In case of a deceased person, the spouse or the legal heirs of the deceased person can file income tax return for the financial year. Income tax computation and procedure of filling income tax return will be same as it’s normally applicable to a person who is alive.
In this article you will come to know those extra measures that are required for filling income tax return for a deceased person.
Before initiating the process of filling income tax return you are required to collect certain documents. In the first step, as you are going to file income tax return as a legal heir, you are required to produce a certificate on that.
Legal heir Certificate issued by court of law, local revenue authority or family pension certificate issued by state or central government will serve the purpose. If you have any registered will then that will also define you as a legal heir if your name is included in that.
Take the certificate that specify you as a legal heir along with income documents to an advocate or a charted accountant who deals with tax return filling.
If you do not know exact income of the deceased person then we suggest you take all bank statements, investments and other relevant documents which have income calculation to the advocate or chartered accountant for calculating income tax. Before that we also suggest you to have a look on form 26AS as it will exactly tell how much tax has already been deducted from deceased person’s income during the financial year.
Your advocate or chartered accountant will be asking for an affidavit stating that you are the legal heir and will be filling income tax return on behalf of the deceased person.
Documents required for filling income tax return for a deceased person
In addition to bank statements and investment details you are required to carry following documents along with you to the advocate or charted accountant for filling income tax return.
- Death certificate copy
- PAN of the deceased person
- Your own PAN card copy
- Certificate stating you as a legal heir of the deceased person
- Affidavit as discussed above stating that you will be filling income tax return on behalf of the deceased person as a legal heir
Filling income tax return online for a deceased person
Instead of visiting the charted accountant or advocate you on your own can also e-file income tax return online or in paper format as applicable.
If you are filling your income tax return online then please follow below steps to proceed.
Register your PAN details online. If you are already registered with income tax then just login with your PAN number, password and date or birth. Please remember you are filling income tax return on behalf of the deceased person so you need to login to your account instead of logging in to the deceased person’s account.
Under My Account you will have an option to register as legal heir. After selecting that option, you will have an application form to fill up. Select “New Request” as type of request and fill up rest of the options before submitting. You must remember to upload all attested documents that we have discussed before submitting the form.
After submitting the form it will be processed for approval. After approval you will receive an email stating that you have been added successfully as a legal heir. You can also check your application status online from your income tax account login.
Now you are ready to file income tax return of the deceased person online. Prepare the income tax return as normally it use to be prepared and then file income tax return of deceased person from your login i.e. legal heir’s login by selecting the deceased person’s PAN number.
