The Indian tax season for 2024 ended on 31 July 2024, taxpayers who have filed their income tax returns on time and overpaid the taxes must be eagerly waiting for their tax refund. The taxpayers can track their income tax refund status to know at which the refund is processed.
Income Tax Refund Status
The taxpayers who paid more taxes than they were expected to pay to the Income tax department are entitled to receive a tax refund from the agency. Taxpayers who have filed their income tax return on time must be anticipating their tax refunds.
The Indian tax department usually takes four to five weeks to disburse your tax refund into your account when the taxpayer e-verifies the return. According to reports, for the AY 2023-24, around 7.09 crore returns are filed, out of which 6.96 crores are e-verified. The agency has processed the 6.46 crore returns including the 2.75 crore refunds.
If the taxpayers do not get the tax refund by the said interval, they should check their ITR filed for any errors, check their email for any notification from the IT department for tax refund, or check their tax refund status.
The tax refund status has the following type of statuses that tells you about your tax refund:
- Under processing: Your tax refund is still under review, the department may take more time to process your refund.
- Refund is issued: When your tax return is approved by the Income tax department and you have e-verified the return, your tax refund is issued by the authority.
- Refund Partially Adjusted: This indicates your tax refund is issued but not fully.
- Full Refund adjusted: This indicates your full tax refund is issued by the authority and you will shortly receive your tax refund.
- Refund is failed: When the bank account details are invalid, the refund will not proceed which can lead to failure of tax refund.
Details you will need to check the Income Tax refund status
Taxpayers who anticipate their tax refunds and would like to check their tax refund status will need the following information in hand to track the refund status:
- Your PAN card linked with an Aadhar card
- Your e-filing portal valid ID and password
- Your acknowledgment number of the filed ITR for the Assessment year you are expecting the tax refund.
Taxpayers can track their income tax refund through the income tax department e-filing portal as well as through the National Securities Depository (NSDL) portal.
How to track your Income Tax Refund Status via the e-filing portal?
Taxpayers can track their tax refund status through the IT Department e-filing portal in the following steps:
- First, visit the official e-filing portal of ITR at incometax.gov.in
- Next, click on Login on the top right-hand side corner and enter the User ID/ PAN Aadhaar ID. Taxpayers who haven’t linked their PAN with Aadhaar will have to first link their PAN with AAdhar with the Link button given in your PAN incorporative message.
- Next, go to the e-file tax and navigate to Income tax returns.
- Next, in the Income tax returns, click the View Filed Returns option.
- After you click your View Filed Returns, your tax refund status will appear on your screen with all the information of your filed return.
How to track your Income Tax refund status through the NSDL portal?
The taxpayers can also track their income tax refund on the NSDL portal for income tax refund tracking through the following steps:
- First visit, the official NSDL portal for Refund tracking at https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refund-status-pan.html
- Next, enter your PAN number and the Assessment year for which you are expecting the refund.
- Next, enter the captcha code in the designated box and click Proceed.
- Your Income tax refund status for the Assessment year will appear on your screen.
How will you receive your Income tax refund?
The Income Tax Department sends the tax refund through your chosen payment method. The payment method can be electronic (direct deposit) or a refund cheque. Hence, the taxpayers are advised to submit the correct bank details and IFSC code with their PIN code in their filed income tax return to timely receive the income tax refund.
The electronic or direct deposit tax refund process is faster than the refund check, hence taxpayers are advised to always choose direct deposit to their bank account as the payment method of their tax refund.
Possible Reasons for Your Tax Refund Failure
The tax refunds of the taxpayers on the due date can fail to process in your account due to the following reasons:
- Your bank account details submitted with the ITR are not closed or valid anymore.
- Your bank account is pre-validate, though the process is automatic, but you must check the pre-validate status in your e-filing account after 10-12 days of sending the request.
- Your name in the bank account and PAN card do not match.
- You have entered an invalid IFSC code or bank account number.
What to do when your tax refund is delayed?
Taxpayers should contact the IT department to re-issue the refund on the e-filing portal by e-verifying his/her tax return details. When you still have not received the refund you can submit a grievance report to the e-filing portal.
In response to your grievance report, the authorities will let you know the reason for your tax refund delay and the next step to receive the refund if any. However, before doing any of this, taxpayers must ensure that their tax refund is e-verified, their bank is pre-validated, and their bank account is still open to receive the refund to ensure that everything is right from their end.
The Income-tax Department has taken all the measures to process the tax refund faster for the Assessment Year 2023-24, the taxpayers can expect their tax refund in 4 to 5 weeks in their account, till then they can check their tax refund status and get certain of their tax refund.
