Grant of exemption u/s 11 & 12. - Income Tax - 1472/CBDT

INSTRUCTION NO. 1472/CBDT Dated: June 18, 1982 Every public charitable or religious trust is required to file an application to the CIT u/s.12A(a) of the I.T.Act before it can claim exemption from income-tax in terms of sections.11 12. The manner of filing the application is prescribed in Rule 17A of I.T.RULES and the form of the application is form 10A. The application is to be made to the CIT before 1-7-73 or before the expiry of the period of one year from the date of creation of the trust or the establishment of the institution, whichever is later. There is a proviso to empower the commissioners to admit belated application in his discretion. 2. Detailed procedure for registering the applications has been prescribed by boards instruction No.751 dated 4-9-74. 3. The board have had occasion to examine a few cases where CsIT have not accepted the applications for registration on the ground that the eligibility of the trust/institution to exemption u/s.11 is open to question. The board desire to point that filing of an application for registration u/s.12A is a procedural pre-condition that has to satisfied before a trust institution can be granted exemption u/s.11. It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for grant of exemption u/s.11. The law does not specify as to what the commissioner should do with the application and it was in this context that the procedure for acknowledging the applications was prescribed by Instruction No.751. However receiving an application acknowledging it and having it entered in the register prescribed by Instruction No.751 does not confer on the trust the right to claim exemption u/s.11. The claim in this regard will have to be gone into by the ITO above who will doubtless satisfy himself about the requirements of law having been not including an application u/s.12 A(a) having been including an application u/s.12A(a) having been filed. Nothing more turns on registration except that one of the requirements for exemption u/s.11 has been satisfied. 4. CsIT may therefore admit applications u/s.12 A (a) without going into the eligibility of the trust for exemption u/s.11.