As per indian income tax act 1961 return of income for a deceassed person can be filed after his death ?

Question

i want the answer with refrence to fling the return by the sucessors when the individual died insteate ( without will ) what will be tax treatment?

Answer 1

yes if he earned any thing before the expire that amount along has to be filed by any one of his legalheirs (my boss as did the same)

Answer 2

When the Person expires intestate , his return of income from his wealth can still be filed by the legal heir and can be taxed in Representative capacity . There is no problem. If there is more than one heir , a mutual agreement may decide who will represent before the I T authority for the purpose of filing of Return and other legal formalities.
Section 159 of the I T Act is related to procedure to be adopted for assessment on Legal Representative of the Deceased person.Read below carefully ;excerpts from I T Act:
Legal representatives.77

159. (1) Where a person dies, his legal representative shall be liable to pay any sum which the deceased would have been liable to pay if he had not died, in the like manner and to the same extent as the deceased.

(2) For the purpose of making an assessment (including an assessment, reassessment or re computation under section 147) of the income of the deceased and for the purpose of levying any sum in the hands of the legal representative in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1),

(a) any proceeding taken against the deceased before his death shall be deemed to have been taken against the legal representative and may be continued against the legal representative from the stage at which it stood on the date of the death of the deceased;

(b) any proceeding which could have been taken against the deceased if he had survived, may be taken against the legal representative; and

(c) all the provisions of this Act shall apply accordingly.

(3) The legal representative of the deceased shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be an assessee.

(4) Every legal representative shall be personally liable for any tax payable by him in his capacity as legal representative if, while his liability for tax remains undischarged, he creates a charge on or disposes of or parts with any assets78 of the estate of the deceased, which are in, or may come into, his possession, but such liability shall be limited to the value of the asset so charged, disposed of or parted with.

(5) The provisions of sub-section (2) of section 161, section 162, and section 167, shall, so far as may be and to the extent to which they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this section, apply in relation to a legal representative.

(6) The liability of a legal representative under this section shall, subject to the provisions of sub-section (4) and sub-section (5), be limited to the extent to which the estate is capable of meeting the liability.

Answer 3

You need not file income tax return if the income falls below the exemption limit

Answer 4

my father passed away on 17thjuly 2014.He was a state gov pensioner.After his demise the pension from august2014 was transferred to my mother(housewife/60y) as a family pension.The bank deducted TDS from my fathers pension till July 2014.From August the pension pay slips were changed to my mothers name and her PAN was reflected on the same.Now,how should my mother file taxes:
1) as 2 different tax --one n fathers name and one in her name?
2) as combined one pension for the whole year in fathers name ,and showing herself as a legal heir?
what is the correct procedure..?
an early reply is appreciated.

Answer 5

Nick Reynolds and Roland Lewis posted the same question. You should read their answers side by side.

Answer 6

q4tax has rightly eloborated in detail.

I further add as few points about legal representatives. The same may be helpful

Legal representative

Scope of provision

‘Legal representative’ includes its plural form - Under section 13(2) of the General Clauses Act, words used in singular will include their plural also. Therefore, the expression ‘legal representative’ in section 159 takes in plurality of legal repre­sentatives - First Addl. ITO v. Mrs. Suseela Sadanandan [1965] 57 ITR 168 (SC).

Executor’s is a legal representative - An executor is undoubtedly a legal representative - Estate of Late Rangalal Jajodia v. CIT [1971] 79 ITR 505 (SC).

If all the executors or some of them administered the estate of a deceased without obtaining the probate, all of them or some of them who had administered the estate may be held to be the legal representatives of the deceased and be liable to the extent of property taken possession of by them - First Addl. ITO v. Mrs. Suseela Sadanandan (supra).

ITO must proceed against all legal representatives - If a person dies executing a will appointing more than one executor, or dies intestate leaving behind him more than one heir, the ITO shall proceed to assess the total income of the deceased against all the executors or the legal representatives, as the case may be - First Addl. ITO v. Mrs. Suseela Sadanandan (supra).

Penalty can be imposed on legal representative - A legal representative who submits the return of income of the deceased person is liable for penalty in cases falling under section 271(1)(c) - Sukumar Mukherjee v. CIT [1958] 33 ITR 231 (Cal.) - Maddula Appa Rao v. ITO [1959] 36 ITR 140 (AP).

Liability of legal representative

Liability is restricted to previous year in which death occurred - The provision of section 159 do not extend to tax liability of the estate of a deceased person beyond the previous or the ac­count year in which that person dies - CIT v. Amarchand N. Shroff [1963] 48 ITR 59 (SC); CIT v. James Anderson [1964] 51 ITR 345 (SC); Estate of Late Rangalal Jajodia v. CIT [1971] 79 ITR 505 (SC); CIT v. Hukumchand Mohanlal [1971] 82 ITR 624 (SC).

Liability will subsist even if inherited estate is converted to different form - If the legal representative, after he had inher­ited the assets of the deceased, had converted the asset into a different form, certainly the department would be entitled to proceed against the substituted asset in the same way as it could have had against the original asset of the deceased - M. Abdul Khalick & Co. v. ITO [1975] 101 ITR 43 (Mad.).

Personal properties of legal representative cannot be proceeded against - The personal properties of the legal representative cannot be proceeded against for recovery of the tax due by the deceased by invoking section 159, except in a case where it is found that the assets of the deceased have come into his hands and he has not properly accounted for the same - Union of India v. Mrs. Sarojini Rajah [1974] 97 ITR 37 (Mad.).

Refund due to individual cannot be adjusted against tax dues of his father - Where a refund is payable to an assessee as a result of an appellate order in his individual assessment, the refund cannot be adjusted against the outstanding dues in his father’s case by relying on section 159(4) of the Act. The department can only recover the outstanding dues of the late father of the assessee out of the assets belonging to the late father which by virtue of law of inheritance or by testamentary succession have gone in the hands of the assessee, i.e., son - Hasmukhlal v. ITO [2001] 251 ITR 511 (MP).

Issue of notice

Where notice was served on assessee before his death fresh no­tice to legal representative is not necessary - Where proceed­ings are validly initiated by serving notice on the assessee before his death, there is no requirement under law to issue another notice to the legal representative - K. Ashok Kumar v. CIT [1986] 162 ITR 543 (Kar.).

Order will not be null and void for lack of notice, if assessee died after conclusion of hearing - Where death of the assessee occurs between conclusion of hear­ing and making of the assessment, an assessment order made with­out notice to the legal representative is not null and void - Md. Zafrulla, L/R of Md. Rafiulla v. CIT [1994] 72 Taxman 231 (Gau­.).

Omission to serve notice on all legal representative is not an irregularity if one of them filed returns and complied with notices - Where after death of one ‘B’ who had not filed returns, J, one of his ten legal representatives, filed returns, and notice was issued to J under sections 142(1) and 143(2) and he complied with it and assessment was duly completed, omission to serve notice on all legal representatives of ‘B’ was only an irregularity and not a nullity - CIT v. Jai Prakash Singh [1996] 85 Taxman 407 (SC)/CIT v. Smt. Pushpa Devi [2001] 250 ITR 495 (Raj.)

Assessment order

Order is binding on all legal representatives - In the context of suits and appeals, the principle is well-settled that if a party bona fide impleaded one of the legal representatives as repre­senting the estate of a deceased party and the said representa­tive represented the estate, the decree obtained therein is binding on the other legal representatives of the deceased. The same principle can be invoked in the case of assessment of income from the estate of a deceased person in the hands of his legal representative - First Addl. ITO v. Mrs. Suseela Sadanandan [1965] 57 ITR 168 (SC).

Legal representative must be specified by name - In an assessment made on the legal representative, the name of such legal repre­sentative must be specified. It will not suffice to describe him as ‘successor-in-interest’. Merely because a legal representative accepts the notice of demand it would not validate an assessment made on the legal representative describing him as ‘successor-in-interest’ to the deceased without specifying his name - Sahas­rangshu Kanta Acharya v. Collector of Malda [1963] 47 ITR 754 (Cal.).

Procedural omissions will not nullify assessment, if legal repre­sentatives voluntarily take part in proceedings - If the legal representative (which term includes plurality of persons) is present before the taxing authority in some capacity or volun­tarily appears in the proceeding without service of notice or upon service not addressed to him but to the deceased assessee, and does not object to the continuance of the proceeding against the deceased person, and is heard by the ITO in regard to the tax liability of the deceased and invites an assessment on merits, such a legal representative must be taken to have exercised the option of abandoning the technical plea that the proceeding has not been continued against him although in substance and reality it has been so continued. It would not be open to him to take up a plea at the appellate stage, as a last resort and as an after-thought, that the proceeding taken and the assessment order made against the deceased are a nullity - CIT v. Sumantbhai C. Munshaw [1981] 128 ITR 142 (Guj.).

Non-impleading of all legal representatives will not always vitiate assessment - An assessment proceeding cannot be rendered invalid or void by merely pointing out to the fact that all the legal representatives in a case where there are many were not present before the assessing authority, because no notices were issued to all of them - V. Ramanathan v. CIT [1963] 49 ITR 881 (Mad.).

Source : www.taxmann.net

Answer 7

can't be filled by his name but can be filled by his firm's name

Answer 8

no