Deceased Taxpayer ITR: Legal Heir Registration, Refund and Family Pension

Section 159 of the Income-tax Act allows tax proceedings and liability to continue through the deceased person's legal representative. Income up to the date of death is assessed in the deceased's name through that representative; income arising after death does not automatically belong in that same return.

For related guidance and tools, visit the Income Tax and Salary Hub.

Split the income into two periods

Period 1 — start of the financial year to the date of death

This is filed through the legal-heir login for the deceased taxpayer, once registered, and should capture: salary or pension, house-property income, business or professional income, capital gains, interest and dividend income, eligible deductions, TDS and any advance tax paid, carried-forward losses, foreign assets, and any audit obligation that applied to the deceased.

Use the Income-Tax Refund Interest Calculator — Section 244A to apply these points to your figures.

Period 2 — after the date of death

Income arising after death belongs to whoever legally owns the underlying asset or right going forward — not automatically to the first nominee named on an account. Classify each item on its own facts:

For the connected rule or filing step, see Family Pension: ITR-1 Eligibility, Deduction and Filing Deadline.

Registering as legal representative on the e-filing portal

The core documents the portal requires are: a copy of the deceased's PAN, the death certificate, proof of legal-heir status, the legal heir's own PAN and bank account, and — where registering specifically to appeal an existing order — a copy of that order in the deceased's name. An indemnity may also be requested in some cases, and any documents not already in the required format may need to be translated or merged into a single PDF for upload. Acceptable legal-heir proof commonly includes a succession certificate, legal-heir certificate, or another document from the Department's currently accepted list — check the live list on the portal rather than assuming any one document is universally sufficient.

Registration workflow

1. The legal heir logs in using their own PAN
2. Opens the "Authorised Partners" section
3. Selects "Register as Representative Assessee"
4. Chooses the deceased/legal-heir category
5. Enters the deceased person's details
6. Uploads the required evidence
7. Verifies via OTP
8. Tracks the request status
9. Once approved, switches to representing the deceased taxpayer
10. Completes filing, notice responses or other services as representative

The current official user manual indicates a typical processing target of around seven days for this registration — treat that as portal guidance rather than a guaranteed statutory deadline, since actual processing time can vary.

For the connected rule or filing step, see Income-Tax Refund Status and Failure Resolver.

Filing the return itself

Once registered, confirm the correct assessment year and filing section, calculate income only up to the date of death, select the ITR form that matches the deceased's actual facts (use the ITR form selector if unsure), reconcile TDS and AIS data, claim deductions properly accrued or paid under the applicable rules, report capital gains arising up to the date of death, preserve any loss-carry-forward deadline that applied to the deceased, validate the bank account the refund should be processed to, e-verify the return as legal representative, and retain the acknowledgement and the approval order for the legal-heir registration itself.

Claiming a refund, or resolving a demand

Refund

Check bank-account validation, whether the refund needs to be routed through estate or legal-heir handling, the refund-reissue service if an earlier attempt failed, legal-heir approval status, any tax-credit mismatch against AIS/Form 26AS, and whether succession or bank documentation is still outstanding.

Demand

Reconcile the deceased's original return and intimation, challans and TDS credits, any prior assessment orders, appeal or rectification history, the applicable limitation period, and whether recovery is actually being sought against the estate correctly. Don't pay a demand that hasn't been reconciled against these records first — a duplicate or factually incorrect demand is common enough to be worth checking before paying.

Notices and ongoing proceedings

Once registered, a legal heir can use the portal to respond to a defective-return notice, participate in e-proceedings, request rectification, address an outstanding demand, request refund reissue, file an appeal where authorised to do so, and resolve a tax-credit mismatch — all in the capacity of representative assessee. Keep an indexed evidence pack, and disclose the death and the legal-heir registration in every relevant response, rather than leaving the Department to infer it. If a notice arrives that predates the Department being informed of the death, get it reviewed before responding or making any admission — the correct representative procedure needs to be followed first.

Family pension: the tax treatment that's easy to get wrong

Family pension is taxable under income from other sources — not under "salary," which is a common mistake since it's often confused with the deceased's own pension. A standard deduction applies:

• Old regime: the lower of one-third of the family pension, or ₹15,000
• New regime: the lower of one-third of the family pension, or ₹25,000

Family pension paid on account of death in the course of operational duty for armed-forces personnel can be exempt where the specific statutory conditions for that exemption are met — check this separately if it applies, since it is a distinct, narrower exemption from the standard deduction above.