12A and 80G are now sections 332 and 354
Renewing a trust registration under the Income-tax Act, 2025. The certificate has not lapsed. The Act it names has, and so has the form the next renewal goes on.
Since April the same call keeps coming in from trustees, worded a dozen ways. The registration certificate says section 12AB. The 80G order says section 80G(5). Both cite an Act that no longer exists. Are we still registered?
In short
- Yes. A 12A, 12AA or 12AB registration runs to the expiry date printed on it, and so does an 80G approval. Section 536 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 carried them over. Nothing had to be filed on 1 April 2026.
- The numbers changed, not the position. Registration now sits in section 332, donor approval in section 354, and the donor's own deduction in section 133(1)(b)(ii).
- One form does the renewal. Form No. 105 under Rule 181 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 has replaced Form 10AB, and it covers registration and approval together.
- The deadline has not moved. File Form No. 105 at least six months before the existing registration or approval expires.
What happened on 1 April 2026
The Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 and repealed the 1961 Act from the same day. Registrations and approvals granted under the old Act were left untouched. Section 536, the repeal and savings clause, carries them forward on their existing terms until they expire.
The department has said as much.
Old approvals and registrations are, in the department's own framing, treated as if granted under the corresponding provision of the new Act, unless they conflict with it.Income Tax Department, transition FAQs, Income-tax Act, 2025
A trust recognised under section 12AB on 1 March 2026 was still recognised on 2 April 2026. Same certificate, same expiry date. The redraft reorganised 819 sections into 536, folded the provisos and explanations into the body of the text, and renumbered almost everything. The tax policy it left alone.
The vocabulary moved too. Charitable trusts, religious institutions, bodies that lived under section 10(23C), hospitals: all of them are now, together, registered non-profit organisations, and the provisions that govern them sit in one place, Part B of Chapter XVII, sections 332 to 355. "Assessment year" is gone. Income earned in the year beginning 1 April 2026 belongs to tax year 2026-27.
The 1961 Act still governs every year that began before 1 April 2026. Returns, assessments, appeals and penalties for those years run on the old provisions until they are finally closed. A trust can be answering a scrutiny notice under the 1961 Act and filing its next renewal under the 2025 Act in the same week. Both are right.
Where the old sections went
Registration under sections 12A, 12AA and 12AB of the 1961 Act is now regular registration under section 332 of the 2025 Act. Approval under section 80G(5) is now approval under section 354. The deduction the donor actually claims has shifted from section 80G to section 133(1)(b)(ii).
Keep the mapping below beside the file. After a renumbering this large, the old number is the one everyone still reaches for, and the order that arrives will quote only the new one.
Old provision, new provision
Mapping| Under the Income-tax Act, 1961 | Under the Income-tax Act, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Registration: sections 12A, 12AA, 12AB | Section 332 |
| Approval so donors may claim: section 80G(5) | Section 354 |
| The donor's deduction: section 80G | Section 133(1)(b)(ii) |
| Application form: Form 10AB | Form No. 105 |
| Rules 11AA and 17A of the 1962 Rules | Rule 181 of the 2026 Rules |
| Order granting registration or approval | Form No. 107, with a 16-digit URN |
Under the old regime a trust renewing both its registration and its 80G approval filed two applications. Now it files one Form No. 105 and gets back two orders in Form No. 107, one for each, each with its own 16-digit Unique Registration Number. Filing twice is a needless mistake, and a common one.
When Form No. 105 has to be filed
For an established trust whose registration or approval is about to expire, Form No. 105 must be filed at least six months before the expiry date. Other situations have their own periods, set out below. The form goes in electronically to the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, and it will not submit without a valid PAN.
Time limits for Form No. 105
Sections 332(3), 354(2)| The institution's position | Application to be made |
|---|---|
| Activities have commenced and it has never held a registration under any specified provision | At any time during the tax year from which registration is sought |
| Provisional registration granted and activities have since commenced | Within six months of the commencement of activities |
| Provisional registration about to expire, activities not commenced | At least six months before it expires |
| An existing registration or approval about to expire | At least six months before it expires |
| Registration become inoperative on switching regime under section 333 | At any time during the tax year from which it is to be made operative again |
| Objects modified in a way that does not conform to the conditions of registration | Within thirty days of the adoption or modification |
Six months before expiry. Not on expiry, and not in the month the certificate runs out. A registration expiring on 31 March 2028 needs Form No. 105 filed by 30 September 2027. The margin exists because the Commissioner is allowed up to six months from the end of the quarter in which the application goes in to pass the order in Form No. 107.
How long the fresh registration runs
Five tax years is the ordinary term, counted from the tax year in which the application is made. Two variations matter, and one of them catches governing bodies out.
- Where the application is made because a provisional registration is expiring without activities having commenced, or because an existing approval is expiring, the five years run from the year following the year of application.
- Ten tax years where the institution's total income, worked out before any exemption under Part B of Chapter XVII is applied, stayed at or below ₹5 crore in each of the two tax years before the year of application. That phrase, "without giving effect to Part B of Chapter XVII", is the part that trips people. It means the ₹5 crore is measured on income before the charitable exemption is taken out, near the gross figure, and not on the small taxable surplus that is left once the exemption has done its work.
The ten-year term is not something you apply for. It falls out of the income figures for the two preceding years, and the institution only learns which term it is on when the order arrives. A trust at ₹4.83 crore one year and ₹5.16 crore the next fails the test on the second year alone. A governing body that has already minuted ten years will not find that out until the order says five. Diarise from the Form No. 107 order, not from what the board expected.
What the department asks for
Mostly the papers a well-run institution already keeps. There is no fee and no physical filing. The form goes up on the e-filing portal with self-certified copies attached.
- The trust deed, or the instrument or document under which the institution was created or established
- Registration with the Registrar of Companies, of Firms and Societies, or of Public Trusts, as the case may be
- FCRA registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, where the institution holds one
- The existing order granting registration or approval, including orders under sections 10(23C), 12A, 12AA, 12AB or 80G of the 1961 Act, or under sections 332 or 354 of the 2025 Act
- Any order rejecting an application, or cancelling a registration or approval
- Annual accounts for the prior years for which they have been made up, going back up to three years
- Where a business undertaking is held under section 344, or income includes commercial activity under section 345, the accounts of that activity and the audit report under section 63
- Documents evidencing any adoption or modification of objects
- A detailed note on the activities of the institution
Put both expiry dates, registration and approval, on the governing body's calendar, with a reminder seven months out. That leaves a clear month before the six-month bar bites. Then read the objects clause of the deed against what the institution has actually been doing these last three years. A deed that promises relief of the poor, sitting above a body that has spent four years running a fee-charging coaching centre, is the commonest way a quiet renewal turns into an enquiry.
What happens after filing
The Principal Commissioner or Commissioner passes an order in Form No. 107, within six months from the end of the quarter in which the application was made. The order can grant registration or approval with a 16-digit Unique Registration Number, reject the application, reject it and cancel the existing registration as well, or grant under one section code while refusing the other.
Two corrective routes stay open while it is pending. The application can be withdrawn within seven days of filing. And a wrong section code, or a wrong description of the activity, can be corrected on request at any time before the order is passed.
If the application is rejected or the registration cancelled
There is a second chance, and it is narrow. An institution may re-apply in Form No. 105 within one month from the end of the month in which the cancellation order in Form No. 107 was passed, but only where the rejection or cancellation rested on one of three grounds: documents or information the office asked for were not furnished, no opportunity of being heard was given, or ineligibility arose from trust deed terms that have since been amended.
It is a one-time door. A second cancellation cannot be answered the same way.
The re-application has to explain why the original failure happened, and carry an undertaking that no appeal against the cancellation is pending or will be filed. Where an appeal was filed and then withdrawn, the withdrawal letter goes up with the form. What comes back is treated as a fresh application, and the clock for the order starts again.
When an individual misses a deadline the cost is money: interest, a fee, sometimes a penalty. When an institution loses its registration, its income stops being exempt, and at the same moment every donor loses the deduction on what has already been given. The corporate donors usually find out first, because their own auditors check. The renewal date belongs on the agenda of the governing body, not buried in the accountant's file.
Six numbers to carry
Quick reference| Question | Where it stands now |
|---|---|
| Which section governs a trust's registration? | Section 332 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. It replaces sections 12A, 12AA and 12AB of the 1961 Act. |
| Where has 80G approval gone? | Approval is now section 354. The donor claims the deduction under section 133(1)(b)(ii). |
| What replaced Form 10AB? | Form No. 105, under Rule 181 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. One form covers registration and approval. |
| What comes back from the department? | An order in Form No. 107 with a 16-digit URN, passed within six months from the end of the quarter of application. |
| How long before expiry must the renewal be filed? | At least six months before the existing registration or approval expires. |
| When does registration run ten years instead of five? | Where total income, before the Part B of Chapter XVII exemption, stayed at or below ₹5 crore in each of the two preceding tax years. |
Six cards to keep the renumbering straight
Tap a card to turn itTest the position
Questions we are asked
Do we need to do anything on the portal on 1 April 2026 to keep our registration?
No. Nothing had to be filed on 1 April 2026. A registration under section 12A, 12AA or 12AB continues to the expiry date printed on the certificate, because section 536 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 treats it as granted under the corresponding provision of the new Act. The only dates that matter are the existing expiry date and the six-month window before it.
The certificate still names the old Act. Is that a problem?
It is not. Many trustees notice that the certificate, and often the 80G order, still refer to the 1961 Act, and read that as a lapse. It is not a lapse. The document is valid to its stated expiry whatever Act it names. It should not, though, be a reason to let the renewal planning slip.
Should our donation receipts still mention section 80G?
For donations made in years governed by the 1961 Act, the reference to section 80G is correct and should stay. For donations received from 1 April 2026, the institution's approval sits under section 354 and the donor claims the deduction under section 133(1)(b)(ii). Receipt formats and the annual donation statement should be brought into line with the new references.
Do we file separately for our registration and our 80G approval?
No. One Form No. 105 covers both. In return the department passes two orders in Form No. 107, one for the registration and one for the approval, each carrying its own 16-digit Unique Registration Number. Filing two applications is a common and avoidable error.
We filed Form No. 105 and then spotted a wrong section code. Can it be corrected?
Yes. The application can be withdrawn within seven days of filing. Short of withdrawal, a wrong section code or a wrong description of activity can be corrected by a request to the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner at any time before the order in Form No. 107 is passed.
Sources relied on
- Income Tax Department, Form No. 105 Frequently Asked Questions (application under section 332(3) or 354(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025), incometaxindia.gov.in/documents/d/guest/form-105-faqs
- Income Tax Department, Form 105 and 107 User Manual, e-Filing portal, incometax.gov.in
- Income Tax Department, FAQs on Interplay and Transition to the Income-tax Act, 2025 (continuity of registrations, repeal and savings under section 536), incometaxindia.gov.in
- Income-tax Act, 2025, sections 332, 354 and 133(1)(b)(ii), Part B of Chapter XVII, incometaxindia.gov.in
- Income-tax Act, 2025, section 536, Repeal and savings, incometaxindia.gov.in
- Press Information Bureau, Income-tax Act, 2025 comes into force from 1 April 2026, pib.gov.in
This note sets out the general position in law as at 25 July 2026 and is written for information only. It is not advice on any particular matter, and it should not be acted on without professional advice on the specific facts. Provisions, rates and time limits change, the transitional provisions in section 536 apply differently depending on the year in question, and the position for your own institution may differ.
