2006 (7) TMI 102
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....ritable trust/institution or not, for the purpose of Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This aspect has been considered by the Tribunal as under : "4.We have considered the rival submissions with reference to each and every ground given by the Commissioner of Income-tax for refusing the registration of the assessee under section 12A of the Act. Our finding in this regard is as under : (i) The first ground given by the Commissioner of Income-tax for refusing the registration of the assessee is that the assessee cannot be considered to be a lawful trust within the meaning of term 'trust' used under Section 11, 12 and 13 of the Income-tax. Act, 1961. Section 12AA which is extracted above in para 3 above provides procedure for regis....
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....tax is accepted as correct, then no person would be entitled to registration under Section 12A of the Act. Therefore, if a person is a trust or institution, it is entitled to registration under Section 12A of the Act. Therefore, even though as per definition of 'person' it is falling in another category like company, association of person or Local Authority. In para-4 we have already held that the assessee is an Institution and therefore merely because within the definition of 'person' it is termed as local authority it would be no bar to apply for the registration u/s 12A of the Act. 6. The Commissioner of Income-tax has mentioned that the application is late by 21 years which is unusual delay. That as per proviso to section 12A(a) if t....
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....me of any founder or settler of the Trust and therefore the Commissioner of Income-tax was not justified in denying to register the institution for want of name of the settler or author of the Trust. 8. The Commissioner of Income-tax has stated that sections 11, 12 and 13 provide tax incentives to the private individuals and not to the Public Enterprises/Public Sector Undertakings. The learned Senior DR also vehemently contended that the assessee is a statutory body and it is discharging its duties as provided in GMTB Act, 1981. The statutory bodies or Public Enterprises (or) Public Sector Undertakings are created for discharging their specific duties and therefore they cannot be said to be doing any charitable work. He contended that th....
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....ommissioner of income-tax that the assessee may earn income from its activity of providing infrastructural facilities and also from other ancillary activities such as rental income from letting out of the property, sale of goods etc. which may not be exempted. It is also contended by the learned DR that the assessee does not have any income which is exempt under section 11. However, in our opinion, whether part of the income is exempt or not is irrelevant for the registration of the Institution. This issue would be relevant only when the assessment of a particular assessment year would be made by the Assessing Officer. For the registration of the Institution, the Commissioner of Income-tax has to satisfy himself about the object of the Inst....
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....ose' under section 2(15). Though the Legislature by simultaneous amendment under section 11(4A) has provided that the exemption under section 11 shall not be available in relation to any income of a trust or an institution being profit and gains of business unless the business is incidental to the attainment of the object of the trust. However, this exercise whether the assessee has income from business or not and if there is business income whether it is incidental to the attainment of the object of the trust or not, is to be carried by the Assessing Officer while making the assessment of each year. But so far as the registration of trust is concerned, the Commissioner of Income-tax has to examine whether the object of the assessee falls w....
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