TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1961 (10) TMI 2
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....uring his year of account which ended on March 31, 1946. He left behind him the respondent, E. Alfred, his son, and eight daughters. For the assessment year, 1946-47, the respondent was assessed under section 24B(2) of the Income-tax Act, after a notice was issued to him under section 22(2), ibid. The assessment was completed on March 26, 1951, and a notice of demand was issued under section 29 of the Act. The respondent appealed against the order of assessment to the Appellate Assistant Commissioner, but during the pendency of the appeal a penalty of Rs. 250 was imposed upon him under section 46(1) of the Act by the Income-tax Officer, as he had defaulted in payment of tax on the due date. After the appeal was disposed of with very minor m....
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.... with collection, did not refer to the legal representative as an assessee, and held that the fiction in sub-section (2) was created for the limited purpose of assessment, and since that sub-section also did not concern itself with collection, the fiction could not be carried beyond assessment resulting in the determination of the tax. Thereafter, according to the High Court, the legal representative is not an assessee within the meaning of section 29, but can only be brought under the words " other person ", and inasmuch as sections 45 and 46 refer to " an assessee in default " the legal representative cannot be treated as such and no penalty can either be imposed upon him or recovered. We are concerned with the definition of " assessee "....
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....ieve to be incorrect or incomplete, the Income-tax Officer may make an assessment of the total income of such person and determine the tax payable by him on the basis of such assessment, and for this purpose may, by the issue of the appropriate notice which would have had to be served upon the deceased person had he survived, require from the executor, administrator or, other legal representative of the deceased person any accounts, documents or other evidence which he might under the provisions of sections 22 and 23 have required from the deceased person. " The scheme of this section, which was inserted by the Second Amendment Act of 1933 and modified further by the Amendment Act of 1939 is as follows : Sub-section (1) of section 24B make....
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....eve it to be incorrect, the income-tax Officer may make the assessment of the total income of such deceased person, and determine the tax after serving such notices, as may be required under section 22 or section 23, upon the legal representative of the deceased person to produce the accounts, documents or other evidence. In the present case, the matter fell to be governed by the second sub-section, because Ebenezer died before the end of his year of account. The service of the notice upon the respondent and his assessment, as if he were the assessee, were made under the second sub-section. By reason of this assessment, the respondent became liable under the first sub-section to pay out of the estate of Ebenezer the tax assessed, to the ex....
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....ntative who, by fiction, is deemed to be an assessee, therefore, comes within this definition, because he is a person by whom income-tax is payable, though out of the assets left by a deceased person. The assessment of the legal representative is then made under section 23 of the Act, and he has the right to appeal under section 30, which he would not have, if he ceased to be an assessee after the determination of the tax. We are not concerned in this case with the position of the legal representative under the third sub-section of section 24B, and are not required to consider what his position would be, if he made a default in the payment of the tax. The fiction is enacted at least for the purpose of sub-section (2), and it is to that sub-....