A very old friend of mine lost his wife in January this year. The deceased had interest income and some income tax has been deducted. Some refund of tax is expected. I generally help them to file their ITR. My questions are:
1. Can the husband file ITR and sign as representative?
Ans: In case of a deceased person, the return on any income needs to be filed by legal heir. In this case, if husband is the legal heir, then he needs to file the ITR.
The legal heir will have to register himself as representative assessee on the income-tax portal available under 'Authorised Partners' tab. For this you need the login details of the deceased person.
So, the legal heir will have to create a request and follow the steps provided on the portal, upload required documents and submit the request. Post verification, they either accept or reject the request. The legal heir will be allowed to file return post acceptance. The filing will be in the similar way applicable for any individual with interest income