Raghav is appointed as 'Official Assignee', in respect of insolvency proceedings initiated against Paritosh Ltd. You are required to advise him whether he will be treated as Representative Assessee in this regard. What w

CBDT Circular No. 4/2019 dated 28.01.2019 has clarified that since official assignee does not receive the income or manage the property on behalf of the debtor, he cannot be considered as a 'Representative Assessee' of the debtor under the Act while computing the tax liability arising from the estate of the debtor. Therefore, Raghav appointed as official assignee in respect of insolvency proceedings initiated against Paritosh Ltd will not be treated as 'Representative Assessee'. For purpose of discharge of tax liability under the Act, the status of official assignee is that of an 'artificial juridical person' as prescribed in section 2(31)(vii), not being one of the persons falling in section 2(31)(i) to(iv). Therefore, official assignee is required to file income tax return electronically in the Form applicable to 'artificial juridical person' separately for each of the estate of the insolvent Paritosh Ltd, and income shall be taxed as per the rates applicable in a particular year to an 'artificial juridical person'. In view of the above position, official assignee would have to obtain a separate PAN for each of the estate of the insolvent.