COURT: |
ITAT Amritsar |
CORAM: |
A. D. Jain (JM), Pramod Kumar (AM) |
SECTION(S): |
11, 2(15) |
GENRE: |
Domestic Tax |
CATCH WORDS: |
Charitable purpose, exemption |
COUNSEL: |
J. S. Bhasin, Salil Kapoor, Y. K. Sud |
DATE: |
September 10, 2015 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: |
September 12, 2015 (Date of publication) |
AY: |
2009-10, 2011-12 |
FILE: |
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CITATION: |
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Even post insertion of proviso to s. 2 (15) but before 01.04.2016, s. 11 benefit cannot be denied to business activities carried by the trust in the course of actual carrying out of such advancement of any other object of general public utility. Trusts are entitled to carry out activities in the nature of trade, commerce or business etc as long as these activities are carried out in the course of actual carrying out of advancement of any other object of general public utility. On facts, activity of auctioning commercial plots for maximum revenue cannot be regarded as a profit-making exercise |
This substitution of proviso to Section 2(15) may be viewed as representing a paradigm shift in the scope of the exclusion clause. The paradigm shift is this. So far as the scope of earlier provisos is concerned, the CBDT itself has, dealing with an assessee pursing “the advancement of any object of general pubic utility”, observed that “If such assessee is engaged in any activity in the nature of trade, commerce or business or renders any service in connection to trade, commerce or business, it would not be entitled to claim that its object is for charitable purposes” because “In such a case, the object of ‘general public utility’ will only be a mask or a device to hide the true purpose which is trade, commerce, or business or rendering of any service in relation to trade, commerce or business.” The advancement of any objects of general public utility and engagement in trade, commerce and business etc. were thus seen as mutually exclusive in the sense that either the assessee was pursuing the objects of general public utility or pursuing trade, commerce or business etc. in the garb of pursing the objects of general public utility
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