Section 18A eligibility and required donor tax details

In short: A donation can be certificated only if it's on a Section 18A project and your organisation has a PBO number. Every certificate also needs the donor's tax number, ID/registration number, address and post code, plus a recognised donor type — otherwise SARS rejects it.

Overview

Before ActiveDonor will issue a valid Section 18A certificate (the tax certificate a donor uses to claim an income-tax deduction), the donation must qualify and the donor record must hold the tax details SARS requires. This article lists what makes a donation eligible and exactly which donor fields are mandatory, so your certificates are accepted when you later submit the IT3(d) file to SARS (see Generating the IT3(d) file for SARS).

What makes a donation eligible

• The project must be a Section 18A project. Only donations allocated to a project flagged for Section 18A can become a certificate. When you go to issue, ActiveDonor only offers uncertificated receipts on Section 18A projects.
• A batch must stay within one tax year. The Section 18A tax year runs 1 March to the end of February. A single certificate can cover one donation; a batch certificate should only contain donations received within the same financial year. See Batch and combined Section 18A certificates.
• Your organisation must be a SARS-approved PBO. You must hold a PBO number (exemption reference number) and enter it in settings. Without it, certificates are marked invalid.

Required donor tax details

Every certificate needs these, regardless of donor type:

• ID / Registration number — required. Validated by donor type (a South African ID number for individuals; a company, close-corporation or trust registration number for entities, etc.).
• Tax number — required. The donor's SARS tax reference number.
• Recipient address (line 1) — required, maximum 100 characters.
• Post code — required, 4 to 10 characters, alphanumeric only.

Extra fields for a person (Individual or Estate)

• Donor surname — required, maximum 120 characters.
• First names — required, maximum 100 characters.
• Identity type — required for Individuals: ID or Passport.
• Country of issue — required for Individuals: the country that issued the ID or passport.
• Date of birth — required for Individuals, in the format CCYY-MM-DD (e.g. 1980-07-15). For a South African ID donor it's derived from the 13-digit ID number and must match it; for a Passport / foreign donor (no SA ID) you enter it manually.

Extra fields for an entity (Company, Company (Public), CC, NPC, Trust, Association)

• Entity name — required, maximum 120 characters.
• Entity type — required; pick the specific type (a bare "Entity" is rejected).
• Trading As — optional trading name, maximum 120 characters.

Recognised donor types

The donor type must be one SARS can map to a nature-of-person code. ActiveDonor accepts exactly these (case-insensitive):

• Individual
• Company
• Company (Public) (stored as "Public Company")
• CC (Close Corporation)
• NPC (Non-Profit Company)
• Trust
• Association
• Estate

Individuals and Estates are treated as a person; the rest are treated as an entity.

📌 Note: Any other or blank donor type is rejected with "Donor type … is not recognised and cannot be submitted to SARS. Please correct the donor type." This check runs before issuing, so an unknown type can't break the IT3(d) file later.

Optional but recommended donor details

• Email — a valid email address (5–80 characters). Needed to e-mail the certificate to the donor.
• Phone — numeric, 10 to 15 digits, starting with 0 (national) or 00 (international).

These aren't required to issue, but the email is required to send the certificate by email.

Field reference

Field	Required?	Rule
Tax number	Yes (all donors)	Donor's SARS tax reference number.
ID / Registration number	Yes (all donors)	Validated by donor type.
Recipient address line 1	Yes (all donors)	Max 100 characters.
Post code	Yes (all donors)	4–10 characters, alphanumeric.
Donor surname / Entity name	Yes	Max 120 characters.
First names	Yes for Individual / Estate	Max 100 characters.
Identity type	Yes for Individual	ID or Passport.
Country of issue	Yes for Individual	Issuing country of the ID/passport.
Date of birth	Yes for Individual	Format CCYY-MM-DD. Derived from and must match a 13-digit SA ID; entered manually for passport/foreign donors.
Donor type	Yes	Must be a recognised type (see list above).
Email	No	Valid email, 5–80 characters; needed to e-mail the certificate.
Phone	No	Numeric, 10–15 digits, starts with 0.

Common issues & solutions

What you see	What it means	How to fix it
"An ID/Registration number is required." / "A tax number is required."	A mandatory identifier is missing.	Add it to the donor record — see Adding tax and ID information to a donor.
"Donor type … is not recognised."	The donor type can't be mapped to a SARS code.	Set the donor type to one of the recognised values above.
"Please specify the donor entity type."	The type is a generic "Entity".	Choose the specific entity type (Company, CC, NPC, Trust, etc.).
The donation won't appear when issuing a certificate.	The receipt isn't eligible.	Its project isn't a Section 18A project, or the receipt is already certificated.
Post code rejected.	It breaks the format rule.	Use 4–10 alphanumeric characters, no spaces or symbols.
"Date of birth field is required."	The donor (often a passport/foreign individual) has no date of birth.	Enter the donor's date of birth in CCYY-MM-DD format on the certificate or donor record.
"Date of Birth does not match with SA ID number provided."	The date of birth doesn't match the 13-digit SA ID number.	Correct either the date of birth or the ID number so they agree.

FAQ

What's the minimum a donor record needs before I can certificate them? Tax number, ID/registration number, address line 1, post code, a recognised donor type — and for individuals, surname, first names, identity type and country of issue.

Why does SARS reject "Entity" as a donor type? "Entity" is generic and can't map to a SARS nature-of-person code. Pick the specific type (Company, CC, NPC, Trust, Association, etc.).

Does the donor need an email address? Not to issue the certificate — only to email it to them.

Why isn't my donation showing up to certificate? Its project isn't flagged for Section 18A, or it's already been certificated.

Can I issue a Section 18A certificate to an anonymous donor? No. A certificate requires the donor's name, ID/registration number and tax number, so an anonymous donor can't be certificated. You can still issue them an ordinary receipt.

I'm getting "Date of birth field is required" — where do I enter it? It appears for individual donors (usually passport/foreign) with no date of birth — see Why does it say "Date of birth is required" when I issue a Section 18A? for the steps.

Related

• Why is my Section 18A marked non-compliant — and how do I fix it to submit to SARS?
• Why does it say "Date of birth is required" when I issue a Section 18A?
• Issuing a single Section 18A certificate
• Batch and combined Section 18A certificates
• Importing historical certificates via CSV
• Certificate settings
• Generating the IT3(d) file for SARS