DEFINITION AND MEANING OF ASSESSE, TYPES OF ASSESSE, ASSESSMENT YEAR , PREVIOUS YEAR, PERSON

1. IMPORTANT TERMS USED
IN INCOME TAX
PREPARED BY- C A ANNIE STEPHEN and MS JUNITTA STEPHEN

2. Contents
Assesse and types of Assesse
Assessment Year
Previous Year
Person

3. Assessee is person who liable to pay Tax,
Interest, or penalty under the Income Tax Act and includes:
-every person in respect of whom any proceeding under this Act has
been taken for the assessment of his income or assessment of fringe
benefits or of the income of any other person in respect of which he
is assessable, or of the loss sustained by him or by such other person,
or of the amount of refund due to him or to such other person;
-every person who is deemed to be an assessee under any provision
of this Act;
- every person who is deemed to be an assessee in default under any
provision of this Act.
Section 2(7) of Income Tax: Assessee

4. Ty p e s o Assesse
1.a. Normal Assessee
i) any person against whom proceedings under Income Tax Act are going on,
irrespective of the fact whether any tax or other amount is payable by him or not;
ii) any person who has sustained loss and filed return of loss u/s 139(3);
iii) any person by whom some amount of interest, tax or penalty is payable under
this Act;
iv) any person who is entitled to refund of tax under this Act.

5. 2. Representative Assessee
•There may be a case in which a person is liable to pay
taxes for the income or losses incurred by a third party
•e.g. agent of a non-resident, guardian of minor or lunatic
etc.
• In such cases, the person responsible for the assessment
of income of such person is called representative assesses.
Such person is deemed to be an assessee.

6. 3. Deemed Assessee
•An individual might be assigned the responsibility of paying taxes by the
legal authorities and such individuals are called deemed assessees.
•Deemed assessees can be:
• # The eldest son or a legal heir of a deceased person who has expired
without writing a will.
• # The executor or a legal heir of the property of a deceased person who
has passed on his property to the executor in a writing.
• # The guardian of a lunatic, an idiot, or a minor.
• # The agent of a non-resident Indian receiving income from India.

7. 4. Assessee-in-default
•Assessee-in-default is a person who has failed to fulfill his statutory
obligations under the Act.
•If a person fails to pay taxes to the government or fails to file his
income tax return on the due dates and even later
•If such persons fail to repond to noyices sent by the Income Tax
authorities
•Failure to deduct Tax at Source and remitting the same to the
government
•In all such cases a person will be termed as an Assesse in Default

8. Person according to I n c o m e Tax Act-[Section 2(31)]
The term ‘person’ under the Income-tax Act includes natural as well as artificial persons. It can be
an association of persons or a body of individuals or a local authority or an artificial juridical
person.
[Section 2(31)] :Person includes :
-anIndividual;
-aHindu Undivided Family (HUF) ;
-aCompany;
-a Firm
-an association of persons or a body of individuals, whether incorporated or not;
-a local authority; and
-every artificial juridical person not falling within any of the preceding sub-clauses.

9. Meaning of Assessment Year: Section 2(9)Income
Tax
• As per Section 2(9) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, unless the
context otherwise requires, the term ‘assessment year’ means
the period of twelve months commencing on the 1st day of
April every year.
• Therefore, basically the Assessment year is considered to be
a 12 months period starting from April 1, during which an
assessee is required to file the return of income (ITR) for the
previous year
• The year in which ITO has to initiate assessment proceedings
for such returned income and tax thereon.
• Income of the financial year is assessed to tax in the
following year known as the Assessment year
• For example, Assessment Year 2020-21 is a period of 12
months starting from 1 Apr.2020 and ending with 31 March
2021.

10. Meaning of Previous Year
• As per Section 2(34) of Income Tax Act, 1961, unless the context otherwise requires, the term
‘previous year’ means the previous year as defined in section 3.
For the purposes of this Act, “previous year” means the financial year immediately proceeding the
assessment year or the year in which Income is earned .
• Provided that, in the case of a business or profession newly set up, or a source of income newly
coming into existence, in the said financial year, the previous year shall be the period beginning
with the date of setting up of the business or profession and ending with the said financial year.
Foe example if a person commences business in August 2020, the the Previous year in relation to
Assessment Year 2021-22 will be Aug 2020- March 2021
• For example, previous year corresponding to assessment year 2020-21 means the preceding
financial year, i.e. 2019-20 (1 Apr. 2019 to 31 Mar. 2020).

11. Assessment year
and Previous year
Summary
Assessee and
types
Person under IT
Act

12. Thank You!