ITAT Pune Directs Grant of Section 80G Approval Despite Missing Old Certificate Copy

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Pune directed the relevant tax authorities to grant Section 80G approval to a charitable trust after ruling that an existing Section 12A registration cannot be ignored. The tribunal held that the validity of the Section 12A registration remains intact even if the trust failed to produce a physical copy of an older registration certificate during the verification process. Section 12A and Section 80G of the Income Tax Act provide the foundational tax-exempt status and donor deduction benefits respectively for non-profit organizations.

While tax authorities often process approval applications by insisting on complete legacy documentation, a valid active registration under Section 12A serves as proof of the entity's genuine charitable status. Procedural omissions regarding historical paperwork should not override substantive compliance when the core tax registration status is verified on official database records. CAs and legal consultants managing non-profit clients must ensure that all online compliance portals reflect active Section 12A statuses before filing for Section 80G approvals.

Practitioners should maintain updated digital archives of all historical registration orders to prevent administrative delays during exemption processing. Bottom line: Active Section 12A status must be respected by tax authorities when evaluating ancillary exemption applications like Section 80G.