A completed UDRS modular home, handed over and ready to live in
Section 18A • Approved PBO 930091096

GIVE 10% OF YOUR TAXABLE INCOME. CUT YOUR TAX BILL BY 10%.

Section 18A of the Income Tax Act lets a South African taxpayer deduct bona fide donations to an approved Public Benefit Organisation, up to 10% of taxable income. UDRS is approved. Give the full ceiling and your tax bill falls by exactly 10% — money that was going to SARS either way, now putting a family under a real roof, with the certificate to prove it.

10%Of taxable income deductible
27%Company tax rate
PBO 930091096Approved by SARS
What 18A is The 10% rule What it costs you Who gets paid 18A vs B-BBEE How to claim Start now

WHAT SECTION 18A ACTUALLY IS

A donation isn't competing with your tax bill. It redirects part of it.

One business, R1 000 000 of taxable income, two decisions

Everything below is drawn to the same scale. Watch the tax bill first — that's the line you control.

Do nothing
Your tax billR270 000
Unchanged — SARS decides where it goes
Stays in the businessR730 000
Reaches a familyR0
Give the 10% ceiling — R100 000
Your tax bill R270 000→ R243 000
−R27 000 off what you owe SARS
Stays in the businessR657 000
R73 000 less than doing nothing
Reaches a familyR100 000
A home, not a line item
R1.37

of housing on the ground for every R1 that actually leaves your business — because R27 000 of that R100 000 was tax you were paying anyway. At the 27% company rate.

Be straight about it: this is not a way to make money. You end the year R73 000 lighter. What you get for it is a tax bill you chose the destination of, R100 000 of work with your name on it, and the paperwork to prove both.

Section 18A certificate Written reporting on where it went Photography and footage you can use A site visit, with your board if you like
You

Donate to an approved PBO

Cash or goods. It must be given freely, with nothing coming back to you in return.

Us

We issue the 18A certificate

A numbered receipt in the form SARS prescribes, carrying our PBO number and what you gave.

You

Claim it on your return

Deducted from taxable income for that year — up to 10% of it.

Result

Your tax bill drops

Every R100 given cuts tax by R27. Anything over the ceiling carries to next year.

Why we qualify

AN NPC WITH AN 18A LICENCE

A registered South African NPC and an approved Public Benefit Organisation. Our primary objective is shack eradication — replacing corrugated iron with portable, modular homes — alongside the programmes that keep families standing meanwhile: soup kitchens, school support, fire response. All of them are approved public benefit activities, which is why the deduction is available on money given to us.

Entity NPC
NPC registration 2023/888882/08
PBO number 930091096
18A certificates Issued
UDRS team on site with community members in Kya Sand

THE 10% RULE

Section 18A lets you deduct donations of up to 10% of your taxable income in a year. Give the full 10% and your tax bill drops by exactly 10% — whatever rate you pay.

Taxable income
10%
The other 90% is taxed as normal 10% of taxable income — your annual 18A ceiling
Worked example

A COMPANY EARNING R100 MILLION

Taxable income for the year R100 000 000
Tax at 27%, giving nothing R27 000 000
Section 18A donation — the full 10% ceiling R10 000 000
Tax bill after the deduction R24 300 000
What that R10 million actually cost R7 300 000

The tax bill fell by R2 700 000 — exactly 10% of it. That R2.7 million was never staying in the business either way; the only decision was its address. The remaining R7.3 million is the real cost of putting R10 million on the ground.

What people assume R2 700 000

That the ceiling is 10% of the tax bill — so a company paying R27 million could give R2.7 million and no more.

What the Act says R10 000 000

The ceiling is 10% of taxable income. It is nearly four times bigger than most people expect, and the 10% that lands on the tax bill is the saving, not the limit.

The ceiling resets every year of assessment
Give more than 10% and the excess carries to next year — nothing is wasted
Same rule for a company, a trust or an individual
Goods count too, not only cash
Run your own numbers

WHAT IT ACTUALLY COSTS YOU

Start with your taxable income — that's what the 10% ceiling is calculated on. The gold portion of the bar is tax you were paying anyway.

Your numbers

What happens on your return

Your tax bill R2 700 000 → R2 430 000
You give R1 000 000
Tax you save R270 000
Net cost to you R730 000
You SARS
Your net contribution Tax you would have paid anyway
Start this donation

An illustration, not tax advice. It applies a single flat rate to the whole donation and ignores everything else on your return. UDRS is not a registered tax practitioner — confirm your own position with your accountant or tax advisor before you rely on a number. Rates shown are the South African company rate of 27% and the individual marginal brackets; deductions are limited to 10% of taxable income under section 18A, with any excess carried forward to the following year of assessment.

YOUR MONEY PAYS PROFESSIONALS

A shack replacement is an engineering problem. A child's marks are a teaching problem. Neither improves on good intentions alone — so the technical work goes to people qualified to do it, and that is where a Section 18A donation lands.

Engineers & draughtspeople

The unit is drawn, specified and signed off before one is built — and costed so the hundredth is cheaper than the first.

Housing programme

Qualified tutors

Maths, science and English after school — taught by people trained to teach, not homework supervision by whoever is free.

Education programme

Artisans & trades

Assembly crews, plumbers and electricians — recruited from the settlement the unit is going into wherever the work allows it.

Recruited locally

Community & social workers

Finding the households that need help most — child-headed families, the elderly, the disabled — and following up afterwards.

Relief programmes

Logistics & drivers

Units, materials and relief loads have to physically arrive. Transport is the least glamorous line item and one of the biggest.

Every programme

Kitchen & nutrition team

The soup kitchens run on people who cook safely and at volume, week after week, where a hot meal isn't otherwise guaranteed.

Feeding programme

How these people are engaged

Some are contracted per project, some work sessionally, and some donate professional time. Current headcount and the split between paid and pro-bono work for this financial year: TBC — ask us and we will send the figures rather than round them off on a web page. What we do not do is hand a technical job to enthusiasm.

SECTION 18A IS NOT B-BBEE

B-BBEE is a transformation scorecard. Section 18A is tax law. Neither depends on the other, and nothing here requires you to be chasing points.

  Section 18A donation B-BBEE scorecard spend
What it is A deduction against taxable income Points on a verification scorecard
Governed by Income Tax Act, section 18A B-BBEE Act and the Codes of Good Practice
What you receive A numbered 18A certificate for your return A rating from a verification agency
Who can use it Any South African taxpayer with taxable income Entities being measured for B-BBEE
Ceiling 10% of taxable income, excess carried forward Set by the applicable scorecard targets
Effect on cash Reduces tax payable in that year of assessment No direct effect on the tax bill

Scroll the table sideways to compare →

If your scorecard matters too

Socio-economic development spend is assessed by your verification agency, against its own criteria — not by us and not by SARS. Where a donation to UDRS also qualifies there, we will give your verifier whatever documentation they ask for. We just won't sell you points we aren't the ones awarding.

Watch it explained

SECTION 18A IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

If you would rather hear it than read it, this walkthrough covers the same ground: what qualifies, what the certificate has to contain, and how the deduction is claimed. Our own version, recorded on site in Kya Sand, is coming — this one holds the fort in the meantime.

What counts as a bona fide donation
What the 18A certificate must contain
Where it goes on your return

Third-party explainer, hosted on YouTube. Not produced by UDRS.

The paperwork

WHAT WE NEED TO ISSUE THE CERTIFICATE

An 18A receipt is a prescribed document, and SARS requires us to report what we receipt in third-party IT3(d) returns. So we need real details — not on the form below, but once you've decided to give.

The donor's full legal name — the entity that will claim the deduction
Company registration number, or ID number for an individual
Income tax reference number
Physical and email address, and a contact number
The date, the amount, and whether it was cash or goods
For goods: a description, so the value can be recorded properly

We collect those directly, once you have committed — never through a public web form. Nothing on this page asks for a tax number.

Timing

GIVE BEFORE YOUR YEAR END

The deduction lands in the year the donation was paid. Give the day after your year end and it waits twelve months to do anything for your tax bill — so if you're working to a date, say so on the form.

Once-off donations

Certificate issued against that payment, normally within a few working days of the funds reflecting.

Monthly or recurring giving

One consolidated certificate covering the tax year, so your accountant handles one document instead of twelve.

Donations in kind

Materials, vehicles, food, equipment — goods qualify too. Value has to be established properly, so talk to us before delivery.

Over the 10% ceiling

Nothing is lost. The excess is carried forward and treated as a donation in the following year of assessment.

Start here

SHARE YOUR SECTION 18A BENEFIT WITH US

You are giving that money away either way — 27% of your profit has a destination already. This is the version where you choose it, see it, and can drive out to Kya Sand and stand in what it built.

You send this form

Rough shape only. No commitment, no amount required, no documents.

We reply within two working days

With what your figure would actually buy, how the certificate works for your structure, and honest answers on what we cannot do.

You come and look

A site visit before any money moves. We would rather you saw it than took our word for it.

Certificate follows the donation

Issued against the payment, with reporting on where it went afterwards.

076 505 3735 info@udrs.co.za PBO 930091096

Section 18A enquiry

Something went wrong. Please try again, or reach us directly at info@udrs.co.za / 076 505 3735.

Goes straight to the UDRS team, nowhere else. We never ask for tax or ID numbers on this form. See our privacy policy.

SECTION 18A QUESTIONS

The ones a finance team asks before signing anything off.

Are you actually approved for Section 18A?
Yes. United Dream Rivers Services NPC is a registered Non-Profit Company (2023/888882/08) and an approved Public Benefit Organisation, PBO 930091096. Ask us for the approval letter and we will send it — you should be asking that of every organisation that offers you an 18A certificate.
How much can we actually deduct?
Section 18A limits the deduction to 10% of taxable income for the year of assessment. Give more than that and the excess is not lost — it carries forward and is treated as a donation made in the following year. Your accountant will apply this against your actual figures; the calculator above is only an illustration.
Is the 10% on our tax bill or on our income?
On taxable income — and the difference is large. A company with R100 million of taxable income owes roughly R27 million in tax; its 18A ceiling is R10 million, not R2.7 million. The figure that does work out to 10% of the tax bill is the saving: donate the full ceiling and your tax falls by exactly 10%, at any rate. So the deduction is worth far more than most people assume, and the donation itself is roughly four times larger than the ceiling they had in mind.
What counts as a bona fide donation?
Something given freely, with nothing flowing back to the donor in return. If you receive goods, services, advertising value or any other benefit in exchange, it stops being a donation for section 18A purposes and becomes something else — sponsorship, usually, which has its own tax treatment. We will tell you which one you are looking at rather than let a certificate be issued that does not hold up.
Can we donate goods instead of cash?
Yes — donations of property in kind qualify, and in our work they are often more useful than cash: building materials, transport, food, equipment. The value has to be established on the basis SARS prescribes, so speak to us before the delivery arrives, not after.
When do we get the certificate?
For a once-off donation, normally within a few working days of the payment reflecting. For monthly giving, one consolidated certificate for the tax year. If you need it by a specific date for a filing deadline, say so and we will work to that date.
Does this help our B-BBEE scorecard?
That is a question for your verification agency, not for us. Section 18A is a tax deduction under the Income Tax Act and is entirely separate from the B-BBEE codes. Where a donation also qualifies for socio-economic development recognition, we will give your verification agent whatever documentation they ask for — but we will not promise you points we are not the ones awarding.
Do individuals get this too, or only companies?
Individuals as well. The same 10% limit applies, at your marginal rate rather than the company rate — so a donation from a taxpayer in the 45% bracket is deducted against income that would have been taxed at 45%. Our donate page handles individual giving from R150, with an 18A certificate on every donation.
Can we ring-fence what we fund?
Yes. A donation can be designated to a specific programme, a specific housing unit, or a specific settlement, and reported against that designation. Ring-fencing does not affect the deduction, as long as the donation itself remains bona fide.

Everything on this page is general information about Section 18A of the Income Tax Act, published to help you have a useful conversation with your own advisor. UDRS NPC is not a registered tax practitioner and this is not tax advice. Tax rates, limits and reporting requirements change — confirm the current position with your accountant or with SARS before you file.

THE 27% IS LEAVING EITHER WAY

The only question on the table is whether it disappears into general revenue or turns into a home with a door that locks. We are ready when your finance team is.

Start a Section 18A donation See the housing programme