If you've donated to a charitable institution and plan to claim a tax deduction, your donation receipt alone may no longer be enough.
While the eligibility conditions for claiming a deduction under Section 80G remain unchanged, taxpayers will now have to provide a digital payment trail to support their claim.
What has changed?
Section 80G allows taxpayers to claim deductions for donations made to eligible charitable institutions, subject to the conditions and limits prescribed under the Income-tax Act.
The change is aimed at enabling electronic verification of deduction claims by linking them to banking records, rather than relying solely on the amount declared by the taxpayer.
Keep these documents ready
Before filing the return, taxpayers should keep the following documents handy:
- Donation receipt issued by the charitable institution.
- Bank statement or payment confirmation.
- Transaction reference number.
- IFSC code of the remitting bank.
Unlike salary income or tax deducted at source (TDS), charitable donations generally do not appear in the Annual Information Statement (AIS), Form 26AS or the Taxpayer Information Statement (TIS). Taxpayers should therefore reconcile their claim using the donation receipt and banking records. If the employer has already considered the donation while computing TDS, the claim should also be matched with Form 16.
Don't leave the field blank
The Income Tax Department's validation rules make these payment details mandatory wherever a Section 80G deduction is claimed. Missing or incorrect information could result in the return failing validation or the deduction claim being questioned during processing.
If the transaction reference number is not readily available, taxpayers should retrieve it from their bank statement, internet banking portal or UPI application instead of entering estimated details. It is also recommended to obtain a duplicate receipt from the charitable institution if required before filing the return.