All the income tax payers have to file their income tax returns by July 31, 2012. For the salaried individuals the Form 16 is handed over by the employer and contains all the necessary information.
But the form 16 does not have a crucial piece of information related to the donations made by the tax payer to the approved charities if any. Such donations are eligible for exemption under section 80G and they have to be claimed separately at the time of filing the returns.
There is a different procedure to be followed for claiming the deductions under section 80G and such reliefs can be claimed only at the time of filing returns. But before claiming one needs to make sure that the donations which were made met all the prescribed requirements.
The charity selected must be an appropriate one that is the organization should be approved under section 80G of the income Tax Act. Normally the charities display their 80G status prominently on their websites. One should also make sure that the validity period of the registration certificate issued to the charity has not expired. The receipt issued by the organization must be produced as it is the acknowledgement to the donation.
