A nine member trust in Bhopal spent three years running a free evening tuition programme for children from nearby bastis. Word got around, and last Diwali a regular donor offered Rs 60,000 for the coming year, on one condition: she wanted a receipt she could set against her own tax bill. The trustees opened the income tax portal to print one and found nothing to print. The trust had a registration certificate from the sub-registrar and a PAN card, but no 12A registration and no 80G approval. The donation still came in, but the donor’s deduction didn’t, and the conversation that followed was uncomfortable.

At Chandwani & Company Chartered Accountants in Bhopal, this is the exact gap we see close more often than any other single filing we handle for the nonprofit sector, and it’s almost always avoidable with the right documentation in place early. 12A registration, now Section 12AB, and from Tax Year 2026-27 renumbered into Part B of Chapter XVII of the Income-tax Act, 2025, exempts an NGO’s own income from tax, provided it is spent on the stated charitable objects. 80G approval is a separate step that lets a donor claim a deduction, usually 50 percent, of what they give. Most NGOs need both, not one or the other, because the first protects the organisation’s surplus and the second is what actually brings donors back year after year. This guide walks through eligibility, the current Form 104/105 filing process, realistic timelines, and the renewal rules every registered trust, society or Section 8 company in India needs on its compliance calendar.

Who Is Eligible for 12A and 80G Registration in India?

Any trust, registered society, or Section 8 company formed for a genuinely charitable purpose (relief of the poor, education, medical relief, preservation of the environment, or the advancement of any other object of general public utility) can apply, once it is legally in existence. Eligibility turns on three things: the entity must already be validly registered under its governing law, its objects must be charitable and not commercial, and none of its income or assets can be used for the private benefit of trustees, members or their relatives. A trust running a paid consultancy on the side, or a society whose trust deed lets trustees draw undefined “honorarium” payments, is the kind of structure that gets queried, not approved.

If your organisation isn’t registered as a legal entity yet, that step has to happen before 12A and 80G registration can even be filed; income tax approval sits on top of a valid registration, not instead of it.

Documents You Need Before You Apply

Keep these ready before you log in to file:

• PAN card of the trust, society or Section 8 company
• Registration certificate and trust deed, or the society’s memorandum and bye-laws, or the company’s MOA and AOA
• Audited financial statements and income and expenditure accounts for the last three years, or since inception if younger
• A written note on activities actually carried out, not just the objects stated on paper
• List of trustees, governing body members or directors, with PAN and Aadhaar
• NGO Darpan registration number, where the organisation already has one
• Bank statements showing the entity’s own transactions, not a trustee’s personal account

The income and expenditure accounts matter more than most applicants expect. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) reviewing the file is really checking whether money moved the way the stated objects describe. A trust whose books show rental income with no linked charitable spending invites a query before it invites an approval.

How Does the 12A and 80G Registration Process Work?

Both approvals are filed online and at no government fee. The entire process now runs on the income tax e-filing portal rather than through a physical office, which has cut processing delays but has also made document formatting, file size, scanned signatures, the order pages are uploaded in, a more common reason for queries than it was a decade ago.

1. Register the organisation on the e-filing portal using its own PAN and create login credentials.
2. Go to e-File, then Income Tax Forms, and select the registration form that applies to your stage, covered in the next section.
3. Fill in entity details, objects and activities, and upload the documents listed above as self-attested PDFs.
4. Verify the form using a Digital Signature Certificate of an authorised trustee, or through electronic verification where permitted.
5. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemption) reviews the application and may call for clarifications; these have to be answered within the window the portal gives, usually 15 days.
6. An approval order is issued electronically and shows up on the portal once granted.

Provisional vs Regular Registration, and Why the Difference Matters

A brand new NGO that hasn’t started activities yet gets provisional registration first, valid for three years, granted largely on the strength of its documents rather than a track record. An NGO that has already been running programmes, or one converting from provisional to permanent status, applies for regular registration, which runs for five years and is reviewed more closely because there is now a history to check against the stated objects. Skipping straight to regular registration isn’t an option; the law routes every applicant through the stage that matches where the organisation actually is.

What Changed Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, and How Long Does Registration Take?

The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed and replaced by the Income-tax Act, 2025, effective 1 April 2026, and the charitable trust chapter was renumbered into Part B of Chapter XVII, sections 332 to 355. The practical change for anyone filing now is the form numbers: Form 10A has been replaced by Form 104 for provisional applications, and Form 10AB has been replaced by Form 105 for regular registration and renewals. The old forms have already been withdrawn from the e-filing portal, so an NGO trying to file under the earlier form numbers will find them gone, not just relabelled.

One limitation worth knowing before you file: the portal’s Form 105 workflow does not yet carry a condonation of delay option the way the old Form 10AB process did, so a late application under the new regime currently has fewer routes to an extension than it would have had eighteen months ago. If your renewal date is close, that’s a reason to file early rather than assume a grace period will be available.

Processing time varies by Commissioner’s office and by how complete the first submission is, but a clean application with no queries typically clears in six to eight weeks for provisional registration, and can run longer for regular registration given the deeper document review. Applications that draw a clarification notice routinely add another month, which is the single biggest reason experienced filers submit complete bank statements and activity notes the first time rather than waiting to be asked.

What Are the Renewal Rules for 12A and 80G Registration?

Regular registration, once granted, runs for five years, and both approvals expire together since they’re tied to the same underlying trust or institution. Renewal has to be filed through Form 105 at least six months before the current registration lapses; file on the expiry date itself and you are, strictly speaking, late. An NGO whose registration runs out on 31 March 2027, for example, should have its renewal filed by around 30 September 2026, not treated as a task for the following March.

Missing the renewal window doesn’t just mean paperwork catches up later. A lapsed 12A/12AB registration means the NGO’s income becomes taxable from the date of lapse, and a lapsed 80G approval means every donation collected in the gap carries no deduction for the donor, something donors tend to notice and remember. Teams managing ngo tax exemption alongside donor reporting usually build the renewal date into their annual compliance calendar the same way they track an audit deadline, rather than relying on a reminder from the department.

After Registration: Donor Reporting and Ongoing Compliance

Getting the certificate is the easy half. Every NGO holding 80G approval has to file an annual statement of donations received, Form 10BD under the old Act, now Form 113 from Tax Year 2026-27 onward, and issue each donor a certificate, Form 10BE, now Form 114, that the donor attaches to their own return. Miss this filing and your donors cannot claim the deduction even though your 80G approval is perfectly valid, which defeats the point of holding it.

How 80G Certificate Benefits Actually Reach the Donor

The 80G certificate benefits donors in a specific way: the deduction only lands on their return once the donation appears in the statement your NGO files and is pre-filled into their Annual Information Statement. A donor who gives in March and doesn’t see the deduction reflected by the time they file their own return in July is usually looking at a reporting gap on the NGO’s side, not an error on theirs. NGOs above the audit threshold also need an audit report, Form 10B or 10BB historically and Form 112 going forward, filed before the income tax return itself; filing the return without it is one of the more common ways NGOs accidentally forfeit an exemption they were otherwise entitled to.

Common Mistakes NGOs Make During 12A and 80G Registration

The same handful of errors show up across most rejected or delayed applications we review.

Applying before the governing document is airtight. A trust deed or society’s bye-laws that leaves the dissolution clause vague, or doesn’t explicitly bar distribution of assets to members on winding up, draws a query almost every time. If you’re still finalising your structure, it’s worth reading through the society registration process before the 12A and 80G filing, since fixing a bye-law after incorporation is far more work than getting it right the first time.

Under-reporting activities to look tidier. Some applicants list only their flagship programme and leave out smaller, informal activities, assuming a shorter file looks cleaner. In practice, the Commissioner’s office cross-checks bank statements against the activity note, and an unexplained transaction is a bigger red flag than an admittedly modest second programme. Full disclosure, even of small or seasonal work, tends to clear faster than a curated version of the file.

Treating a trust, society and Section 8 company as interchangeable. All three qualify for 12A and 80G, but they carry different governance, reporting and CSR eligibility implications, and switching structures later is far harder than choosing deliberately at the start. We’ve compared which non-profit structure fits which mission in more detail, and it’s worth reading before you incorporate rather than after.

A Practical Action Checklist Before You File

Work through these in order, not all at once:

1. Confirm your trust deed, society bye-laws or MOA explicitly state charitable objects and a dissolution clause directing assets to another charitable entity, never to members.
2. Gather PAN, registration certificate, three years of audited financials, or since inception, and a written note on activities actually carried out.
3. Decide whether you’re filing for provisional registration, new and not yet active, or regular registration, already running programmes or converting from provisional.
4. File Form 104 or Form 105, as applicable, on the income tax e-filing portal, verified with a valid Digital Signature Certificate.
5. Calendar your renewal date, six months out from the five year expiry, the moment the approval order comes through, so it never becomes a last minute scramble.
6. Set up the donation register you’ll need for the annual donee statement before the first 80G eligible donation comes in, not after.

If any of this feels like more process than your team has bandwidth for mid year, that’s a reasonable place to bring in outside help rather than let a filing slip. Chandwani & Company Chartered Accountants in Bhopal has filed 12A and 80G applications for trusts, societies and Section 8 companies at different stages of this process, and a short call upfront usually saves more time than it costs.

FAQs

Q1. Can a newly formed NGO apply for 12A and 80G registration immediately after incorporation?

A1. Yes. A new trust, society or Section 8 company can apply for provisional registration through Form 104 as soon as it is legally incorporated, even before starting any activity. Provisional registration runs for three years, after which the NGO must apply for regular registration through Form 105, based on activities it has actually carried out by then.

Q2. Is there a government fee for 12A and 80G registration?

A2. No. Both applications are filed at nil government fee on the income tax e-filing portal. The only costs involved are professional fees if you engage a chartered accountant to prepare and file the documentation, along with the cost of a Digital Signature Certificate for verification, which typically runs a few hundred rupees and stays valid for one to two years.

Q3. Can an NGO lose its 80G approval even after 12A registration is valid?

A3. Yes. The two approvals are separate, though usually applied for together. An NGO can retain valid 12A/12AB registration while losing 80G approval, typically for failing to file the annual donation statement on time or for using funds outside its stated charitable objects, which the Commissioner reviews independently of the income tax exemption itself.

Q4. Do donations to an NGO without 80G registration qualify for any tax deduction?

A4. No. Without valid 80G approval, a donor’s contribution is simply a gift with no deduction available under Section 80G, however genuinely it is used by the NGO. This is one reason donors increasingly ask to see the 80G certificate and PAN before transferring funds, particularly for larger corporate or CSR contributions.

Q5. How is CSR eligibility connected to 12A and 80G registration?

A5. Companies funding CSR projects generally require the receiving NGO to hold 12A registration and separate CSR-1 registration with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, filed on the MCA portal. 80G approval isn’t mandatory for CSR eligibility itself, but most corporates still prefer it, since it lets their own donation records show a valid tax position alongside the CSR spend.

Q6. What happens if an NGO’s 12A and 80G registration expires before renewal is filed?

A6. The exemption and the 80G approval both lapse from the expiry date. Income earned after that point becomes taxable in the NGO’s hands, and donations received in the gap carry no deduction for the donor. Filing Form 105 late is possible but, under the current portal workflow, carries fewer condonation options than the earlier process did.