Trust, Society & Section 8 Company Registration
Trust, society or Section 8 company — the right non-profit structure explained first, then registered under the law that actually governs it here, not the one most guides assume.
Trust, society and Section 8 company are the three structures Indian founders use to run a charitable, religious or community purpose with a legal identity of its own — a bank account in its own name, and continuity beyond any one founder. They are not interchangeable. A trust suits a founder or family running a defined charitable purpose with the least ongoing paperwork. A society suits a genuinely membership-run body — a resident welfare association, a professional, arts or sports organisation — where members, not a small founding group, are meant to control it. A Section 8 company suits an organisation that wants a company's governance and the credibility institutional or CSR funders often expect, in exchange for heavier compliance.
Where you register changes what governs you. A trust here is created by executing a trust deed under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882, and registration is compulsory once the trust holds immovable property — there being no dedicated Tamil Nadu Public Trusts Act we can confirm is currently in force for a public charitable trust. A society registers under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, which repealed the central 1860 Act for this state — not the Act most national guides describe by default. A Section 8 company incorporates through SPICe+ like any other company, and the Section 8(1) licence to drop "Private Limited" from the name is now granted together with the Certificate of Incorporation through SPICe+, so a standalone Form INC-12 application is no longer filed for a fresh incorporation.
Tax exemption is a separate, later step for all three, applied for once the entity exists rather than part of registering it. We do not quote a section number or form code for that step here — it sits in the Income Tax Act, re-codified from 01-04-2026 — and will confirm the current position with you directly when you are ready for it.
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If any of these describe where you are right now, this is the service you are looking for.
You want to run a defined charitable, religious or educational purpose with the least ongoing paperwork of the three — usually a trust.
You are forming a genuinely membership-run body — a resident welfare association, a professional, arts or sports body — where members, not a small founding group, are meant to control it. That points to a society.
You expect institutional grants, government funding, or CSR money from companies whose own policy requires a company structure to fund. That points to a Section 8 company.
You already run an informal charitable activity and need a bank account and a proper legal identity to receive and account for donations.
You want limited liability and a company's governance for a non-profit venture, and can accept a company's heavier annual compliance in exchange.
You are unsure which of the three fits and want the trade-offs explained before you commit to registering one.
Everything handled, end to end
The full scope of the engagement, so there is nothing to discover halfway through.
Structure advice before you commit
Which of the three actually fits your objects, who is meant to control it, and where funding will realistically come from — settled before any drafting starts.
Drafting for whichever structure fits
Trust deed, society memorandum and rules, or Section 8 Memorandum and Articles of Association, drafted to match your stated objects and the roles you have decided on.
Registration filing
Trust deed registered at the Sub-Registrar's office, society application filed with the Registrar of Societies, or Section 8 incorporation filed through SPICe+ — whichever applies.
Governing document review
Trustee, member or director roles and meeting requirements checked, and, for a Section 8 company, the profit-application clause its memorandum must carry (the memorandum, filed in Form INC-13, must carry a clause committing all income and profit to the company's stated objects, with no dividend to members).
PAN and TAN
Obtained for the entity itself, so it can open a bank account and start operating without a gap between registration and being functional.
No minimum capital to plan around
A Section 8 company needs no paid-up capital to incorporate — none — there is no minimum paid-up capital — the same position as any other company.
Post-registration compliance setup
Books of account from day one for a trust or society; auditor appointment and the first-year filing calendar for a Section 8 company.
Guidance on what comes next
What a tax-exemption application or a funder-specific registration will eventually need from your records — explained in plain terms, without a form code attached to it here.
What you'll need to hand over
Collected once, at the start. We tell you which of these apply to your case before you gather anything.
Trust
- 01Trust deed on non-judicial stamp paper, stating the trust's name, objects, registered office and corpus
- 02PAN and Aadhaar of the settlor and all trustees
- 03Passport-sized photographs of the settlor and trustees
- 04Proof of the registered office — latest electricity bill, property tax receipt or municipal khata, or a rent agreement with the owner's No Objection Certificate
- 05Identity proof of two witnesses to the deed
- 06Written consent of each named trustee to act
Society
- 01Memorandum of Association of the society, stating its name, objects and the first governing body's details
- 02Rules and regulations (bye-laws) governing membership and management
- 03PAN and Aadhaar, or other government ID, of the founding governing body
- 04Minutes of the meeting at which the memorandum and rules were adopted, signed by the members present
- 05Proof of the registered office — latest electricity bill, property tax receipt or municipal khata, or a rent agreement with the owner's No Objection Certificate
- 06Covering letter and affidavit from the president or secretary, as the Registrar's office requires
Section 8 Company
- 01PAN, Aadhaar, identity and address proof of every proposed director and member
- 02Class 3 Digital Signature Certificate for the directors and subscribers signing the application. We issue certificates ourselves.
- 03Memorandum of Association (Form INC-13) carrying the objects and the mandatory profit-application clause, and the Articles of Association
- 04A statement of expected income and expenditure, generally covering three years, supporting the stated charitable objects
- 05Proof of the registered office and the owner's No Objection Certificate where the premises are rented
- 06Director and subscriber declarations, the inc-14 and inc-15 declarations are no longer separate e-forms — their content is now built into the consolidated inc-9 declaration filed with spice+
Which of the three lists above applies depends entirely on the structure you choose, and society registrars in particular are not fully consistent in what they ask for beyond this list. We confirm the exact set for your Registrar before you gather anything.
5 steps, start to finish
Where the work actually goes, and what we need from you at each stage.
Structure consultation
We discuss your objects, who is meant to run the organisation, and where funding is likely to come from, and confirm which of the three structures actually fits.
Confirm with us
Drafting
The trust deed, society memorandum and rules, or Section 8 MOA and AOA drafted to match your stated objects and the roles you have decided on.
Confirm with us
Registration filed
Trust deed registered at the Sub-Registrar's office, the society application filed with the Registrar of Societies, or the Section 8 application filed through SPICe+ — whichever applies to your structure.
Confirm with us
Certificate issued, plus PAN and TAN
Your registration certificate (trust or society) or Certificate of Incorporation with a CIN (Section 8) is issued, and PAN and TAN obtained so you can open a bank account.
On approval
Post-registration setup
Books of account set up from day one, and, for a Section 8 company, the auditor appointed and the first-year filing dates handed to you.
Ongoing
What to expect, and what it costs
Timelines are indicative and depend on departmental processing and how quickly documents come back to us. Message us on WhatsApp for a written quote.
Enquire on WhatsApp- Structure consultation
- Confirm with us
- Drafting the deed, memorandum or MOA/AOA
- Confirm with us
- Registration filed
- Confirm with us
- Section 8 company — AOC-4, financial statements, annually
- 30 days from the AGM
- Section 8 company — MGT-7, annual return, annually
- 60 days from the AGM
Professional fees
On request
Common questions
The questions we are actually asked about Trust, Society & Section 8. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
It depends on who is meant to control the organisation and where funding will come from. A trust suits a founder or family running a defined charitable purpose with the least ongoing paperwork. A society suits a genuinely membership-run body, such as a resident association or a professional or arts organisation. A Section 8 company suits an organisation that wants a company's governance and credibility with institutional or CSR funders, in exchange for heavier compliance. We talk through your objects and funding plans before recommending one.
A trust needs at least two trustees, one of whom may also be the settlor. A society needs at least 7 members in Tamil Nadu. A Section 8 company follows the same minimum as any private company — 2 directors and 2 shareholders — though it is usually formed with more, since a genuine membership base supports the funding case a Section 8 company is often built to make.
The Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, not the central Societies Registration Act, 1860 that most national guides describe by default. That 1975 Act repealed the 1860 Act as it applied to Tamil Nadu, so a Tamil Nadu society registers, and is regulated, under the state Act.
Not one we can confirm is currently in force. Most Indian states have no dedicated Public Trusts Act, and in that situation a public charitable trust is created by executing a trust deed and registering it under the central Registration Act, 1908. Tamil Nadu passed a Public Trusts Act in 2020, but we have not been able to confirm it was ever notified into force — we check its current status before advising you on this basis.
Yes — a licence under Section 8(1) of the Companies Act 2013 to operate without "Private Limited" in its name — but it no longer needs a separate application. the Section 8(1) licence to drop "Private Limited" from the name is now granted together with the Certificate of Incorporation through SPICe+, so a standalone Form INC-12 application is no longer filed for a fresh incorporation.
Yes, all three can separately apply for income-tax exemption and donor-benefit registration once formed — but that is a distinct application after incorporation, not something this registration includes automatically. We are not quoting section numbers or form codes for it here while the Income Tax Act's recent re-codification settles, and will advise the current position when you are ready for that step.
A trust and a society both keep books of account and file whatever annual return their own Registrar requires, which is comparatively light. A Section 8 company carries a company's compliance — audited accounts, an appointed auditor, AOC-4 within 30 days from the AGM and MGT-7 within 60 days from the AGM — the same filings a private limited company makes.
Conversion is possible in some directions but is genuinely involved, not a form change — converting a trust or society into a Section 8 company, for instance, means transferring assets and re-registering as a new legal entity. It is far easier to choose correctly at the start, which is the point of the structure consultation.
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