Income Tax return After Death
Filling of Income Tax return for an individual is mandatory on gross income. During financial year if the person died, according to the income tax department, the tax payment for the income till his last day of life is mandatory under Section 159 of the Income Tax Act.
In this article, we will get step by step processor, how deceased income tax return is filled.
Question is how a died man fill their return?
There is a provision in income tax act if the person dies and had taxable income, the income tax of deceased will be filled by a Legal heir u/s 159 of income tax act.
Legal heir is the representative of the deceased appointed by the court of law/local authorities to handle all legal and financial issues.
Legal heir required to register himself/herself to the income tax department on behalf of deceased for filing income tax return.
Income tax website – https://incometaxindiaefilling.gov.in is the platform where legal heir registers himself and upload a deceased document of a further ITR filling process.
Here in the red box, there is an option available to “Add/register as representative”.
After the click, you will get the manual with information for the person registering for representative.
There is two option available:
- Add another person to represent on your behalf – If the taxpayer is unable to represent himself, there is a provision in income tax act to authorize someone else to act on his behalf. He is authorized to take any decision on his behalf.
- Second is to register yourself on behalf of another person – In this option, a person represents on behalf of another person who is not in a position to act.
In the case of a deceased person, the legal heir had to register himself on behalf of deceased and complete all the correspondences with the income tax department.
You will another subcategory to select, you must select “Legal Heir”.
When you select Legal heir and proceed. You have to fill the detailed form to complete the processor which includes Name, date of birth and PAN number of deceased.
You also have to upload the scan copy with income tax department for verification.
The list of documents required to upload:
- Pan card of deceased.
- Pan card of the legal heir.
- Death certificate of deceased.
- Legal heir certificate issued by the court of law or local authority.
All the documents must be uploaded in a zip file (Maximum 1 MB size).
Once the request for registration as the legal heir is approved, you can file the return as the legal heir on behalf of deceased.
Approval processor of Legal Heir
After submitting the request, it will be sent to the e-Filling administrator for approval.
The e-Filling administrator reviews the details and approves or reject accordingly.
The reason for rejection depends upon the documents uploaded by the legal heir.
Check the Status of approval of Legal Heir
You can also check the status of approval of legal heir by login to Income tax website.
After Login goes to my account – “Add/register as representative”.
When you click, you will get the option of “view request”
Click proceed..
You will get the details of approval, rejection and pending. You also get the reason of rejection by clicking to the link.
How income of the deceased while filling of ITR calculated?
Legal heir calculates the income earns during the start of the financial years i.e. 01 April till the last day of his life.
Banks statements and investment certificates roughly provide the details of the gross income and expenditure of the deceased and the benefits of section 80C & section 80D also allowed while filing ITR.
Any income earned after the death of the deceased will be counted under the income of legal heir, and the tax liability for the same is on his portfolio.
Liability of legal heir
The responsibility for paying taxes liability on the Income tax return of the deceased comes on the legal heir.
However, he is not personally liable for the taxes due. The liability of the legal heir is limited to the extent.
It is also implicit that a legal representative will be penalized for any default committed by the deceased.
However, a legal representative wouldn’t be prosecuted for any defaults under this Act.
Any penalty, interest or any fine liable on deceased will be the responsibility of the legal heir.
What should the IT department do with the deceased if the tax is unpaid?
This is the natural though in everybody mind “What should the IT department do with the deceased if the tax is unpaid”.
It’s true.
But this act bound the financial activities of the deceased intact.
Not a single transaction on behalf of deceased would be executed, because of the tax liability.
Legal heir is appointed not only of winding up the financial proceeding but also as liable as deceased to pay the tax liability.
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