Corpus, anonymous and other special donations

Most donations to a registered NGO are voluntary contributions: they are part of its regular income, and at least 85% of that income must be spent on its objects in the year. Some gifts are treated differently. A corpus donation sits outside the 85% rule if it meets two conditions; an anonymous donation above a threshold is taxed at 30%; and gifts in kind, foreign donations and CSR money each come with conditions of their own.

This guide explains each kind under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which has applied since 1 April 2026, with the 1961 Act’s names in brackets. It is for NGO finance teams, fundraisers and trustees. The general rule on spending income is in the 85% rule.

Why the type of donation matters

Form 113 (formerly Form 10BD) is the statement of donations an approved NGO files each year: see donation statements and certificates.

Corpus donations

A corpus is a permanent fund: an endowment whose capital the organisation keeps and whose income it uses. Under the 2025 Act, a corpus donation is one the donor specifically directs to form part of the corpus (Section 339). Two conditions must both be met:

1. The donor’s direction. The donor must say, at the time of giving, that the gift is for the corpus. The NGO can’t decide afterwards to treat an ordinary gift as corpus.
2. A separate, permitted investment. The money must be invested or deposited in one of the permitted modes (Section 350 and Schedule XVI, such as bank deposits and government securities), in an account or investment kept specifically for the corpus.

A corpus donation that meets both conditions isn’t part of regular income (Section 338(b)), so it is outside the 85% calculation.

Using the corpus has its own rules:

• Spending from corpus isn’t application of income in the year it is spent (Section 341(4)).
• Putting it back counts. If the organisation spends from corpus and later reinvests the same amount in the corpus within five years, the reinvestment counts as application of income in the year it is made, where the original spending happened after 31 March 2021 (Section 341(2)).
• A corpus donation to another NGO, a gift you direct to its corpus, doesn’t count as your application of income at all (Section 341(3)(c)).
• The income from the corpus is regular income. Interest on corpus deposits is income from investments, so it falls under the 85% rule.

Places of worship. Donations received for renovating or repairing a temple, mosque, gurudwara, church or other place notified under Section 133(1)(b)(vi) may be treated as corpus, if kept separately identifiable, used only for that purpose, invested in permitted modes and not given onwards (Section 340).

Anonymous donations

An anonymous donation is a voluntary contribution for which the organisation doesn’t keep a record of the donor’s name, address and the other particulars the Rules prescribe (Section 355(a)).

Anonymous donations are taxed as specified income at 30% (Sections 334 and 337, Table, serial 1) on the amount above the higher of ₹1 lakh or 5% of the total donations received in the tax year. The 5% is of total donations, not of total income. The part within the threshold is treated like any other donation.

Exceptions. Organisations set up wholly for religious purposes are outside this rule. For organisations set up wholly for charitable and religious purposes, it applies only to anonymous donations made for a university, educational institution, hospital or medical institution that they run.

Donations in kind

Food, books, medicines, equipment and other goods given instead of money are donations in kind. Form 113 records “kind” as a mode of donation, so they can be reported, but donors can’t claim a tax deduction for them: the deduction under Section 133 is allowed only for a sum of money (Section 133(4)).

For the NGO, keep a register of what was received, from whom, its reasonable value and how it was used or distributed. How such gifts are valued in the accounts and treated in the return is a question for your CA.

CSR in kind is a separate matter: under the MCA’s FAQs, a company can’t give goods in kind, such as its own products, and count their value as CSR spending, because a CSR contribution “cannot be in kind and monetized” (FAQ 3.12).

Foreign donations

Before an NGO accepts any donation from a foreign source, it must be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) or have prior permission, and the money must go through its FCRA accounts. That is a separate law with its own rules, explained in what is FCRA. Whether a donor counts as a foreign source, including Indian companies with foreign shareholders and Indians living abroad, is covered in who counts as a foreign source.

For income tax, a foreign donation received with FCRA approval is a voluntary contribution like any other: it is part of regular income and subject to the 85% rule. Two income-tax points are specific to it:

• Spending outside India is excluded from regular income only where the CBDT permits it; otherwise it is specified income, taxed at 30%.
• The audit report (Form 112) asks about foreign contribution, and an NGO that received more than ₹10 lakh of it in the year can’t use the lighter version of the report for small organisations.

CSR money in an NGO’s books

When a company gives CSR money to an NGO acting as its implementing agency, the NGO normally treats it as a voluntary contribution: regular income, subject to the 85% rule. The CSR rules add conditions that shape how NGOs handle it:

• It can’t go into a corpus. A contribution to the corpus of any entity hasn’t counted as CSR spending since 22 January 2021 (MCA FAQs, General Circular 14/2021, FAQ 3.5).
• It counts as spent only when used. The MCA’s FAQs say that merely disbursing funds isn’t spending unless the implementing agency uses them, so companies release money in tranches and ask for utilisation reports.
• Interest is surplus. Interest an implementing agency earns on CSR funds is surplus from CSR activities and must be used only for CSR purposes (FAQ 3.4). See CSR budgets and overheads.
• Report it as CSR. Form 113 has a separate type, “donation from CSR funds under Section 135 of the Companies Act”, for companies that ask for a certificate.

Whether the company can claim a donation deduction for its CSR contribution is contested (and ruled out for companies on the concessional tax rates), so it is a question for its advisers: see CSR and income tax. For the NGO’s side of CSR, start with how NGOs can get CSR funding.

A checklist for special donations

Large or unusual gifts, such as property, shares or an endowment with conditions attached, deserve a chartered accountant’s advice before you accept them.