Section 18A Receipts

Section 18A of the Income Tax Act allows donors to deduct qualifying donations from their taxable income — but only when the recipient organisation is an approved Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) with Section 18A approval, and the donation is accompanied by a valid Section 18A receipt.

Is Your Organisation Section 18A Approved?

AtlasOS stores your SARS PBO approval number and Section 18A approval status on the organisation's entity profile. To check or update:

1. Navigate to Nonprofit → Organisation Settings
2. Confirm your PBO number is captured
3. Set Section 18A approved: Yes/No
4. Upload your SARS Section 18A approval letter

Issuing Section 18A Receipts

AtlasOS generates Section 18A-compliant receipts for qualifying donations:

1. Navigate to Nonprofit → Donor CRM → [Donor name]
2. Select the donation and click Issue Section 18A Receipt
3. Confirm the donation amount, date, and purpose
4. AtlasOS generates a receipt with all SARS-required fields pre-populated
5. The receipt is emailed to the donor and stored against the donation record

Required Fields on a Valid Section 18A Receipt

Per SARS requirements, every Section 18A receipt must include:

Field	Description
PBO number	Your SARS-issued PBO reference
Name of PBO	Your registered organisation name
Donor name	Full legal name of the donor
Donor ID / Reg number	SA ID or company registration number
Amount donated	In ZAR
Date of donation	Date the donation was received
Nature of donation	Cash / in-kind description
Confirmation	That the donation will be used for approved public benefit activities

Annual Section 18A Reporting

SARS requires PBOs to submit an annual return (IT3(d)) reporting all Section 18A donations received during the tax year. AtlasOS tracks the IT3(d) submission deadline and generates a donor report suitable for this purpose.

warning

Issuing a Section 18A receipt when your organisation does not have valid Section 18A approval is a tax offence. Ensure your SARS approval is current before issuing receipts.