Trust Annual Compliance - The Full-Year Calendar for Your Trust

Trust annual compliance covers the recurring obligations a registered trust faces every year: NGO Darpan profile renewal, an FCRA annual return (Form FC-4) if the trust receives foreign contributions, periodic renewal of 12A/80G registration, the Form 10B/10BB statutory audit once income crosses the exemption threshold, ITR-7 filing, and any state-specific trust registration filings. This service tracks and coordinates all of them together.

A private company's annual compliance runs through the Registrar of Companies - AOC-4, MGT-7, and related ROC filings. A trust has no ROC filing at all. Instead, its obligations sit with the Income Tax Department (12A/80G, the audit, ITR-7), the NGO Darpan portal, the FCRA framework if applicable, and sometimes a state Charity Commissioner - a different set of systems entirely.

NGO Darpan is a portal maintained by NITI Aayog that assigns NGOs and trusts a unique ID, used by many government departments and CSR funders to verify an organisation before releasing grants or funding. Keeping the profile current is important for continued eligibility for government schemes and CSR funding, even though it isn't a tax filing.

Form FC-4 is the annual return filed by trusts, NGOs, and associations registered under FCRA (or operating under prior permission) that received foreign contributions during the year. It's due by 31 December following the close of the financial year - so for the year ending 31 March, the return is due by that 31 December. It is only applicable to FCRA-registered entities - a purely domestically funded trust does not need to file it. We confirm the current due date against the latest FCRA notification when we onboard your trust.

Form 10B or 10BB is the audit report required under Section 12A(1)(b) of the Income Tax Act once a trust's total income, before claiming exemption, crosses the basic exemption limit in a financial year. Not every trust needs it every year - only once that income threshold is crossed. Our NGO & Trust Audit page covers this specific filing in full depth.

Both report the same Section 12A(1)(b) audit requirement - the difference is the level of reporting detail, generally based on the trust's income level and complexity. Larger or more complex trusts typically file Form 10B; smaller, simpler trusts typically file Form 10BB. We confirm which applies as part of the audit coordination.

ITR-7 due dates follow the Income Tax Department's notified schedule for the relevant assessment year, and the deadline is later for entities whose accounts require an audit (Form 10B/10BB) than for those that don't. We track the current notified date each year rather than relying on a fixed date, since these can shift.

No. Since the regime changed in 2021, 12A and 80G registrations are granted for a fixed five-year validity period and must be renewed before expiry to keep the exemption and the donor tax-deduction benefit active. Missing the renewal window can create a gap in exemption status, which is one of the main things this compliance calendar is designed to prevent.

Missing the FCRA annual return can put the trust's FCRA registration itself at risk, in addition to other regulatory consequences under the FCRA framework. Given how serious a registration suspension or cancellation would be for a trust dependent on foreign funding, we prioritise FCRA deadlines closely for clients who carry that registration.

It varies. Some states require registered trusts to make periodic filings to a Charity Commissioner or Registrar of Trusts/Societies, in addition to the central income tax and FCRA obligations. We confirm whether this applies to your trust based on its state of registration as part of onboarding, rather than assuming a uniform national requirement.

Yes - in fact it's often most useful for newly registered trusts, since it sets up the full calendar correctly from year one, including flagging when the trust is likely to first cross the audit threshold or become eligible to apply for FCRA registration.

Both - we coordinate the actual audit (Form 10B/10BB) and ITR-7 filing with our specialist NGO & Trust Audit and NGO & Trust Tax Filing teams as part of the retainer. The calendar tracking and coordination is this page's core focus, so those two filings are also described in more depth on their own dedicated pages.

Our NGO Compliance service is a broader retainer covering trusts, societies, and Section 8 companies together, including ROC/Registrar filings relevant to societies and Section 8 companies. This page is specifically built around a trust's calendar and positions itself as the coordination hub tying together our dedicated audit and tax-filing pages for trusts.

Our retainer starts from ₹12,000/year for a domestic-only trust, ₹25,000-₹30,000/year for an FCRA-registered trust, and up to ₹50,000/year for larger or multi-state trusts. The audit and ITR-7 filing fees are coordinated separately unless bundled into your specific plan.

The trust deed or registration certificate, PAN of the trust, 12A/80G registration details, FCRA registration certificate if applicable, the previous year's ITR-7 and audit report if already filed, your NGO Darpan ID, trustee details, and bank statements or an income-expenditure summary for the year.