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Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter XVII › Section 338
Chapter XVIIwas s.11

Section 338 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 338 — Income not to be included in regular income. Successor to s.11 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 338 is in Chapter XVII — Special Provisions Relating to Certain Persons, which runs from section 302 to section 355.

← Section 337  ·  Section 339 →

What this section does

The section lists two items that are not to be included while computing the regular income of a registered non-profit organisation. Clause (a) covers income applied outside India, but only where the Board, by general or special order, directs that such income shall not be included in the organisation's total income, and only for an organisation created before 1 April 1952 for charitable or religious purposes, or created on or after 1 April 1952 for charitable purposes where the application of income outside India tends to promote international welfare in which India is interested. Clause (b) covers the corpus donation received by the registered non-profit organisation under section 339.

Why it is there

Regular income is the base on which a registered non-profit organisation is taxed, so the Act has to say what stays out of it. Application of income abroad stays out only under the Board's own direction and only for organisations of the two described vintages and purposes. Corpus donations are excluded because they are received to be held rather than spent.

Who it applies to

The figures, and what each one turns on

Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.
WhatFigureThe condition on itWhere
Cut-off date separating the two classes of organisation1st April, 1952Created before that date, for charitable or religious purposes; or created on or after it, for charitable purposes only and where the application abroad tends to promote international welfare in which India is interestedClause (a)(i) and (ii)

What this means in practice

Clause (a) does not exclude foreign application by itself — the exclusion depends on a direction of the Board, by general or special order, and the organisation must fall in one of the two described classes. The dividing line is both temporal and substantive: one created before 1 April 1952 may be for charitable or religious purposes, while one created on or after that date must be for charitable purposes and must show that the application abroad tends to promote international welfare in which India is interested.

An example

Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.

A registered non-profit organisation created in 1970 for charitable purposes spends part of its income on relief work abroad. That amount stays out of regular income only if the Board has directed by general or special order that it shall not be included, and only on the footing that the spending tends to promote international welfare in which India is interested. A corpus donation of Rs. 50 lakh is excluded under clause (b).

Where you meet this section

You meet this section in computing the regular income shown in a registered non-profit organisation's return, and in scrutiny where the Assessing Officer asks for the Board's order.

The words themselves

income applied outside India, where the Board, by general or special order, directs that such income shall not be so included in its total income
Section 338(a), Income-tax Act, 2025.
created on or after the 1st April, 1952 for charitable purposes where such application of income outside India tends to promote international welfare in which India is interested
Section 338(a)(ii), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

What this replaced

The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Circulars of the Board on this section

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the circulars index.

Notifications that reach this section

A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance. We hold 697 in all; the 250 most recent are listed.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.

Case law carried across

Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 338. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.

Explainers

Read with

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.