Section 10(23)

This one is not written up yet

The definition above is the short version. A full explanation — how it works, a worked example and the exam traps — is still being written. In the meantime the chapter below covers it in context.

Written up from the same chapter

• Base Expense RatioThe management-and-administration slice of a scheme's cost, capped by the SEBI slabs — the first and largest of the four components that add up to Total Expense Ratio.
• Bonus strippingBuying units shortly before a bonus issue and selling the originals at the halved NAV to manufacture a capital loss — a loss the Income Tax Act disallows inside a defined 3-month and 9-month window.
• Dividend Distribution TaxThe tax a mutual fund scheme itself deducted before paying a dividend, abolished from April 2020 — since when the payout has instead been taxed in the investor's own hands at their slab rate.
• Double Taxation Avoidance AgreementA treaty between two or more countries that prevents the same income being fully taxed twice, either by allocating the taxing right or by the residence country giving credit for tax paid at source.
• Equity-oriented fundA fund that puts at least 65% of its proceeds into listed domestic equity shares — the tax definition that unlocks the 12.5% long-term rate and the Rs 1,25,000 annual exemption.
• Pass-through vehicleThe structural fact that a mutual fund passes the risks and returns of its portfolio straight to unitholders, keeping nothing and promising nothing — which is why it is taxed once and cannot guarantee a return.