B.Representative assessees - General provisions
Representative assessee.79
160. (1) For the purposes of this Act, representative assessee means
(i) in respect of the income of a non-resident specified in 80[***] sub-section (1) of section 9, the agent of the non-resident, including a person who is treated as an agent under section 163;
(ii) in respect of the income of a minor, lunatic or idiot, the guardian or manager who is entitled to receive or is in receipt of such income on behalf of such minor, lunatic or idiot;
(iii) in respect of income which the Court of Wards, the Administrator- General, the Official Trustee or any receiver or manager (including any person, whatever his designation, who in fact manages property on behalf of another) appointed by or under any order of a court, receives or is entitled to receive, on behalf or for the benefit of any person, such Court of Wards, Administrator-General, Official Trustee, receiver or manager;
(iv) in respect of income which a trustee81 appointed under a trust declared by a duly executed instrument in writing whether testamentary or otherwise [including any wakf81 deed which is valid under the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913 (6 of 1913),] receives or is entitled to receive on behalf or for the benefit of any person, such trustee or trustees;
82[(v) in respect of income which a trustee appointed under an oral trust receives or is entitled to receive on behalf or for the benefit of any person, such trustee or trustees.
Explanation 1.A trust which is not declared by a duly executed instrument in writing [including any wakf deed which is valid under the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913 (6 of 1913),] shall be deemed, for the purposes of clause (iv), to be a trust declared by a duly executed instrument in writing if a statement in writing, signed by the trustee or trustees, setting out the purpose or purposes of the trust, particulars as to the trustee or trustees, the beneficiary or beneficiaries and the trust property, is forwarded to the 83[Assessing] Officer,
(i) where the trust has been declared before the 1st day of June, 1981, within a period of three months from that day; and
(ii) in any other case, within three months from the date of declaration of the trust.
Explanation 2.For the purposes of clause (v), oral trust means a trust which is not declared by a duly executed instrument in writing [including any wakf deed which is valid under the Mussalman Wakf Validating Act, 1913 (6 of 1913),] and which is not deemed under Explanation 1 to be a trust declared by a duly executed instrument in writing.]
(2) Every representative assessee shall be deemed to be an assessee for the purposes of this Act.
C. Representative assessees pecial cases
Who may be regarded as agent.87
163. (1) For the purposes of this Act, "agent", in relation to a non-resident, includes any person in India—
(a) who is employed by or on behalf of the non-resident; or
(b) who has any business connection with the non-resident; or
(c) from or through whom the non-resident is in receipt of any income, whether directly or indirectly; or
(d) who is the trustee of the non-resident;
and includes also any other person who, whether a resident or non-resident, has acquired by means of a transfer, a capital asset in India :
Provided that a broker in India who, in respect of any transactions, does not deal directly with or on behalf of a non-resident principal but deals with or through a non-resident broker shall not be deemed to be an agent under this section in respect of such transactions, if the following conditions are fulfilled, namely:
(i) the transactions are carried on in the ordinary course of business through the first-mentioned broker; and
(ii) the non-resident broker is carrying on such transactions in the ordinary course of his business and not as a principal.
(2) No person shall be treated as the agent of a non-resident unless he has had an opportunity of being heard by the 89[Assessing] Officer as to his liability to be treated as such.