,00,000) is even considered.
• Collect PAN or Aadhaar at the point of receiving the donation — missing donor identifiers make it impossible to generate Form 10BE for those donors regardless of how accurate the rest of the filing is.
• Enter one row per transaction in the CSV; aggregating multiple donations from the same donor into a single row undermines the portal's matching logic.
• Cash donations above Rs. 2,000 are ineligible for Section 80G deduction under Section 80G(5D) — filing them creates a misleading Form 10BE; communicate the disqualification to those donors directly.
• A revised Form 10BD can be filed if errors are discovered post-submission — act quickly so affected donors receive corrected Form 10BE certificates before their ITR deadline of 31 July 2026 for AY 2026-27.