Return

It is said that the only sure things are death and taxes, but even death doesn’t save a person from having to pay taxes.

How?

The legal heir of the deceased assessee shall file the return on his behalf. Just like a proof of attorney holder can file a return on behalf of the person giving such power, legal heir can file the return for a deceased person. The name in the return should be mentioned as “LATE Mr / Mrs. _________ through legal heir Mr / Mrs. _________”. The assets and liabilities of the deceased person are transferred to the Legal heirs. So responsibility of filing returns relies on the legal heirs.

The legal heir should also submit a copy of the death certificate of the deceased, and submit the Permanent Account Number Card (PAN Card) of the deceased. All the tax payments are also to be made by the legal representative, such as advance tax payments and self assessment tax payments. The tax is to be recovered from the estate of the deceased. Legal representatives would be personally liable to the extent of the assets to which they come into possession, because there is an automatic charge on such property left by the deceased. This position of law relates only to his individual income.

Filing of Income Tax Return can be done online by Legal Heir (LH) using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). The legal heir (LH) has to get a DSC in his/her own name. This DSC needs to be registered in the ITD e-filing website. LH is required to make a request by sending a mail toefiling.administrator @ incometaxindia.gov.in mentioning the name, PAN, Date-of-Birth of deceased as well as that of the LH along with scanned attachment of the death certificate of the deceased.

On receipt of above email by the e-filing administrator, the Legal heir’s PAN will be linked to the deceased assessee and a confirmation email will be sent to email id of the legal heir. Now LH would be enabled to file the return of deceased using LH’s Digital Signature Certificate (DSC).