How to file Income Tax Return & Tax Audit report as a legal heir

Ques: How is the income tax return of a deceased person filed?

Ans: The Income Tax return of a deceased person is filed on his/her behalf by the legal heir of the assessee under the provisions of the Income Tax Act’1961.

The income tax return of the deceased assessee will be signed on behalf of the deceased assessee by his legal heir.

Ques: What if the income tax return is to be accompanied by a tax audit report?

Ans: The procedure for filing tax audit report is similar to filing the return. Here the tax audit report will be approved by the legal heir before filing of income tax return.

Ques: What is the procedure for filing Income Tax Return alongwith with the tax audit report in case of a legal heir?

Ans: The procedure to file income tax return and tax audit report of a deceased assesse as a legal heir is as follows:

The Legal heir has to submit a request to become a legal heir under the Income Tax Act’1961 for filing the return of income of the deceased i.e he has to register as a legal heir in the income tax login.

1. Go to ‘My Account’ TAB under the income tax login of the Legal Heir and click on ‘Register as Legal Heir’.

2. Under the Register as Legal Heir option the following details of the deceased assessee are to be entered:

• PAN
• Date of Birth
• Surname
• Middle Name
• First Name

3. The following documents are also to be uploaded as a ZIP file for making a request to act as a legal heir:

• Copy of Death Certificate of the deceased
• Copy of the PAN of the deceased
• Self-attested PAN Copy of the Legal Heir
• Affidavit in presence of the notary by the legal heir
• Legal Heir Certificate.

Following documents will be accepted as Legal Heir Certificate:

• Legal Heir certificate issued by the court of law.
• Legal Heir certificate issued by the Local Revenue authorities.
• The surviving members’ certificate issued by the local revenue authorities.
• Registered will of the deceased.
• Family pension certificate issued by the Central/State Government.

1. After the documents are ready, scan the same and make a zip file of the same. The size of the ZIP file should not be more than 1 MB.

2. After attaching the zip file of the required documents, click on the submit button to register a request for becoming a Legal Heir to the e-filing Administrator. You will be provided a number for your request.

3. The E-filing Administrator after examining the submitted documents may approve or reject the request.

4. You can view the status of your request by going to the ‘My Request List’ Tab.

5. After approval of your request, the PAN of the deceased will start showing in the login of the Legal Heir. The Login of the deceased will be blocked after the approval of the request.

6. Now for filing the tax audit report of the deceased, the following procedure is to be followed:

• Add CA for the deceased by clicking on the ‘Add CA’ option in the Login of the Legal Heir by choosing the PAN of the deceased.
• After adding CA by the legal heir, the CA can upload the tax audit report of the deceased from his login by giving the PAN of the deceased.
• After the CA has uploaded the tax audit report, the same will be approved by the legal heir by using his digital signature. The tax audit report of the deceased for approval will be available in the ‘For Your Action’ Option in the ‘Worklist’ Tab in the login of the legal heir by clicking on the PAN of the deceased.
• After approval of the of the tax audit report, the legal heir can proceed to file the return of the deceased.

For filing the return after approval of tax audit report, the Legal Heir has to enter his PAN in the verification part section of the ITR Form, validate and generate the xml file.

Adding the PAN of the legal heir in the verification part means that the legal heir is stating that he is filing and signing the return as a representative assessee. Therefore, the PAN of the legal heir is to be entered in the representative assessee section of the return in some of the softwares.

After generating the xml by following the above, the xml can be uploaded by using the login of the Legal Heir.

Notes: For filing the return as a legal heir, the Legal Heir must have a PAN and the same must be registered in the online portal of the income tax department for filing online return.

(The author is a CA in practice at Delhi and can be contacted at: E-mail: [email protected], Mobile: +91-9953199493)

(Republished With Amendments)