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Lakhs of taxpayers are troubled by the delay in income tax refund, but now CBDT has given relief by giving a big update. The department says that most of the small refunds have been issued, while investigation into suspicious refunds is ongoing. The government has assured that all the outstanding refunds will reach the taxpayer’s account by November or maximum December.
New Delhi. Crores of taxpayers are troubled by the delay in income tax refunds, but CBDT Chairman Ravi Aggarwal has made it clear that most of the low-value refunds have been issued. At the same time, intensive investigation of high-value and suspicious refund claims is going on. He assured that all pending refunds will be processed by November or maximum by December. According to the department, many returns have been received which include wrong deductions, wrong HRA claims or TDS mismatch. Such cases have been ‘red-flagged’ and notices have been sent to taxpayers.
Why are income tax refunds getting stuck?
According to CBDT, many returns were found in which deductions have been wrongly claimed. These mainly include:
- Wrong deduction under section 80C and 80D
- Fake rent agreement for HRA claim
- Wrong entry related to capital gains exemption
- Errors in TDS
- claims made without proof
- These cases have been marked for re-investigation. Where irregularities have been found, taxpayers have been asked to file revised returns.
Technical problems also cause delay
Many refund delays are also due to taxpayers’ own mistakes. These include:
- Bank account not being pre-validated
- Wrong IFSC Code
- Mismatch of name in PAN and bank records
- Incorrect or closed bank account
- Returns declared ‘defective’
- The refund process also stops due to these small technical errors.
How to check your refund status?
It is very easy to check the refund status. You can find out immediately by following some steps on the Income Tax e-filing portal:
- Visit https://www.incometax.gov.in
- Login with User ID (PAN) and Password
- e-File > Income Tax Returns > View Filed Returns
- Select the concerned assessment year and click on “View Details”
- From here you can see the ITR Processing Life Cycle, which will tell you at what stage your return is and whether any notice has been issued or not.
4. What does the refund status message mean?
- Refund Issued: Your refund has been sent to the bank.
- Refund Partially Adjusted: Some part of your refund has been adjusted towards the tax outstanding.
- Full Refund Adjusted: The full refund has been adjusted against the old tax dues.
- Refund Failed: Bank details are incorrect or validation has not been done.
- CBDT has clearly said that all pending refunds will be issued by December. Therefore, it would be better if the taxpayer updates the bank details in time, corrects the mistakes and responds to the notice immediately, so that the refund can be received without any hindrance.
