Section 12AB was introduced by Finance Act, 2020 and was supposed to be applicable from 01.06.2020 which was later extended till 01.10.2020 due to the situation of pandemic.

Section 12AB was introduced to again register all the trust and to maintain proper paper work for all trust and to organise them. As we know practically many trust are very old and don’t have proper paper work and are taking benefit of special exemption available to registered trust.

Hence, to keep a note on all of this and to make the benefit of exemption available to only the legitimate trust who are actually conducting the activities section 12AB was introduced wherein all the trust’s have to re-register themselves to continue the benefit of special exemption available u/s 11 and 12.

Under the new scheme the trust’s have to renew their registration after every 5 years and hence the registration of the trust won’t be perpetual or lifelong as it was earlier u/s 12A or 12AA.

The scheme was supposed to be rolled out by 01.10.2020 but considering the current situation it has been extended to 01.04.2021 and hence now all existing trust have to re-register themselves after 01.04.2021.

Such extension has been done by virtue of THE TAXATION AND OTHER LAWS (RELAXATION AND AMENDMENT OF CERTAIN PROVISIONS) ACT, 2020 dt. 29.09.2020.

Source : https://www.taxontips.com/requirement-for-fresh-registration-of-trust-under-section-12ab-has-been-extended-till-01-04-2021/