New Delhi:

The deadline to file your Income Tax Returns (ITRs) for the assessment year 23-24 has not been extended beyond July 31. However, a lot of taxpayers who filed their returns well in advance are now looking forward to their refund. The ITR refund is available to those who filed their returns and paid more in taxes than was necessary for the fiscal year. But if it’s taking longer than it should, here are some possible reasons for it

1. I-T Department seeking more details: The Income Tax Department could demand additional information from a taxpayer, and this could be one of the reasons for the delay in refund. To make sure the information provided by the taxpayer is accurate, the return may be chosen for inspection. Should this occur, there may be a delay in the refund process.

2. Inconsistency in calculations: A taxpayer’s refund may be delayed if there are differences between the tax computations on the return and the figures examined by the Income Tax Department. If the taxpayer has any outstanding taxes, they may receive a notice. They need to review their documents carefully and make any necessary adjustments to remedy this. If the taxpayer feels the return is inaccurate, they can file a rectification return under Section 139(4).

3. Inaccurate bank account information: Taxpayers need to ensure that the bank account number they provided on their ITR is accurate. Refunds may take longer to process if the bank name doesn’t match the account number.

4. Verification of bank account: Only pre-validated bank accounts are eligible to receive refunds. Taxpayers need to make sure the income tax e-filing system has authenticated their bank account to avoid delays. They need to verify that their IFSC code is current if there have been any recent bank mergers.

5. Inconsistencies in Form 26AS: All taxes related to a taxpayer’s PAN are consolidated into Form 26AS. A refund may be delayed if the TDS information in the return does not match Form 26AS.

Verifying the status of a refund

There are two ways taxpayers can verify the status of income tax refund — through the NSDL website and the official Income Tax portal.

NSDL website

Taxpayers need to head to the NSDL website — tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/refundstatuslogin.html. Then they need to enter their PAN credentials to log in. After that, they have to choose the relevant evaluation year. Then finally they have to click ‘Submit’ after entering the CAPTCHA code to see the status of their refund.

They need to wait at least 10 days after the assessing officer sends the refund to the refund banker before they can verify the status.

Income Tax portal

Here, taxpayers need to go to incometax.gov.in and sign in using their password and PAN or Aadhaar number. Then they have to head to the homepage and select ‘e-file.’ They need to choose ‘View Filed Returns’ after going to ‘Income Tax Returns.’

Then they have to verify the status of their most recent ITR for the Assessment Year 2024–2025 (financial year 2023–24).

To view the current status of their refund, they must click ‘View Details.’

By going through these procedures, taxpayers can determine whether they are eligible for a refund for their income taxes and also find out why the refund hasn’t been paid into their bank accounts on time.

Image used for representational purpose only.
| Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan

Gross direct tax collection grew 15.73% to ₹6.53 lakh crore till August 10 in the current fiscal, the Income Tax department said on August 11.

Net direct tax collection after adjusting refunds stands at ₹5.84 lakh crore, which is 17.33% higher than the net collections for the corresponding period of last year.

Also read | Net direct tax collections up 17.63%, exceed revised estimates target

“The provisional figures of direct tax collections up to 10 August, 2023 continue to register steady growth,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.

The collection is 32.03% of the total budget estimates of direct taxes for current fiscal 2023-24.

Refunds amounting to ₹69,000 crore have been issued till August 10, which are 3.73% higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year.

File.
| Photo Credit: V. RAJU

Individuals reporting annual total income of over ₹1 crore have doubled to 1.69 lakh in the two-year period ending March 2022, the income tax department data showed.

As per the tax return data filed in assessment year (AY) 2022-23, relating to income earned in fiscal 2021-22, 1,69,890 individuals have shown total income of above ₹ 1 crore.

This is higher than 1,14,446 individuals who had shown similar income in AY 2021-22.

The number has doubled since AY 2020-21, wherein 81,653 individuals had declared an income of over ₹1 crore.

During AY 2022-23, over 2.69 lakh entities, including individuals, companies, firms and trusts, have shown total income of above ₹1 crore.

This includes filings by 66,397 companies, 25,262 firms, 3,059 trusts and 2,068 Association of Persons.

In AY 2022-23, the total number of ITR filed stood at over 7.78 crore, higher than nearly 7.14 crore filed in AY 2021-22 and 7.39 crore filed in AY 2020-21.

As regards the state-wise filing count for AY 2022-23, Maharashtra topped the chart with 1.98 crore ITRs being filed, followed by Uttar Pradesh (75.72 lakh), Gujarat (75.62 lakh), and Rajasthan (50.88 lakh).

The list also includes West Bengal (47.93 lakh), Tamil Nadu (47.91 lakh), Karnataka (42.82 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (40.09 lakh) and Delhi (39.99 lakh).

Over six crore taxpayers had filed their income tax returns (ITRs) by Sunday evening, a day before the filing deadline, which the Income Tax Department termed a “new milestone” as this is significantly higher than the total returns filed by July 31, 2022.

Nearly 26.8 lakh taxpayers filed their tax returns by 6:30 p.m. on July 30, while more than 1.3 crore “successful logins” were recorded on the e-filing portal of the IT department. Similar logins on July 29 stood at 1.78 crore.

“We extend our gratitude to taxpayers and tax professionals for helping us reach this milestone, and urge all those who haven’t filed ITR for AY 2023-24, to file their ITR at the earliest to avoid last-minute rush,” the department said, signalling that there might not be an extension to the July 31 deadline, though there have been pleas to do so in the wake of the strife in Manipur and the floods in parts of the country.