From 1 March 2026, a valid Section 18A receipt must capture more about the donor than before — including the nature of the donor, their identity or registration number, and their tax reference number — and every receipt must carry a unique receipt number. In-kind donations require a detailed description and market value. A receipt that does not comply is a receipt your donor cannot use, and a donor who loses the deduction usually does not repeat the donation.
The organisations most at risk are the ones still issuing the receipt template they have used for years.
What changed?
The requirements for issuing a valid Section 18A certificate were updated by Government Gazette on 24 October 2025, with effect from 1 March 2026.
The direction of the change is consistent and easy to summarise: SARS wants to be able to match every deduction claimed against a specific receipt issued by a specific organisation to a specific, identified donor.
| What is now required | Why SARS wants it |
|---|---|
| The nature of the donor — natural person, company, trust and so on | Determines how the deduction is treated |
| Identity number or company registration number | Identifies the donor unambiguously |
| Tax reference number | Matches the receipt to the donor's return |
| A unique receipt number on every receipt | Prevents duplication and enables reconciliation |
| Detailed description and market value for in-kind donations | In-kind valuations were the weak point |
The unique receipt number is the operationally significant one. It means a sequential, controlled numbering system with no gaps and no duplicates — which is a bookkeeping discipline, not a fundraising one.
Why does this matter more than an ordinary compliance change?
Because the person harmed is your donor, not you.
An invalid Section 18A receipt means the donor cannot claim the deduction. Where SARS disallows it on assessment, your donor has a shortfall on a return they have already filed, caused by a document you gave them.
Consider what that looks like from their side. A donor gives R100,000, claims the deduction in good faith, and is later assessed as though they had not. They are not going to conclude that SARS is difficult. They are going to conclude that your organisation is not one to give through.
Corporate donors are the sharpest risk here. A company with a finance team and a B-BBEE socio-economic development claim resting partly on that donation will notice immediately, and will move to an organisation whose paperwork works.
This is not primarily a penalty problem. It is a fundraising problem.
What has to be on the receipt?
Build the template once, properly, and issue from it. In broad terms a receipt needs to reflect:
The organisation's name and PBO reference number, and the confirmation that it is approved to issue Section 18A receipts
A unique receipt number
The date of receipt of the donation
The amount, or for an in-kind donation the detailed description and market value
The donor's name, and their nature — natural person, company, trust, close corporation
The donor's identity number or registration number
The donor's tax reference number
A statement that the receipt is issued under Section 18A and that the donation will be used exclusively for the approved purpose
Signature and date
Confirm the current wording against SARS directly before adopting a template. The requirements have changed once and can change again, and a template built on a blog post — including this one — is not a substitute for the source. What follows is the shape of it, not a legal certification.
What about donations in kind?
This is where most organisations are weakest, and where the new detail requirement is aimed.
A vague description does not survive scrutiny. "Goods donated — R50,000" tells SARS nothing and supports nothing.
What is now needed is a detailed description and a market value, which in practice means:
Describe the item properly. Quantity, nature, condition, age. Not "computers" but "eight refurbished laptops, Dell Latitude 5400, 2021 models, working condition".
Support the value. How was market value determined? A quotation for equivalent goods, an independent valuation, a supplier invoice, comparable market pricing. The point is that somebody else could arrive at roughly the same number from the same evidence.
Keep the supporting document with the receipt. The description on the receipt is the summary; the file behind it is what answers a query two years later.
Be conservative. An overstated in-kind valuation is the single most likely thing to attract attention to your organisation, and the damage extends beyond the individual receipt.
What else changed at the same time?
IT3(d) donor reporting, which is the other half of this and is what makes the receipt data non-negotiable.
Approved Section 18A institutions must report all tax-deductible receipts to SARS through the IT3(d) third-party data submission, biannually — in October, and by the end of May covering the previous tax year. Each qualifying donation is reported with donor details, amount and receipt number.
Which is why the receipt fields are what they are. SARS is building a dataset it can match against donors' returns. An organisation that has not captured tax reference numbers has nothing to submit, and an organisation whose receipt numbers are not unique cannot reconcile at all.
See IT3(d) donor reporting for NPOs.
What should we do this month?
1. Look at the receipt you issued last week. Does it carry all the required fields? Most templates in circulation do not.
2. Fix the numbering. Sequential, unique, controlled, with no gaps. If two receipts have ever carried the same number, resolve that before you submit anything to SARS.
3. Audit what donor data you actually hold. Most organisations have names, amounts and email addresses. Very few have tax reference numbers. The gap you find now is one you can close with a polite request. The gap you find in May is one you cannot.
4. Ask for the data at the point of donation. Retrospective collection has a poor success rate and irritates the people you least want to irritate. Build the fields into the donation form.
5. Fix the in-kind process. A description standard, a valuation basis, and a file of supporting documents.
6. Reconcile receipts to the accounting records. Every 18A receipt should tie to a receipt in the books. Where the two do not agree, one of them is wrong, and finding out which during an IT3(d) submission is the expensive way.
7. Check your PBO approval is current and that you are in fact approved to issue Section 18A receipts. Not every NPO is. See what is a non-profit company (NPC).
Frequently asked questions
What changed about Section 18A receipts from 1 March 2026? Receipts must now capture the nature of the donor, their identity or registration number and their tax reference number, and every receipt must carry a unique receipt number. In-kind donations require a detailed description and market value.
What happens if a Section 18A receipt is invalid? The donor cannot claim the deduction. Where SARS disallows it, the donor carries the shortfall on a return already filed — which is a fundraising problem for the organisation as much as a compliance one.
Do I need my donor's tax number? Yes. The tax reference number is among the donor details now required, and it is also what the IT3(d) submission needs. Ask for it at the point of donation, because collecting it retrospectively is difficult.
What counts as a detailed description for an in-kind donation? Enough for someone else to identify what was given and arrive at a similar value — quantity, nature, condition and age of the items, with the basis of the market value supported by a quotation, valuation, invoice or comparable pricing.
What is a unique receipt number? A sequential, controlled number issued once and never repeated. It is what allows SARS to reconcile a claimed deduction to a specific receipt, and it is required on every Section 18A receipt.
Does every NPO issue Section 18A receipts? No. Only organisations approved by SARS for Section 18A purposes may issue them. Registration as an NPO or incorporation as an NPC does not by itself confer that approval.
How does this connect to IT3(d) reporting? Directly. Approved institutions must report all tax-deductible receipts to SARS biannually through the IT3(d) submission, with donor details, amount and receipt number for each donation. The receipt fields exist so that submission is possible.
Where can I confirm the exact requirements? With SARS. The requirements changed in 2026 and can change again — confirm the current wording before adopting a receipt template.
The receipt is a donor relationship document
Most organisations treat the Section 18A receipt as an administrative afterthought issued once the money has arrived. It is closer to the opposite — it is the last thing the donor receives from you, and the one piece of paper that determines whether their generosity cost them what they expected.
Smartbook handles accounting and compliance for South African NPOs and NPCs: receipt templates built to the current requirements, controlled unique numbering, donor data captured properly, in-kind valuations documented, and the IT3(d) submissions prepared from records that reconcile.
See monthly accounting plans →
Last reviewed: 13 August 2026. Written by the Smartbook team — SAIPA and SAICA accredited, SARS registered tax practitioners. Section 18A requirements were amended with effect from 1 March 2026 and may change again — confirm the current requirements with SARS before adopting a receipt template. General guidance, not advice on your circumstances.
Primary sources: SARS — Tax Exempt Institutions · Income Tax Act 58 of 1962, Section 18A · Government Gazette, 24 October 2025 · Department of Social Development — NPO Directorate