Trusts and societies are non-profit legal structures commonly used by NGOs, charitable organisations, religious bodies, and educational institutions in India. A trust is registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (private trusts) or state public trust acts. A society is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.<\/p>\n
A trust is a legal arrangement where one party (the trustor or settlor) transfers property to another party (the trustee) to manage for the benefit of a third party (the beneficiaries) or for a specified charitable purpose.<\/p>\n
**Key components:** **Registration**: Under the Indian Registration Act; state-specific procedures apply.<\/p>\n A society is a group of individuals associated to promote a charitable, scientific, literary, or other non-profit objective.<\/p>\n Registered under the **Societies Registration Act, 1860** with the Registrar of Societies (state-level authority).<\/p>\n **Minimum members**: 7 persons for state societies; 8 states represented for national societies | Feature | Trust | Society | Section 8 Company | Both must obtain: – Trusts are created by a trust deed and managed by trustees; registered under state trust or the Indian Trusts Act Trusts and societies are non-profit legal structures commonly used by NGOs, charitable organisations, religious bodies, and educational institutions in India. A trust is registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (private trusts) or state public trust acts. A society is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. What Is a Trust? A trust is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14443","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"web-stories-poster-portrait":false,"web-stories-publisher-logo":false,"web-stories-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Team Lemonn","author_link":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/author\/ashu\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Trusts and societies are non-profit legal structures commonly used by NGOs, charitable organisations, religious bodies, and educational institutions in India. A trust is registered under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (private trusts) or state public trust acts. A society is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. What Is a Trust? A trust is a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/14443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/glossary\/14443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lemonn.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– **Author\/Settlor**: person creating the trust
\n– **Trustee(s)**: manages the trust assets<\/a>
\n– **Beneficiaries**: those who benefit (can be the public for charitable trusts)
\n– **Trust deed**: the governing document defining objectives and management rules<\/p>\nWhat Is a Society?<\/h2>\n
\n**Governing document**: Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations<\/p>\nTrust vs Society vs Section 8 Company<\/a><\/h2>\n
\n|———|——-|———|——————|
\n| Governing law | Trusts Act \/ State Acts | Societies Registration Act | Companies Act, 2013 |
\n| Minimum members | 2 (trustees) | 7 | 2 |
\n| Governance | Trustees | Managing Committee | Board of Directors |
\n| Amendment | Difficult | By members | With MCA approval |<\/p>\nTax<\/a> Registrations for Trusts and Societies<\/h2>\n
\n– **Section 12A<\/a>\/12AB**: income tax<\/a> exemption for charitable activities
\n– **Section 80G**: to enable donors to claim deductions on donations<\/p>\nKey Takeaways<\/h2>\n
\n– Societies require minimum 7 members and are registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860
\n– Both need Section 12A and 80G registrations for income tax benefits and donor deductions
\n– Section 8 Companies offer more credibility and governance structure but require more compliance
\n– All three structures are used for charitable, educational, religious, and social welfare activities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"