Anonymous donations under section 115BBC
The existing provisions of section 115BBC of the Act provide for levy of tax at the rate of 30 per cent. in case of certain assessees, being university, hospital, charitable organisation, etc. on the amount of aggregate anonymous donations exceeding five per cent of the total donations received by the assessee or one lakh rupees, whichever is higher.
Due to the mechanism of aggregation of tax provided in section 115BBC, while tax at the rate of 30 per cent is levied on the amount of anonymous donations exceeding the threshold, the remaining tax is chargeable on total income after reducing the full amount of anonymous donations. The proper way of computation is to reduce the income by the amount which has been taxed at the rate of 30 per cent.
Therefore, it is proposed to amend section 115BBC to provide that the income-tax payable shall be the aggregate of the amount of income-tax calculated at the rate of thirty per cent on the aggregate of anonymous donations received in excess of five per cent of the total donations received by the assessee or one lakh rupees, whichever is higher, and the amount of income-tax with which the assessee would have been chargeable had his total income been reduced by the aggregate of the anonymous donations which is in excess of the five per cent of the total donations received by the assessee or one lakh rupees, as the case may be.
This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2015 and will, accordingly, apply in relation to the assessment year 2015-16 and subsequent assessment years.