Meaning of “Company‟ for purposes of income-tax under Assessment of Companies :

Under the Income-tax Act, 1961, the term “company” has a much wider meaning than what has been given to it under the Companies Act. The company is considered as a ‘person‘ for all purposes of assessment proceedings [Section 2(iii)].

Section 2(17) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 defines a company for income-tax purposes. Accordingly, ‘company‘ means (1) any Indian company (as defined in Section 2(26)) or (2) any body corporate, incorporated by or under the laws outside India or (3) any institution, association or body assessable as a company either under the Indian Income-tax Act, 1922 or for any assessment year commencing on or before 1st April , 1970, or (4) any institution, association, or body, whether incorporated or not and whether Indian or non-Indian which is declared by general or special order of the CBDT to be a company.