One is required to file income tax return (ITR) if one’s
income during a financial year exceeds the basic exemption limit set by the government. You also have to file an ITR if you have to claim the extra tax deducted at source (TDS), if any, or in case of deposit of excess tax. While filing the ITR online, the system will automatically calculate the amount of refund, if any, payable to you, once you fill all the required data.
The Income Tax Department will start the refund process only after the ITR is verified either online through Aadhaar-based OTP, EVC or by sending the signed ITR Acknowledgement (ITR-V) to the income tax CPC office at Bengaluru.
The refund amount, along with interest, will be paid either directly in your bank account or through a paper cheque, if the claim of refund is accepted by the department.
The Tax Department sends an intimation under section 143(1) to the taxpayer showing a comparison between the refund claimed as per the calculation done by the taxpayer and the amount of refund granted as per the calculations done by the department.
If you have not received the intimation under section 143(1) and are waiting for the tax refund, you may check the status either on the Income Tax Department’s website or on TIN NSDL website after logging in to the sites by using your registered PAN.
- On the incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in website, go to ‘Dashboard’ after logging in, and click on ‘View Returns and Forms’. Then select ‘Income Tax Returns’ from the dropdown to go to the ‘Income Tax Returns’ page, where you may see if the ITR is processed or is verified or is still pending for verification against all the years in which ITRs were filed online.
- If it shows that the ITR is still pending for verification for the current assessment year, either re-verify it online through Aadhaar based OTP, EVC or send the signed ITR Acknowledgement (ITR-V) to the income tax CPC office at Bengaluru either through ordinary post or through speed post service of India Post only and not through any other courier service.
- You have to wait for some more days to get the refund, if it shows ‘Successfully Verified’, till the status turns into ‘ITR Processed’.
- In case it shows ‘ITR Processed’, you may click on the acknowledgement number to go inside to see if the refund amount has been paid or not and if paid, by which mode.
- In case it shows ‘ITR Processing Completed’, you will get the date of completion of the processing, as well as the dates on which the intimation has been sent to you by SMS and email. You will also get the link through which you may visit the TIN-NSDL website to check the refund status.
- In case the refund is made, it will show the date of refund and the mode of payment. To confirm the receipt of refund through ECS mode, update your bank passbook or get a statement to see if the refund is credited on or after the ECS date mentioned in the site.
- If the mode of refund is through cheque and it was issued before some weeks, you have to further check if the cheque was returned undelivered. In case the cheque was returned undelivered, you will get a link to update your address and get the cheque reissued. In case of any mistake in the address given earlier or the address has been changed, enter the new or corrected address carefully to get the cheque reissued and delivered.
- Once the ITR is processed, you may also see the refund status in the TIN-NSDL website after entering your PAN and assessment year in ‘Status of Income Tax Refunds’ after selecting ‘Status of Tax Refunds’ under ‘Services’.
