80 g

Refer to Section to see how much deduction is allowed

80G. (1) In computing the total income of an assessee, there shall be deducted, in accordance with and subject to the provisions of this section,—

 (i)  in a case where the aggregate of the sums specified in sub-section (2) includes any sum or sums of the nature specified in sub-clause (i) or in sub-clause (iiia) or in sub-clause (iiiaa) or in sub-clause (iiiab) or in sub-clause (iiib) or in sub-clause (iiie) or in sub-clause (iiif) or in sub-clause (iiig) or in sub-clause (iiiga) or sub-clause (iiih) or sub-clause (iiiha) or sub-clause (iiihb) or sub-clause (iiihc) or sub-clause (iiihd) or sub-clause (iiihe) or sub-clause (iiihf) or sub-clause (iiihg)or sub-clause (iiihh) or sub-clause (iiihi) or sub-clause (iiihj) or sub-clause (iiihk) or sub-clause (iiihl) or sub-clause (iiihm) or in sub-clause (vii) of clause (a) or in clause (c) or in clause (d) thereof, an amount equal to the whole of the sum or, as the case may be, sums of such nature plus fifty per cent of the balance of such aggregate; and

(ii)  in any other case, an amount equal to fifty per cent of the aggregate of the sums specified in sub-section (2).

(2) The sums referred to in sub-section (1) shall be the following, namely :—

(a)  any sums paid by the assessee in the previous year as donations to—

 (i)  the National Defence Fund set up by the Central Government; or

 (ii)  the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund referred to in the Deed of Declaration of Trust adopted by the National Committee at its meeting held on the 17th day of August, 1964; or

(iii)  the Prime Minister's Drought Relief Fund; or

(iiia) the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund; or

(iiiaa) the Prime Minister's Armenia Earthquake Relief Fund; or

(iiiab) the Africa (Public Contributions - India) Fund; or

(iiib) the National Children's Fund; or

(iiic) the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, the deed of declaration in respect whereof was registered at New Delhi on the 21st day of February, 1985; or

(iiid) the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the deed of declaration in respect whereof was registered at New Delhi on the 21st day of June, 1991; or

(iiie) the National Foundation for Communal Harmony; or

(iiif) a University or any educational institution of national eminence as may be approved by the prescribed authority48 in this behalf; or

(iiig) the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund during the period beginning on the 1st day of October, 1993 and ending on the 6th day of October, 1993 or to the Chief Minister's Earthquake Relief Fund, Maharashtra; or

(iiiga) any fund set up by the State Government of Gujarat exclusively for providing relief to the victims of earthquake in Gujarat; or

(iiih) any Zila Saksharta Samiti constituted in any district under the chairmanship of the Collector of that district for the purposes of improvement of primary education in villages and towns in such district and for literacy and post-literacy activities.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this sub-clause, "town" means a town which has a population not exceeding one lakh according to the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published before the first day of the previous year ; or

(iiiha) the National Blood Transfusion Council or to any State Blood Transfusion Council which has its sole object the control, supervision, regulation or encouragement in India of the services related to operation and requirements of blood banks.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this sub-clause,—

(a)  "National Blood Transfusion Council" means a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) and has an officer not below the rank of an Additional Secretary to the Government of India dealing with the AIDS Control Project as its Chairman, by whatever name called;

(b)  "State Blood Transfusion Council" means a society registered, in consultation with the National Blood Transfusion Council, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860) or under any law corresponding to that Act in force in any part of India and has Secretary to the Government of that State dealing with the Department of Health, as its Chairman, by whatever name called; or

(iiihb) any fund set up by a State Government to provide medical relief to the poor; or

(iiihc) the Army Central Welfare Fund or the Indian Naval Benevolent Fund or the Air Force Central Welfare Fund established by the armed forces of the Union for the welfare of the past and present members of such forces or their dependants; or

(iiihd) the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Cyclone Relief Fund, 1996; or

(iiihe) the National Illness Assistance Fund; or

(iiihf) the Chief Minister's Relief Fund or the Lieutenant Governor's Relief Fund in respect of any State or Union territory, as the case may be :

Provided that such Fund is—

(a)  the only Fund of its kind established in the State or the Union territory, as the case may be;

(b)  under the overall control of the Chief Secretary or the Department of Finance of the State or the Union territory, as the case may be;

(c)  administered in such manner as may be specified by the State Government or the Lieutenant Governor, as the case may be; or

(iiihg) the National Sports Fund to be set up by the Central Government; or

(iiihh) the National Cultural Fund set up by the Central Government; or

(iiihi) the Fund for Technology Development and Application set up by the Central Government; or

(iiihj) the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities constituted under sub-section (1) of section 3 of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999 (44 of 1999); or

49[(iiihk) the Swachh Bharat Kosh, set up by the Central Government, other than the sum spent by the assessee in pursuance of Corporate Social Responsibility under sub-section (5) of section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); or

(iiihl) the Clean Ganga Fund, set up by the Central Government, where such assessee is a resident and such sum is other than the sum spent by the assessee in pursuance of Corporate Social Responsibility under sub-section (5) of section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013); or]

Following sub-clause (iiihm) shall be inserted after sub-clause (iiihl) of clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 80G by the Finance Act, 2015, w.e.f. 1-4-2016 :[ASSESSMENT YEAR STARTING FROM 1.4.2016 means FINANCIAL YEAR STARTING FROM 1.4.2015]

(iiihm) the National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse constituted under section 7A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (61 of 1985); or

(iv) any other fund or any institution to which this section applies; or

(v)  the Government or any local authority, to be utilised for any charitable purpose other than the purpose of promoting family planning; or

(vi) an authority constituted in India by or under any law enacted either for the purpose of dealing with and satisfying the need for housing accommodation or for the purpose of planning, development or improvement of cities, towns and villages, or for both;

(via) any corporation referred to in clause (26BB) of section 10; or

(vii) the Government or to any such local authority, institution or association as may be approved in this behalf by the Central Government, to be utilised for the purpose of promoting family planning;

(b)  any sums paid by the assessee in the previous year as donations for the renovation or repair of any such temple, mosque, gurdwara, church or other place as is notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette to be of historic, archaeological or artistic importance or to be a place of public worship of renown throughout any State or States;

(c)  any sums paid by the assessee, being a company, in the previous year as donations to the Indian Olympic Association or to any other association or institution established in India, as the Central Government may, having regard to the prescribed guidelines50, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf for—

 (i)  the development of infrastructure for sports and games; or

(ii)  the sponsorship of sports and games,

in India;

(d)  any sums paid by the assessee, during the period beginning on the 26th day of January, 2001 and ending on the 30th day of September, 2001, to any trust, institution or fund to which this section applies for providing relief to the victims of earthquake in Gujarat.

(4) Where the aggregate of the sums referred to in sub-clauses (iv), (v), (vi), (via) and (vii) of clause (a) and in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (2) exceeds ten per cent of the gross total income (as reduced by any portion thereof on which income-tax is not payable under any provision of this Act and by any amount in respect of which the assessee is entitled to a deduction under any other provision of this Chapter), then the amount in excess of ten per cent of the gross total income shall be ignored for the purpose of computing the aggregate of the sums in respect of which deduction is to be allowed under sub-section (1).

(5) This section applies to donations to any institution or fund referred to in sub-clause (iv) of clause (a) of sub-section (2), only if it is established in India for a charitable purpose and if it fulfils the following conditions, namely :—

(i)  where the institution or fund derives any income, such income would not be liable to inclusion in its total income under the provisions of sections 11 and 12 or clause (23AA) or clause (23C) of section 10 :

Provided that where an institution or fund derives any income, being profits and gains of business, the condition that such income would not be liable to inclusion in its total income under the provisions of section 11 shall not apply in relation to such income, if—

 (a)  the institution or fund maintains separate books of account in respect of such business;

 (b)  the donations made to the institution or fund are not used by it, directly or indirectly, for the purposes of such business; and

 (c)  the institution or fund issues to a person making the donation a certificate to the effect that it maintains separate books of account in respect of such business and that the donations received by it will not be used, directly or indirectly, for the purposes of such business;

(ii)  the instrument under which the institution or fund is constituted does not, or the rules governing the institution or fund do not, contain any provision for the transfer or application at any time of the whole or any part of the income or assets of the institution or fund for any purpose other than a charitable purpose;

(iii) the institution or fund is not expressed to be for the benefit of any particular religious community or caste;

(iv) the institution or fund maintains regular accounts of its receipts and expenditure;

(v) the institution or fund is either constituted as a public charitable trust or is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (21 of 1860), or under any law corresponding to that Act in force in any part of India or under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956), or is a University established by law, or is any other educational institution recognised by the Government or by a University established by law, or affiliated to any University established by law, or is an institution financed wholly or in part by the Government or a local authority;

(vi) in relation to donations made after the 31st day of March, 1992, the institution or fund is for the time being approved by the Commissioner in accordance with the rules51made in this behalf; and

(vii) where any institution or fund had been approved under clause (vi) for the previous year beginning on the 1st day of April, 2007 and ending on the 31st day of March, 2008, such institution or fund shall, for the purposes of this section and notwithstanding anything contained in the proviso to clause (15) of section 2, be deemed to have been,—

 (a)  established for charitable purposes for the previous year beginning on the 1st day of April, 2008 and ending on the 31st day of March, 2009; and

 (b)  approved under the said clause (vi) for the previous year beginning on the 1st day of April, 2008 and ending on the 31st day of March, 2009.

(5A) Where a deduction under this section is claimed and allowed for any assessment year in respect of any sum specified in sub-section (2), the sum in respect of which deduction is so allowed shall not qualify for deduction under any other provision of this Act for the same or any other assessment year.

(5B) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (ii) of sub-section (5) and Explanation 3, an institution or fund which incurs expenditure, during any previous year, which is of a religious nature for an amount not exceeding five per cent of its total income in that previous year shall be deemed to be an institution or fund to which the provisions of this section apply.

(5C) This section applies in relation to amounts referred to in clause (d) of sub-section (2) only if the trust or institution or fund is established in India for a charitable purpose and it fulfils the following conditions, namely :—

 (i)  it is approved in terms of clause (vi) of sub-section (5);

(ii)  it maintains separate accounts of income and expenditure for providing relief to the victims of earthquake in Gujarat;

(iii) the donations made to the trust or institution or fund are applied only for providing relief to the earthquake victims of Gujarat on or before the 31st day of March, 2004;

(iv) the amount of donation remaining unutilised on the 31st day of March, 2004 is transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund on or before the 31st day of March, 2004;

(v)  it renders accounts of income and expenditure to such authority and in such manner as may be prescribed, on or before the 30th day of June, 2004.

(5D) No deduction shall be allowed under this section in respect of donation of any sum exceeding ten thousand rupees unless such sum is paid by any mode other than cash.

Explanation 1.—An institution or fund established for the benefit of Scheduled Castes, backward classes, Scheduled Tribes or of women and children shall not be deemed to be an institution or fund expressed to be for the benefit of a religious community or caste within the meaning of clause (iii) of sub-section (5).

Explanation 2.—For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that a deduction to which the assessee is entitled in respect of any donation made to an institution or fund to which sub-section (5) applies shall not be denied merely on either or both of the following grounds, namely :—

(i)  that, subsequent to the donation, any part of the income of the institution or fund has become chargeable to tax due to non-compliance with any of the provisions of section 11, section 12 or section 12A;

(ii) that, under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 13, the exemption under section 11 or section 12 is denied to the institution or fund in relation to any income arising to it from any investment referred to in clause (h) of sub-section (2) of section 13 where the aggregate of the funds invested by it in a concern referred to in the said clause (h) does not exceed five per cent of the capital of that concern.

Explanation 3.—In this section, "charitable purpose" does not include any purpose the whole or substantially the whole of which is of a religious nature.

Explanation 4.—For the purposes of this section, an association or institution having as its object the control, supervision, regulation or encouragement in India of such games or sports as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in this behalf, shall be deemed to be an institution established in India for a charitable purpose.

Explanation 5.—For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that no deduction shall be allowed under this section in respect of any donation unless such donation is of a sum of money.

Section 80G Deduction For Donation made

The amount donated towards charity attracts deduction under section 80G of the Income Tax Act. Section 80G has been in the law book since financial year 1967-68 and it seems it’s here to stay. Several deductions have been swept away but the tax sop for donations appears to have survived the axe. The main features of tax benefit with respect to charity are as follows:

Who can get a tax break?

Any person or ‘assessee’ who makes an eligible donation is be entitled to get tax deductions subject to conditions. This section does not restrict the deduction to individuals, companies or any specific category of taxpayer.

Which donations can get you a tax break?

There are thousands of trusts registered in India that claim to be engaged in charitable activities. Many of them are genuine but some are untrue. In order that only genuine trusts get the tax benefits, the Government has made it compulsory for all charitable trusts to register themselves with the Income Tax Department. And for this purpose the Government has made two types of registrations necessary. Only if the trust follows the registration, they will get the tax exemption certificate, which is popularly known as 80G certificate.

How much deduction will I get if I donate?

Firstly, a taxpayer claiming deduction under section 80G should find out the donation amount that qualifies for the deduction. He has to compute the actual donation with reference to the qualifying amount. For this purpose, donations can be broadly divided into two categories:

1. Donations to private trusts

Step 1: Find out the qualifying amount

The qualifying amount under this category will be lower of the the following two amounts:

a) The amount of donation

b) 10 per cent of the gross total income as reduced by all other deductions under Chapter VI-A of the Income Tax Act such as 80C (PPF, LIC etc.), 80D (mediclaim), 80CCC (pension schemes etc.

For example, a taxpayer named Laxmi Sharma has taxable salary of Rs 500,000. He has deposited Rs 40,000 in Public Provident Fund and Rs 60,000 in his company provident fund. He donates Rs 45,000 to CRY (Child Relief & You) trust. Presuming he has no other income, his taxable income will be computed as under:

After making donation to CRY, his qualifying amount for 80G will be:

Since 40,000 is lower, the qualifying amount will be Rs 40,000

Step 2: Find out actual deduction

The next question that arises is how much would be the actual deduction? In the case of donations to private trusts, the actual amount of donation would be 50 per cent of the qualifying amount.

Therefore, in the example given above, since the donation is made to a private trust, the deduction will be 50 per cent of the qualifying amount ie 50 per cent of Rs 40,000 = Rs 20,000.

So,

Step 3: Check upper limit

Finally, the deduction under section 80G cannot exceed your taxable income. For example, if your income before deduction is Rs 3 lakh and if you have given donation of Rs 5 lakh to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, please do not expect to claim a loss of Rs 2 lakhs. Your income will be NIL (Rs 3 lakh – Rs 3 lakh). The deduction will be restricted to the amount of your income.

ii) Donations to trusts/funds set up by the Government
In this category, the entire amount donated i.e. 100 per cent of the donation amount is eligible for deduction. There is a long list of 21 funds/institutions/purposes for which donations given would qualify for 100 per cent eligibility. Notable among this list are:

– The National Defense Fund

– The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund

– Any fund set up by the State Government of Gujarat for earthquake relief

The funds that figure in this long list are all set up by the Government. Private Trusts do not figure in this list.

Thus, in this category of donations, the ceiling of 10 per cent of the gross total income as reduced by all other deductions under Chapter VI-A of the Income Tax Act does not apply.

In the above example, if instead of donating to CRY, had the donation been given to say, The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, then the calculations would have different as shown below:

iii) Donations to approved research organizations:

There are special sections for businessmen and professionals who earn income under the head Profits and Gains of Business or Profession. Section 35AC and 35CCA allow a deduction of 100 per cent of the amount donated for scientific research and rural development to approved research organisations. For this, the research organisation requires the approval of the Government.

Those who do not have any business or professional income (like salaried persons), donations can be given to such organisations and 100 per cent deduction can be claimed under section 80GGA.

What points should I keep in mind for claiming deduction?

Following points must be borne in mind:

i) A stamped receipt is a must:

– For claiming deduction under Section 80G, a receipt issued by the recipient trust is a must. The receipt must contain the name and address of the Trust, the name of the donor, the amount donated (please ensure that the amount written in words and figures tally).

– The most important requirement is the Registration number issued by the Income Tax Department under Section 80G. This number must be printed on the receipt.

The donor must ensure that the registration is valid on the date on which the donation is given. However With Effect from 1st October 2009 it is not required for a trust to apply for renewal of 80G certificate, if the same is valid on 01.10.2009 or valid upto a date thereafter unless department specifically ask Trust to apply for renewal.  So Old 80G certificate will remain valid if the same is valid on 01.10.2009.

So, please check the validity period of the 80G certificate. Always insist on a photocopy of the 80G certificate in addition to the receipt.

ii) Only donations in cash/cheque are eligible for the tax deduction:

Donations in kind do not entitle for any tax benefits. For example, during natural disasters such as floods, earthquake, many organisations start campaigs for collecting clothes, blankets, food etc. Such donations will not fetch you any tax benefits. No deduction under this section is allowable in case of amount of donation if exceeds Rs 10000/- unless the amount is paid by any mode other than cash.