Form 10BD & 10BE — Donor Certificate Compliance

Form 10BD is the Statement of Particulars of Donations filed by the donee institution — that is, the charitable trust or institution registered under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961 — and not by the donor. It was introduced by the Finance Act 2021 with effect from April 1, 2021, and must be filed annually on or before May 31 following the close of the financial year in which donations are received, as per Rule 18AB of the Income Tax Rules 1962. The form captures the donor's name, address, PAN or Aadhaar number, the amount donated, and the mode of donation (cash, cheque, ECS, etc.). Based on the Form 10BD filing, the Income Tax portal auto-generates Form 10BE (donation certificate) which is then issued to each donor for claiming deduction under Section 80G.

Failure to file Form 10BD on time attracts a fee of Rs 200 per day of default under Section 234G of the Income Tax Act 1961, continuing for each day the default persists after the May 31 due date. If Form 10BD is filed with inaccurate particulars (e.g., wrong PAN of donor, incorrect amount), a penalty of Rs 10,000 or the amount of deduction claimed by the donor, whichever is higher, may be levied under Section 271K on the reporting institution. Importantly, donors cannot claim Section 80G deduction for amounts not appearing in the Annual Information Statement sourced from Form 10BD — so an institution's non-filing directly harms its donors' tax positions. The trust should therefore verify each donor's PAN before filing to avoid mismatches.

From Assessment Year 2022-23 onwards, a donor can claim deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act 1961 only if the donee institution has filed Form 10BD and the corresponding Form 10BE has been issued to the donor, as the CBDT has linked the deduction to the Annual Information Statement (AIS) populated from Form 10BD data. The donor must mention the Unique Donation Reference Number printed on Form 10BE while filing their ITR. For donations to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and similar specified funds listed in Section 80G(2)(a), Form 10BE is not required as these institutions are separately notified. A donor who makes a qualifying donation but does not receive Form 10BE should contact the institution to verify whether Form 10BD was correctly filed with the donor's PAN.

No. Foreign contributions received by an Indian charitable trust are governed by the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010 and require a separate FCRA registration under Section 11 — such contributions are not eligible for Section 80G deduction by Indian residents and therefore need not be reported in Form 10BD. If a Non-Resident Indian makes a donation from their NRO account (funds sourced from income earned in India), that donation from an Indian-sourced account may qualify for Section 80G deduction and must be reported in Form 10BD with the donor's PAN. The institution must maintain separate books for foreign and domestic contributions under Section 17 of FCRA 2010 and must not commingle the two streams, which also helps ensure clean Form 10BD reporting for domestic donors.

Under Rule 18AB(4) of the Income Tax Rules 1962, Form 10BE must be issued to each donor on or before May 31 of the financial year following the year in which the donation was received — the same deadline as the Form 10BD filing itself, since Form 10BE is system-generated on the Income Tax portal immediately upon successful Form 10BD submission. The institution should download Form 10BE for each donor from the portal and share it promptly, as donors typically need it to pre-fill their ITR. If the institution amends Form 10BD after initial filing (permitted before the assessment of the donor is completed), a revised Form 10BE will be generated automatically, and the institution must notify affected donors of the corrected certificate.