Dissolved firm assessment and refund rules prevent repayment of tax paid with self-assessed returns after dissolution.

A dissolved sales tax dealer-firm ceased to exist as an assessable entity once dissolution was accepted by the assessing authority, and the statutory scheme did not authorise assessment after dissolution in the absence of express power. The returns filed under self-assessment, and the tax deposited with them, did not become refundable merely because no assessment order determining tax due was passed. Refund under the local Act depended on excess payment over the amount due, and the payments made with the returns remained tax paid on self-assessment. The refund claims were therefore rejected.

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Issues: Whether a dissolved sales tax dealer-firm could be treated as liable to assessment after dissolution, and whether amounts deposited with returns became refundable in the absence of an assessment determining tax due.

Analysis: The firm had been dissolved before the assessment proceedings culminated, and the assessing authority accepted the dissolution. In such a situation, the firm ceased to exist as an assessable entity, and the statutory scheme did not permit assessment of a dissolved firm in the absence of express authority. The returns filed under the self-assessment system, together with the tax deposited therewith, could not be treated as refundable merely because no assessment order determining tax due was passed. Refund under the local Act depended on excess payment over the amount due, and when no assessment could validly be framed against the dissolved firm, the amounts paid with the returns remained tax paid on the basis of self-assessment.

Conclusion: The petitioners were not entitled to refund, and the challenge to the rejection of their refund claims failed.

Ratio Decidendi: A dissolved firm ceases to be an assessable entity, and in the absence of statutory authority for assessment after dissolution, amounts paid with self-assessed returns do not become refundable merely because no assessment of tax due is made.

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