Charitable organisations must maintain donors information, file IT returns

Rashmi Saxena Sahni, principal chief commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Delhi.

Aurangabad, March 5:

With crowdfunding on the rise, each charitable organisation must take the onus to ensure that all the essential donor information is being captured and maintained to meet compliance requirements, failing which the donor’s deduction could be jeopardised. It is mandatory for organisations to file regular income tax (IT) returns every year. Failure could affect the future fundraising capacity of the charitable organisation, said principal chief commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions) Delhi, Rashmi Saxena Sahni, IRS at the interactive meet and outreach program organised at the Aurangabad branch of WIRC of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Saturday.

Speaking further, she said, charitable organisations and associations such as society, trust can apply to the department of IT for registration under the provision of 80G in a prescribed form. NGO can avail IT exemption by getting itself registered and complying with certain other formalities. The application should be made as early as possible just after the registration of the given organisation. The IT Act has certain provisions which offer tax benefits to the donors. Section 80G is one of such sections. She also addressed grievances shared by Chartered Accountants and tax payers at large and assured to take those grievances at upper level and with central processing unit. Aurangabad branch chairman CA Yogesh Agrawal, additional commissioner of income tax (CIT) Pune Abhinay Kumbhar, additional CIT Aurangabad Vishwas Mundhe, addl CIT Gurmeil Singh, ICAI vice chairman Ganesh Bhalerao, secretary Kedar Pande, treasurer Amol Godha, CA Mahesh Indani, CA Rupali Bothara, IT officer B Sunil Kumar, Sunil Mehetre and Srihari Joshi were present.

Don't lose out on funding

Not collecting some of this information from the donors could have adverse consequences as they may be considered anonymous donations under certain sections of the IT Act. Hence all charity organisations should meet this important compliance requirement. Whether you are a charitable organisation, whether you are funded by corporates or individuals or a mix of both, whether you receive funds from foreign or domestic sources you will need to file return so you don’t lose out on funding because of compliance, said commissioner IT, headquarters Delhi, (exemptions) Tarique Kalim.