If you have paid more taxes than your actual liability, you can request a refund for the excess amount. The Income Tax Department offers an online facility for tracking your Income Tax Refund status. You can easily check the progress of your refund by entering your PAN (Permanent Account Number) and the applicable Assessment Year.
- Tax refunds are initiated by the tax department once you have e-verified your return
- Typically, it takes 4-5 weeks for the refund to be deposited in your bank account
- If the refund is not received within this timeframe, you should consider these steps:
- Check intimation for any discrepancies or errors in your ITR (Log in to e-filing portal > e-File > Income Tax Returns > View filed returns)
- Check your email for notifications from the Income Tax (IT) department regarding the status of the refund.
- Check the refund status using the methods provided below
How to Check your ITR Refund Status for FY 2023-24?
You can check your refund status using either of these methods:
- TIN NSDL website
- Income tax e-filing portal
Refund Status check on TIN NSDL Portal
- Go to this online refund checking facility
- Scroll down and enter your PAN, AY, captcha, and then click on ‘Submit’.
Refund Status check on Income Tax e-filing Portal
Step 1: Visit the income tax portal and log in to your account
Step 2: Click on ‘e-File‘, choose ‘Income Tax Returns’ and then select ‘View Filed Returns’
Step 3: You can see the status of your current and past income tax returns.
Step 4: Click on ‘View details’ and you’ll see the status of your income tax refund, like in the picture below.
What is Income Tax Refund?
If you paid more taxes than you were required to pay, you can claim the additional amount as income tax refund.
Income Tax Refund = Taxes paid (either by way of Advance Tax or TDS or TCS or Self-Assessment Tax) – Total tax liability on the current year income.
If the taxes paid (either by way of Advance Tax or TDS or TCS or Self-Assessment Tax) is more than the actual tax amount due, then the excess tax paid can be claimed as refund. The income tax department will recompute the taxes and validate the refund claim before initiating the refund.
For example: Assume Mr. Gupta paid 3 lakh as an advance tax during the financial year. At the end of the financial year, he learns his tax liability is only 2 lakh. He can request a refund by filing an income tax return (ITR). If the assessing officer approves his request, the excess tax amount of 1 lakh will be credited to Mr. Gupta’s pre-validated bank account.
How to claim income tax refund?
To get your income tax refund or TDS refund, all you need to do is file your Income Tax Return and declare your income, deduction and tax paid details to the Income Tax Department. The amount of refund receivable is computed and shown in the tax return.
You have to finish e-filing to get your Income Tax Refund. Make sure to e-file this year to get your tax refund faster.
Did you e-file your tax return for this year?
You can file your income tax return on Cleartax. Even if you don’t know anything about taxes, we will take you step-by-step and help you e-file.
I want to e-File my Income Tax Return
Do you need a CA’s help with your Tax Return?
If you need an expert’s assistance in preparing your income tax return, you can get our CA Assisted plan to help you with this. Our CAs will resolve all your issues and help you e-file.
I want an expert to help me e-File
I missed my ITR filing due date, can I still claim my refund now?
The deadline to file your ITR for non-audit cases was 31st July 2024. However, if you could not manage filing your taxes before the deadline, you can still file a late return, known as Belated Return. The last date to file a belated return is 31st December 2024. You can claim your tax refund through a belated return.
How long will it take to get the refund?
The time taken to receive the income tax refund entirely depends on the Income Tax Department’s internal process. Generally, it takes around 7 to 120 days, with an average time of 90 days after you have e-verified your return. The Income Tax Department implemented a new refund processing system to enable faster refund processing with an expected turnaround of a few days instead of a few months.
Consistent with this objective, the average ITR processing duration has been reduced to 10 days for returns submitted in the AY 2023-24, as opposed to 82 days for returns submitted in the AY 2019-20 and 16 days for returns submitted in AY 2022-23.
How will I receive the refund?
The Income Tax Department will send the refund amount through electronic mode (direct credit to the account) or through a ‘Refund Cheque’. You must enter the correct bank account number and IFSC code with complete address details, including the PIN code, at the time of filing your return to receive refunds. Refunds sent through cheques are dispatched to the address mentioned in the ITR through speed post.
How is the interest on income tax refund calculated?
When the refund amount is more than 10% of the total tax payable for that particular year, you will receive a simple interest on the tax refund. Interest is computed at 0.5% per month on the refund amount. The interest is computed from the beginning of the next financial year till the refund date.
Is the income tax refund taxable?
No, the refund amount is not taxable. But, the interest received on the tax refund is taxable. The rate of tax on the interest would be as per your applicable tax slab rate.
Is there an income tax refund helpline?
You can contact the ‘Aaykar Sampark Kendra’ for any queries regarding income tax refunds. The toll-free helpline of the Aaykar Sampark Kendra Kendra is – 1800-180-1961. You can even send a mail with your refund query to refunds@incometax.gov.in.
For refund-related queries or modifications in the refund record processed at CPC Bangalore, you can contact – 1800-425-2229 or 080-43456700. For any payment-related query, contact the SBI Contact Centre toll-free number at -1800-425-9760.
What does my refund status mean?
Types Refund Statuses are as follows:
No e-filing has been done for this assessment year
Step 1. What does this mean?
This could mean your IT return was not filed at all.
Step 2. What do I do now?
Double check the Assessment Year that you checked your refund status for. Remember, Financial Year (FY) 2022-23 corresponds to Assessment Year (AY) 2023-24
If you haven’t filed yet e-File your tax return using Cleartax now. You can also get help from a tax expert who can prepare & file your return for you.
Click here to buy an expert-assisted plan
Under processing
What does this mean?
This means that the income tax department has still not processed your income tax return. Please check your refund status after a month to see if it has been updated.
Refund issued
What does this mean?
This means the income tax department has sent the refund to you (by cheque or by direct debit to the bank account number you provided while e-filing).
Processed with no demand no refund
Step 1. What does this mean?
This could mean either:
- The most common case is you filed with no refund and no tax due. In that case, you’re all set for this year.
- It could also be that you did file for a refund, but the income tax department denied the refund because their calculations did not tally with yours.
This generally can happen because of a mismatch of TDS data, incompletely or improperly filled sections in the original filing.
Step 2. What do I do now?
If you forgot to include some deductions while filing, you can revise your return
Read Cleartax’s guide to revising your Income Tax Return.
- When the income tax department differs on the information you’ve provided, they would have also sent you an intimation u/s 143(1) explaining why. You can now fix the errors and file a rectification to support your refund claim.
- You can get help from an expert who can go through your tax notices and tax returns to best guide you. The expert can also help you file a rectification.
Buy an Expert Assisted Plan
Refund Failure
Step 1. What does this mean?
This could mean the bank account details (account number or IFSC Code) that you submitted to the I-T department are wrong and not pre-validated, and hence the refund wasn’t processed.
Step 2. What do I do now?
- You need to log in to incometax.gov.in, enter the correct bank details with the I-T department, and prevalidate the bank details.
After you pre-validate the bank account, apply for the ‘Refund Reissue’ from your e-filing account.
Get Expert Assistance
Case transferred to Assessing Officer
Step 1. What does this mean?
This could mean:
This typically indicates that the IT department needs further clarification/information regarding the income tax return that you filed. The Assessing Officer would like to discuss things further with you.
In some cases, this could also mean that you have some past taxes outstanding with the IT department which will be adjusted against the tax refund requested by you.
Step 2. What do I do now?
On receiving such a message, contact the AO (Jurisdictional Assessing Officer) for your region.
Click here to find out details about your AO
Demand determined
Step 1. What does this mean?
This means:
Your refund request has been rejected, and in fact, the IT department finds that you owe them unpaid taxes instead.
You may also have received a notice from the income tax department with the exact amount of tax outstanding and the reason for the same.
This can happen because of incomplete or improper filling of tax details in the original return, withholding income information, or mismatch in TDS.
Step 2. What do I do now?
Read the intimation the IT department has sent you carefully and figure out where the problem occurred. Cross-check with your own e-filing records to verify the information you provided was accurate.
If you find that your own refund request was indeed erroneous, pay the tax demanded by the IT department within the time limit mentioned in the intimation.
If you think the I-T department made a mistake, you can update your information if necessary and file a rectification supporting your refund claim.
We can connect you to an expert who can go through your tax notices and tax returns to best guide you. They can help you file a rectification.
Buy an Expert Assisted Plan
Rectification processed refund determined
What does this mean?
This message again goes out only to taxpayers who had been served an intimation to rectify their original returns.
The rectified returns may be completely or partially accepted by the IT department.
Based on the rectification, the IT department has calculated the refund amount and credited the refund
Such a message is shortly followed by a revised intimation and the refund amount from the IT department.
Rectification processed demand determined
What does this mean?
This message again goes out only to taxpayers who have been served an intimation to rectify their original returns. The rectified returns may be completely or partially accepted by the IT department.
However, the IT Department maintains that you have outstanding unpaid taxes. You will also receive an intimation with the exact amount that is outstanding and will have to pay this off within 30 days of receipt.
Rectification processed no demand no refund
What does this mean?
This message again goes out only to taxpayers who have been served an intimation to rectify their original returns. The rectified returns may be completely or partially accepted by the IT department.
Based on the rectification, the department arrives at the conclusion that you neither owe any extra taxes nor do you qualify for any sort of refund of taxes already paid.
You will receive a revised intimation clarifying this fact.
We can connect you to a tax expert who can go through your tax notices and tax returns to best guide you. They can then help you file a rectification.
Buy an Expert Assisted Plan
![](https://charteredonline.in/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Mailing-website-list.jpg)