If you are waiting for the income tax refund and not yet received it, there could be an outstanding tax demand from the income tax department. If any tax refund is due, the refund will be adjusted against the outstanding demand. Currently, in order to speed up the processing, the tax refunds up to Rs 5,000 are being issued without adjustment of outstanding demand. However, in the case of higher refunds, it is better to confirm and pay any tax due to the government. Once the outstanding tax is paid to the government, your income tax return will get processed and tax refund, if any will become payable.

To check your Outstanding Tax Demand status, you can log on to the e-filing website of the income tax department and not only submit the response online but also one can pay outstanding tax demand online if any. You can even choose to Agree or Disagree with the tax demand.

Here is how to check Outstanding Tax Demand Status:

Log-on to ‘e-Filing’ Portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
Go to the ‘e-File’ menu, Click ‘Response to Outstanding Demand’.
Click the hyperlink ‘Submit’ located under the ‘Response’ column
As a taxpayer, you can pay the demand by clicking the link under the ‘Pay Tax’ option.
You will be redirected to the NSDL website to pay the tax.
Here, you can choose any one of the listed responses.

Demand is correct – If you confirm ‘Demand is correct’ then you cannot disagree with the demand again.
Demand is partially correct
Disagree with demand
Demand is not correct but agree for adjustment
On choosing ‘Demand is correct’, click on ‘Submit’ button to ‘Confirm’ and complete the response submission process.

On choosing ‘Demand is partially correct’, Enter the ‘Amount which is correct’ and the ‘Amount which is incorrect’ will be auto filled. Select the appropriate reason(s) from the list and fill all the applicable fields, upload the necessary supporting documents and ‘Submit’ the response.

On choosing ‘Disagree with demand’, Select the appropriate reason(s) from the list and fill all the applicable fields, upload the necessary supporting documents and ‘Submit’ the response.

On choosing ‘Demand is not correct but agree for adjustment’, Select the appropriate reason(s) from the list and fill all the applicable fields, upload the necessary supporting documents and ‘Submit’ the response.

On choosing ‘Demand is not correct but agree for adjustment’, Select the appropriate reason(s) from the list and fill all the applicable fields, upload the necessary supporting documents and ‘Submit’ the response.

What to do after paying outstanding tax demand

On successful submission of the response, a success message along with Transaction ID is displayed.