Union Budget 2023-24 + FINANCE Bill, 2023

3. Treatment of donation to other trusts:

3.1 The income of the trusts and institutions under both regimes is exempt subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. Some of such conditions are as follows:

a) at least 85% of income of the trust or institution should be applied during the year for the charitable or religious purposes to ensure bare minimum application for charitable or religious purposes.

b) Trusts or institutions are allowed to either apply mandatory 85% of their income either themselves or by making donations to the trusts with similar objectives.

c) If donated to other trusts or institutions, the donation should not be towards corpus to ensure that the donations are applied by the donee trust or institutions.

d) Thus, every trust or institution under both the regimes is allowed to accumulate 15% of its income each year.

3.2 Instances have come to the notice that certain trusts or institutions are trying to defeat the intention of the legislature by forming multiple trusts and accumulating 15% at each layer. By forming multiple trusts and accumulating 15% at each stage, the effective application towards the charitable or religious activities is reduced significantly to a lesser percentage compared to the mandatory requirement of 85%.

3.3 In order to ensure intended application toward charitable or religious purpose, it is proposed that only 85% of the eligible donations made by a trust or institution under the first or the second regime to another trust under the first or second regime shall be treated as application only to the extent of 85% of such donation. Accordingly, the following amendments are proposed:

a) insert clause (iii) in Explanation 2 to the third proviso of clause (23C) of section 10 of the Act to provide that any amount credited or paid out of income of any fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) of clause (23C) of section 10 of the Act, other than the amount referred to in the twelfth proviso, to any other fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) of clause (23C) of section 10 of the Act or trust or institution registered under section 12AB of the Act, as the case may be, shall be treated as application for charitable or religious purposes only to the extent of eighty-five per cent. of such amount credited or paid;

b) insert clause (iii) in Explanation 4 to sub-section (1) of section 11 of the Act to provide that any amount credited or paid, other than the amount referred to in Explanation 2 to the said sub-section, to any fund or trust or institution or any university or other educational institution or any hospital or other medical institution referred to in sub-clause (iv) or sub-clause (v) or sub-clause (vi) or sub-clause (via) of clause (23C) of section 10 of the Act or other trust or institution registered under section 12AB of the Act, as the case may be, shall be treated as application for charitable or religious purposes only to the extent of eighty-five per cent. of such amount credited or paid.

3.4 These amendments will take effect from 1st April, 2024 and will accordingly apply in relation to the assessment year 2024-25 and subsequent assessment years.

[clauses 5 & 7]

Full Text:

Union Budget 2023-24 + FINANCE Bill, 2023