• Interest on FDs in the name of a deceased person

A person has FDs in a bank.  His wife is the joint account holder in each and FDs are payable to either or survivor.  This person dies and the wife decides to continue the FDs till maturity as current rates are much lower.  The bank has informed that the first accountholder's name cannot be deleted till the account is live.  Thus the TDS on periodical payment / credit of interest will be reported only against the PAN of the deceased whereas the income will actually be accruing to the survivor, that is, the wife.

Should wife file a return for her deceased husband till the FDs mature or should she include the interest in her income?  In the latter case the entries for TDS will be missing in her 26AS.  How is this case to be handled.
Asked 7 years ago in Income Tax

If she want to cont.. the OLD Fixed deposit and the TDS is deducted with the name of her deceased husband.

for this she should become the legal heir of her husband and she can file the return on behalf of her husband and show the interest income taxable in the hand of her husband and claim the TDS . If there is any refund, she claim this refund in her bank account as legal Heir.

Mohit Agarwal
CA, Agra
37 Answers
1 Consultation

4.3 on 5.0

Hello,

This is the first time I have heard something of this sort that the bank will continue deducting TDS in the deceased person's name. I will still suggest either discuss with the bank to transfer the TDS in the wife's name or continue filing the Return of the deceased as transferring the income to the wife and not transferring the TDS will be incurring higher taxes and like burning your own money.

Trust this clarifies your query.

Feel free to call / get back in case of further clarifications.

Thanking You.

Regards,

Rohit R Sharma

BCOM, ACA, LLB-GEN, CERT. FAFP

Rohit R Sharma
CA, Mumbai
2104 Answers
95 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

Dear Sir,

You should speak to the bank and get the income transferred in his wife's name along with TDS.

However, if bank is not doing so you can continue filing return of income in deceased husband's name.

Please feel free to call/revert in case of any doubts

Thanks and Regards

Abhishek Dugar

CA CS B.Com

Abhishek Dugar
CA, Mumbai
3576 Answers
183 Consultations

4.8 on 5.0

Ideally, on submission of the death certificate, the bank should transfer the FD to the wife's name. In the current scenario, the only recourse is for the wife, being the legal heir of the deceased, to continue to file her husband's return of income and claim credit of TDS.

As per my knowledge, a will is not required to be registered compulsorily.

Regards,

Keerthiga Padmanabhan

M.Com., CA, LLB

Keerthiga Padmanabhan
CA, Greater Mumbai
784 Answers
27 Consultations

5.0 on 5.0

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