In the Income Tax Act, even after the death of a person, there is an exemption to file his return. However, for this some legal process has to be followed and the heir gets the freedom to file the return through his PAN card details. As an heir, it is important to know many more rules related to income tax.
New Delhi. The process of filing income tax return for the financial year 2021-22 is in full swing and by the end of this month its last date is also going to end. Meanwhile, the discussion is also arising whether it is necessary to fill the ITR of the deceased person.
In this regard, Income Tax Expert Balwant Jain says that if the deceased person comes under the tax net, then it will be necessary to fill his ITR. However, for this it is necessary to be the legal heir of the deceased who has been authorized by a court to do this work. Also, it will be necessary to enter the PAN card details of both the deceased and his legal heirs on the e-filing portal. If the PAN of the deceased person is not on the Income Tax portal, then the heir can register his PAN in its place.
Process of registration on the portal as legal heir
- First of all, go to the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department and log in with the documents of the legal heir.
- On opening the portal, go to Authorized Partners and select Register as Representative and click on Get Started.
- After this, click on Create New Request and fill all the required information.
- For registration, the death certificate, PAN card of the deceased person, PAN card of the heir, certificate made as heir and copy of the court order in this regard will be uploaded.
- After this, we will verify the request by clicking on the Proceed button.
- Finally, after pressing the submit request button, your registration will be done, whose information will be received by the Income Tax Department.
What to do next
Once the registration is complete with all the documents, it will be verified by the Income Tax e-filing administration and if the request is approved, the legal heir will get all the rights related to ITR in place of the deceased person. But, if the request is rejected, then the concerned person will be informed by the department along with the reason. After this, if the heirs want, they can take necessary steps on it.
After the completion of the verification and approval, the heir can file the ITR of the deceased person just like a normal taxpayer. This ITR can also be verified in many ways like Aadhaar OTP, Net Banking. Keep in mind that it is necessary to calculate the total income of the deceased person before filing the ITR. It should be from the beginning of the respective financial year till the date of death of the taxpayer. If any income occurs after the death of the taxpayer, then it will be considered as part of the income of the heir and the heir will have to give this information in his income tax return.
No more tax liability on the heir than the property
The Income Tax Act states that if the tax is due on a deceased person, then it will have to be paid by the legal heir. However, it is clear in this that if the heir receives less property than the outstanding tax, then he will be liable to pay tax only as much as the property. For example, if a person has received shares worth Rs 8 lakh from his father as an heir and his father had tax dues of Rs 9.5 lakh, then the heir will have to pay only Rs 8 lakh as tax.
