Please define the significance of the word Corpus from the viewpoint of Income Tax provisions.

‘Corpus’ has not been defined either in the Income Tax Act or in the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Ordinarily, ‘corpus’ means body of law or collection of writings.

The significance : Under sec. 11(1)(d) of the Income Tax Act, the income from the voluntary contributions towards the corpus of the trust or the institution is not to be included in the computation of income.

Therefore to the extent of the moneys received towards corpus, the trust or the institution is not under obligation to spend at least 75% of this moneys in the year of its receipt as provided in Sec. 11(1)(a) of the I.T. Act.