How To Check IT Refund Status

If you paid more tax to the government in the previous fiscal year (FY), for example, FY 2019-20, you must file an income tax return (ITR) to receive a refund. When an individual’s advance tax, self-assessment, and/or tax deducted at source (TDS) paid throughout the financial year exceeds their tax liability, higher tax is frequently paid.

If the tax department judges that a refund is due to you after processing your ITR, you will be notified by SMS and email. You will be notified of the amount of the refund that will be credited to your account, as well as the refund sequence number. Under section 143 (1) of the Income Tax Act, you will receive an intimation.

The State Bank of India handles the reimbursement (SBI). The refund is either deposited directly into the taxpayer’s account via RTGS/NEFT or issued as a check or demand draught and mailed to the taxpayer’s registered address. When completing your ITR, double-check that you have entered the correct bank account information, as the refund will be credited to this account.

From March 1, 2019, the tax department will only issue e-refunds to bank accounts that have a PAN linked to them and have been pre-validated on the e-filing website.

How to keep track of the status of your tax refund

There are two ways to track your income tax refund status, according to Abhishek Soni, CEO of Tax2Win.in, a tax filing website.

These are as follows:

1. a) On the income tax e-filing website
2. b) On the TIN NSDL website

On the e-filing website

You must complete the following actions to check the status of your tax refund:

1. Go to www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and fill out the online form.
2. Sign in to your account using the following information: PAN, password, and captcha code.
3. Select ‘View Returns/Forms’ from the drop-down menu.
4. From the drop-down option, choose ‘Income Tax Returns’ and submit.
5. Select your acknowledgment number, which provides a connection to the system’s appropriate evaluation year. The assessment year for FY 2019-20 is AY 2020-21.
6. A new webpage will display on your screen, detailing all aspects of your ITR filing, from the day it was filed to the date it was processed and the date it was issued a refund.
7. It will also provide information such as the assessment year, status, reason for failing (if any), and payment method.

On the TIN NSDL website

Alternatively, the TIN NSDL website can be used to verify the status of an income tax refund. 10 days after the refund has been forwarded by the department to the bank, i.e., SBI, the refund status is available on the website.

This is how you can find out about the status of your tax refund:

1. Go to https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin.html and fill out the form.
2. Fill in your PAN information.
3. Choose the appropriate assessment year for which you want to check the status of your refund.
4. Type in the captcha code and hit the submit button. A notice will appear on your screen depending on the status of your refund.

What does the status message signify?

As previously stated, depending on your refund status, you will receive a notice; this is the case with both the income tax e-filing and the TIN-NSDL websites. The following are the messages that are displayed:

 

1. i) Refund Status – Expired: This indicates that the refund check you received was not deposited in the bank within the time period specified. A cheque has a 90-day validity period during which the taxpayer must submit the cheque to the bank in order to obtain payment. In this case, a taxpayer must use the e-filing system to make a “refund re-issue request.”

 

1. ii) Status of Refund – Refund Received: There are two possible explanations for this. If you receive your tax refund via ECS (electronic clearing service), the money transfer will be delayed if you provide incorrect bank account information. Because you gave the wrong address or your house was locked, a check or demand draught could be returned.

 

iii) Refund Status – Direct credit was attempted but failed: It signifies that SBI attempted to credit the refund money directly but was unable to do so for one of the following reasons:

1. The account was closed; 
2. The account’s operations were halted/restricted/on hold; 
3. It was a fixed deposit, loan, or Public Provident Fund (PPF) account; 
4. It was a non-resident Indian (NRI) account; 
5. The account holder may have died;
6. The account information is wrong.

 

1. iv) Refund Status – Refund handled via NEFT/NECS but failed: This indicates that a refund via NEFT/NECS mode has failed. In this scenario, the taxpayer should double-check the account number, account description, and MICR/IFSC code provided when the return was filed.

 

1. v) Refund Status – Adjusted against outstanding demand from previous year: This indicates that the current year’s refund has been partially or fully adjusted against outstanding demand from the prior assessment year. Under section 245, the tax agency has complete jurisdiction to do so. However, such action can only be taken once the taxpayer has been notified in writing of the action that would be taken.

 

1. vi) ECS refund advice received but not reflected in your bank account: You may have gotten an email from SBI containing information on the refund amount credited to your account. The beneficiary name, account number, IFSC/MICR code, NEFT UTR Number or NECS sequence number, and other information will be displayed on the ECS advisory, just as it is on the TIN website. If the same amount does not appear in your bank account, check with your bank to see if the money was credited to the incorrect account. For more information, drop an email to itro@sbi.co.in.

Request for a refund re-issue

If you need to file a refund re-issue request as a result of any of the mistakes listed above, you can do so by following these steps:

1. Go to www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in to access the income tax e-filing website.
2. Select the ‘Service Request’ option from the ‘My Account’ tab.
3. Choose ‘New Request’ as the request type and ‘Refund Reissue’ as the request category.
4. A new screen will emerge, including PAN, return type, assessment year, acknowledgement number, communication reference number, and response information.
5. Press the ‘Submit’ button.
6. You will be asked to provide your bank account and address information.
7. To finish the process, you must use an electronic verification code (EVC) or a digital signature certificate (DSC) to verify your identity.