There can be various reasons why you have not received your tax refund yet. Once you visit the refund status in the income tax e-filing portal, your list of issues will be mentioned there.

Even if you have filed your income tax return (ITR) within the due date for assessment year (AY) 2019-20, there could be various reasons why you have not received your income tax refund yet.

One of the common reasons includes furnishing incorrect bank account details in the ITR form. Earlier tax refund was issued either in the form of a cheque or direct credit to the bank account of the taxpayer. However, the income tax department now credits the refunds only in the form of direct credit in the taxpayer’s bank account. Additionally, from this assessment year, these accounts need to be pre-validated and linked to the taxpayers’ PAN.

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A refund on income tax can be claimed by a taxpayer if excess income tax has been deducted from his/her income during the year. This usually happens where tax is deducted at source (TDS) or in cases of multiple incomes. To get the income tax refund, the taxpayer files an income tax return for the relevant financial year, the income tax department then refunds this excess tax paid.

There can be various reasons why you have not received your tax refund yet. Once you visit the refund status in the income tax e-filing portal, your list of issues will be mentioned there. The issues include, e-Filing has not been done for the assessment year, not determined, no demand no refund, ITR processed refund determined and sent out to refund banker, refund unpaid, demand determined, contact jurisdictional assessing officer, or refund paid.

What can be done about it?

1. Reason: IT department needs additional documentation to process your refund request
The taxpayers need to contact the assessing officer immediately, submit the documentation requested. It can be via telephone or post and also get an acknowledgment from the officer on the same.

2. Reason: Refund request rejected.
It can also be that the taxpayer’s refund request has been rejected, and as per the IT department, the taxpayer owes the taxes. The taxpayer might also receive a notice from the department stating the outstanding tax amount they have to pay.
If one is in such a situation, he/she needs to check all relating documents, and recalculate the tax liability and refund receivable. If the filed figures are correct the taxpayer needs to file a rectification supporting his/her claim. Or else, the taxpayer needs to pay the outstanding amount demanded by the department within the time limit mentioned in the notice.

3. Reason: Refund rejected, as request found to be incorrect as per the IT department.
A taxpayer will be issued a notice from the tax department if they think the taxpayer’s refund request is incorrect. In case a taxpayer receives such a notice, he/she can file a rectification to support his/her claim.

4. Reason: Deduction not included
If the taxpayer has forgotten to include deductions, and if the IT department has not started to process his/her returns, the taxpayer can go ahead to revise his/her returns and add the missed-out deduction he/she is eligible for.

5. Reason: Bank account details incorrect
If the taxpayer has provided incorrect bank account details to the income tax department while filing returns or if the bank account details have changed, the taxpayer needs to communicate the latest account number and MICR code to his/her assessing officer.

6. Reason: Request under process. This delay could be for two reasons:
i. The income tax department is taking the time to process the taxpayer’s request. The taxpayer should make sure that he/she has sent the ITR-V within 120 days from the date of e-filing.
ii. The income tax department has processed the refund from their end but there is a delay at the bank’s end. In this case, the taxpayer can revise his/her returns and send the new acknowledgment to CPC, Bengaluru.

7. Reason: Returns filed physical, and not online.
If returns are filed in physical forms, it takes time as the processing of physical filing forms takes time. The taxpayer needs to wait for the income tax department to reconcile the paperwork.