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Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter XVII › Section 345
Chapter XVIIwas s.11

Section 345 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 345 — Restriction on commercial activities by a registered non-profit organisation. Successor to s.11 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 345 is in Chapter XVII — Special Provisions Relating to Certain Persons, which runs from section 302 to section 355.

← Section 344  ·  Section 346 →

What this section does

The section prohibits a registered non-profit organisation, other than one mentioned in section 346, from carrying out any commercial activity unless two conditions are both met: the activity is incidental to the attainment of the organisation's objectives, and separate books of account are maintained for such activities.

Why it is there

A registered non-profit organisation may earn from activity that supports its objects, but not become a business wearing that registration. The two conditions test the point from opposite ends — the purpose test asks whether the activity serves the objects, and the accounts test makes the activity separately visible so the answer can be checked.

Who it applies to

What this means in practice

Both conditions are continuing, not one-time: the activity must remain incidental and the separate books must actually be maintained. Failure of either breaches the restriction whatever the size of the activity, because the section fixes no monetary threshold and no de minimis. The exclusion is drawn by reference to section 346, so identifying which organisations that section covers is the first step before this one is applied.

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 runs a canteen for the students it serves and keeps its accounts in a separate set of books. Because the activity is incidental to its objectives and clause (b) is satisfied, the restriction is not breached. Run the same canteen as a standalone service to the general public and clause (a) fails; fold its accounts into the general ledger and clause (b) fails. Either failure is enough, because the conditions are joined by "and".

Where you meet this section

In the compliance of a registered non-profit organisation and in any proceeding questioning whether a receipt-generating activity was incidental to its objects. The section names no form; what it produces in practice is the separate set of books the organisation must be able to produce.

The words themselves

shall not carry out any commercial activity unless— (a) such commercial activity is incidental to the attainment of the objectives of the registered non-profit organisation; and (b) separate books of account are maintained for such activities.
Section 345, 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 345. 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 345. 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.