HOW TO DEAL WITH INCOME TAX REFUND DELAYS

Delay or non receipt of tax refund is the biggest grievance of many taxpayers. Some common reasons for delay are unintentional error in bank details, delay in processing of paper income tax return and change in residential address.

REFUND QUALIFICATION: Most companies ask their employees to declare the details of their tax planning at the beginning of the year, but some employees fail to make such declaration and it leads to higher tax deduction which in turn results in tax refund.
Some individuals pay advance tax on the capital gains they make during the year.

EFILING SPEEDS UP REFUND PROCESS: If return is filed electronically then there will be speedy processing of refunds. Mostly refunds are received within 3 months of filing the return.

STEPS FOR A FASTER REFUND: To get timely and hassle free refund you should provide correct details such as bank account number, MICR code,etc. This will help in directly depositing refund in bank account of tax payer
In case of refund through cheque, you should ensure bank details mention in return is correct. It is better if an individual opts for a direct credit facility as the expiry date on cheques have been reduced, to 3 months from 6 months from the date of issue.Newly married or divorced females should ensure that the name in the bank account provided is the same as the one on the PAN card.

TRACKING YOUR REFUND: An individual can track income tax refund status online in simple steps, visit tin.tin.nsdl.com/refundstatuslogin.html, then entrer PAN, select assessment year and click submit. Then applicable refund status would be displayed.

DEALING WITH DELAYS IN REFUND: A tax payer should visit the tax office to follow up refund and enquire on the reasons for it not being processed.

REFUND OF EXCESS TAX BY IT DEPARTMENT

IT departments has asked its officials to refund excess tax to tax payers even if they are hit by limitation period of 4 years. CBDT ( Central Board of Direct Taxes) has issued circular to assessing officers regarding issuing excess amount after due verification, so adjusted by CPC (Central Processing Centre at Bengaluru) due to inaccurate figures of arrear demand uploaded by assessing officer.
This circular will also help assessing officers in resolving disputes regarding arrear demands shown as outstanding against them in records and refund the excess tax collected.

Under the existing provisions of the Income Tax Act, the assessing officer cannot look into refund cases which are more than four years old. Now tax payers will be relaxed and can now get their refund even after 4 years.

INCOME TAX REFUND AT RECORD HIGH

Many of us don’t know the benefits of filing income tax return electronically. If return is filed electronically then one will get his refund within 3 months of filing the return.
This will also save time to go to income tax department as after filing return electronically one has to send the printed acknowledgement on the address mentioned.

As more of people are becoming aware of efiling, refunds given by income tax department of India hit record high in financial year 2011-12. Refunds given were approximately Rs 1lakh crores which is 32.4% more than financial year 2010-11.
This amount is expected to increase in current financial year.

If you want your refund earlier, do file your income tax return electronically and through this you can even track the status of your refund.

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