The income earned by a deceased person's estate is taxed in the hands of the executor. If there is a single executor, the tax is assessed as an individual; if there are multiple executors, it is assessed as an association of persons.
The executor's residential status for tax purposes mirrors that of the deceased in the year of death, and the estate is taxed separately from the executor's own income.
Assessments cover each tax year (or part thereof) from the date of death until the estate is fully distributed, with income distributed to specific legatees excluded from that year’s estate income and taxed in the legatee’s own return.
📜 Official text of the section +
312. (1) The income of the estate of a deceased person shall be chargeable to tax
in the hands of the executor as an individual, if there is only one executor, or
as an association of persons, if the executors are more than one.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, the executor shall be deemed to be resident or
non-resident according to the residential status of the deceased person for the tax
year in which his death took place.
(3) For the purposes of this section, “executor” includes an administrator or other
person administering the estate of a deceased person.
(4) The assessment of an executor under this section shall be made separately from
any assessment that may be made on him in respect of his own income.
(5) Separate assessments shall be made under this section on the total income of
each completed tax year or part thereof as is included in the period from the date
of the death to the date of complete distribution to the beneficiaries of the estate
according to their several interests.
(6) In computing the total income of any tax year under this section, any income
of the estate of that tax year distributed to, or applied to the benefit of, any specific
legatee of the estate during that tax year shall be excluded; but the income so ex -
cluded, shall be included in the total income of the tax year of such specific legatee.
(7) The provisions of section 305 shall, so far as may be, apply in the case of an
executor in respect of tax paid or payable by him, as they apply in the case of a
representative assessee.
6. —Succession to business or profession
Succession to business or profession otherwise than on death.
Plain-language summary — not the official text. Refer to the bare Act and confirm with a professional for your specific case.