The tax department will start the refund process only after the ITR is verified and the refund amount will be paid if the claim of refund is accepted by the department.
If you fail to submit details of your tax-saving investments to your office or submit it late, the accounts department may deduct more tax than what you are actually required to pay on your taxable income. To claim back the extra tax deducted at source (TDS), you have to file income tax return (ITR). Even for non-salaried persons, who has deposited excess tax, filing ITR is the only solution to get the tax refund.
On filling all required data in the ITR form online, the system will automatically calculate the amount of refund, if any, payable to you. If you use excel utility file, you have to enable the macros while filling the form and have to click on the ‘Calculate Tax’ button after validating the ‘Taxes paid verification’ sheet. Once the tax is calculated, the amount will be shown in the ‘Refund’ row.
After filing, the ITR has to be verified by the taxpayer 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 tax department will start the refund process only after the ITR is verified and the refund amount will be paid if the claim of refund is accepted by the department.
Interest is also paid on the refund amount from the financial year end to the date on which the refund order is processed, which must be included under income from other sources in the subsequent ITR.
The refund amount may be either credited directly in your bank account or a paper cheque may be issued. To credit the refund money directly through RTGS or NECS, the government requires the bank account number of the taxpayer as well as the IFSC code of the branch to which the account belongs to, while to pay through a paper cheque, the taxpayer’s existing banking account number and the correct communication address are required.
The Tax Department sends an intimation under section 143(1) to the taxpayer showing the amount of refund granted as per the calculations done by the department. The intimation may show one of the following:
1. The calculations made by the taxpayer matched with the calculation done by the department and refund is accepted;
2. The calculations made by the taxpayer had minor mismatch with that of the department and refund is granted lesser than the claimed amount;
3. The calculations made by the taxpayer did not match with that of the department, and the refund claim is due rejected;
4. The calculations made by the taxpayer did not match with that of the department, and instead of refund, it turns into tax payable.
If you have filed your ITR 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 on the sites by using your registered PAN.
In the Tax Department website, go to ‘Dashboard’ after logging in and click on ‘View Returns and Forms’. In the ‘View e-filed Returns/Forms’ page, select ‘Income Tax Returns’ from the dropdown to go to the ‘Income Tax Returns’ page and 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, 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 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. In case the refund is made, it will show the mode of payment. If the mode of payment is ECS, 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 payment 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, a link will be provided to update your address and get the cheque reissued. If there was 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’.
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