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Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter XVII › Section 344
Chapter XVIIwas s.11

Section 344 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 344 — Business undertaking held as property. Successor to s.11 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 344 is in Chapter XVII — Special Provisions Relating to Certain Persons, which runs from section 302 to section 355.

← Section 343  ·  Section 345 →

What this section does

Where a registered non-profit organisation's property includes a business undertaking and a claim is made that the undertaking's income is eligible for the benefits of this Part, the section gives the Assessing Officer power to determine that undertaking's income under the provisions of the Act. It says nothing about whether the claim succeeds; it only confirms who computes the figure and on what basis.

Why it is there

A claim that business income of a non-profit organisation is exempt is not to be taken on the organisation's own computation — the Assessing Officer is empowered to work out the undertaking's income himself, applying the Act's ordinary computation provisions.

Who it applies to

What this means in practice

If you claim the benefits of this Part for income of a business undertaking held as property, expect the Assessing Officer to compute that undertaking's income independently under the Act rather than accept the figure in your accounts. Keep the undertaking's results separately identifiable, because the determination is of the income of that undertaking, not of the organisation as a whole.

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 holds a printing press among its property and claims that the press's income of Rs. 80 lakh is eligible for the benefits of this Part. The section does not decide that claim; it empowers the Assessing Officer to determine the press's income himself under the ordinary computation provisions of the Act instead of accepting the figure in the organisation's accounts, so the amount the claim is tested against may not be Rs. 80 lakh at all. Because what is determined is the income of that undertaking, the organisation has to be able to show the press's results separately from the rest of its activities.

Where you meet this section

In the assessment of a registered non-profit organisation where the benefits of this Part are claimed for the income of a business undertaking held as property — the section expressly names the Assessing Officer as the person who determines that income. There is no separate form or proceeding of its own.

The words themselves

the Assessing Officer shall have the power to determine the income of such business undertaking as per the provisions of this Act
Section 344, 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.

Rules that serve this section

Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 344. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.

All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.

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 344. 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

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.