Registration as Legal heir in Income Tax

Filing of income tax return is mandatory if your income is taxable. But income tax return for deceased person also needs to be filed in case where a person dies and had taxable income. His legal heir/representative needs to file the return on his behalf for the income earned till the date of death. Legal heir has to register himself at the income tax website for filing the return on behalf of deceased.

The process of filing of Return on behalf of deceased is basically divided into two parts:

1. Registration as a Legal heir
2. Filing ITR as Legal heir

Registration as Legal heir

Legal heir has to register at the income tax website as a legal heir.  For this, we should know

• who is legal heir
• Process to register as legal heir on income tax website

Who is Legal Heir?

Legal heir in the eyes of law is the person who represents the assets of deceased. To register as legal heir, any of the following documents are accepted as legal heir certificates:

1. The legal heir certificate issued by the court of law
2. The legal heir certificate issued by the Local revenue authorities.
3. The certificate of the surviving family members issued by the local revenue authorities.
4. The registered will
5. The family pension certificate issued by the State/Central government.

The most common certificate available is the certificate of surviving family members issued by the local revenue authorities (Municipality, nagarpalika). This certificate is usually issued in regional language, so the legal heir is required to translate it into English/Hindi and duly notarized the same.

Process to register as legal heir

Registration as a legal heir is mandatory for e-filing of return on behalf of deceased person. The PAN of both the deceased person and legal heir should be registered in the e-filing portal. But if Deceased person PAN is not registered then the legal heir can register on behalf of the deceased. Following are the steps for the registration of Legal heir:

Step 1 – Go to income tax website – https://incometaxindiaefilling.gov.in

Step 2 – Login to e-filing portal using legal heir credentials

Step 3 – Go to My Account and register as Legal Heir

Step 4 –   (i) Select the type of Request – New Request

                (ii) Enter the details of the deceased, select the files to upload, Attach a zip file containing PDF of the scanned documents, mentioning in “Documents required”.

The Documents required are as follows:

1. Copy of Death Certificate
2. Copy of the PAN Card of the deceased
3. Self-Attested PAN card Copy of the Legal heir
4. Legal Heir Certificate.(As described above)

The size of the zip file must not exceed 1 MB.

(iii) Click submit and you will get the Acknowledgement from the dept. with a transaction ID.

Below are the screenshot of the income tax website of the above process explained.

Approval Process

After completing the above process, Legal Heir request is sent to the e-filing Administrator. The e-filing administrator will verify the request and approve /reject as applicable. Once the request is approved, one can use all services for Legal heir and for the deceased.

Filing ITR as Legal Heir

Once the request for registration as legal heir is approved, you can file return as legal heir on behalf of deceased.

Following is the process for filing the return:

1. Download the ITR Form applicable to the deceased, fill the ITR Form and generate the XML File.
2. Go to Income tax website –https://incometaxindiaefilling.gov.in
3. Login to e-filing portal using Legal heir credentials
4. Go to e-file and upload the return
5. Fill the following details and select the XML File

1. PAN – Select the PAN of the deceased.
2. ITR Form Name – Select the ITR Form to upload (i.e. ITR 1, 2, …)
3. Select Assessment Year
4. Upload the XML File
5. Legal heir can digitally sign the ITR of deceased using his Digital Signature Certificate
6. Click Submit

For more details : Click here