Do you know how to find your income tax refund status online? Yes, there is a simple way of finding out the status of your income tax return online. A lot of people are clueless about the refund status! Now, one can just enter their PAN number and the Assessment year for which the refund status is to be known and get the status update on a click of a button.
How to check Income tax refund Status Online
All you need to do is go to this website and enter your PAN number and choose the Assessment year and click on submit. This will give you the current status of your income tax refund. You can also track the status of the income tax refund by contacting the help desk of SBI’s at toll free number: 18004259760 or email them at itro@sbi.co.inor refunds@
Note that the income tax refund is valid only if you file your income tax return on time. If you delay the income tax return filing, in that case you will lose the interest on your refund money. I hope you know that filing your tax return online helps one to get tax refund faster than offline return filing.
What can be different types of Income tax refund Status ?
1. Change in address
A lot of income tax refunds get dispatched at right time, but they go back because of the change in address. A lot of people keep moving from one place to another and because of this the income tax refund status shows “Refund Cheque returned because of change in address” reason in the status. Look that the snapshot below
2. Cheque Encashed Status
Incase one has already en-cashed the cheque which has come for income tax refund, and then he will see the following message in the status box. If you see this and haven’t already got the cheque – you are in problem!
There can be other status also depending on the situation . the above two status’s were just for demo purpose .
Some Important Points about Income Tax Refund
- The State Bank of India (SBI) is the refund banker to the Income Tax Department (ITD). So State bank of India sends the income tax refunds
- Refunds are generated in two modes i.e., ECS and paper. If the taxpayer has selected mode of refund as ECS (direct credit in the bank account of the taxpayer) at the time of submission of income return the taxpayer’s bank A/c (at least 10 digits ) and MICR code of bank branch and communication address are mandatory . For taxpayers who have not opted for ECS refund will be disbursed by cheque or demand draft. For generation of refund through paper cheque bank account no, correct address is mandatory.
- The status of the refund would be available for tax payers, only 10 days after the refund has been sent by the Assessing Officer to the refund banker.
- Refund status can be viewed only if you have received an acknowledgement from the IT department of having received the ITR form.
Did you check your Income tax refund status ? If No , then check it soon and let us know what is the status ?
 |
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Manish,
What need to be done if the cheque is returned due to change in address
what need to be done to update the address for communication.
Well what i realized is even if you correct your address while filing your returns they will still consider the address you mentioned while applying for your PAN card. So in my case i had to update my PAN Card by changing the address, then there is form which needs to be sent to IT dept, CPC B’lore in my case and there you need to mention your old address and your new address and also if you want the money to be credited online, you can request the same in that form by providing the bank details and a cancelled cheque.
Great info Manish.
Just want to put one more information… that we can even call on Toll Free Number of Central Processing Centre (CPC) – Bengaluru :- 18004252229 to check the status of Returns.
But the information present here about SBI was new to me. I guess, its CPC who process the returns and disburse through SBI. Plz correct me if I am wrong.
Thank a lot Manish. It is really helpful.
Manish,
Just a humble suggestion. Please hide PAN numbers in the screen shot. You may prevent some misuse of them.
Thanks for the article.
Ashish
thats a random PAN number . I have it from lakhs of PAN floating around on web . But yea .. next time I will mark it black
In the blog post, its mentioned that the income tax refund will not be received, if the return of income is filed late. However, this is an incorrect opinion and I would like to bring to your kind attention that, even if a taxpayer files a delayed return of income, he will still be eligible to get a refund if its due to him.
Amit
Yea .. i wanted to write “interest will be lost on refund money if late filing is done” . I have corrected it now . thanks for pointing it out
Manish
Hi,
I am getting following message against my refund status “Unable to credit refund as the account number provided by you is incorrect”.
Could you please let me know to whom should I contact to update my account number?
You should be contacting the help desk of SBI’s at toll free number: 18004259760 or email them at itro@sbi.co.in or refunds@incometaxindia.gov.in
Thanks Manish
Hi Manish & fellow JIans,
I am getting these messages for all the assessment years since 2007. I started working from Sep’2006 onwards.
a. Your assessing officer has not sent
this refund to Refund Banker.
b. If this refund has been sent by
your Assessing Officer within the
last week, you may wait for a week
and again check status.
This is because your IT returns are not processed by your assessing officer. If you have a copy of IT returns submitted then go to the ward office mentioned on that and give an application for processing them. This happens because of several reasons, so we cant for what reason it was stopped.
This is applicable only for manual IT Returns submission not for online returns filing.
Thanks Mr Kanreddy… fortuantely I have all the return copies which I submitted maually till 2011… so I should go to the IT office in Jamnagar (I work here), meet the Ward Officer to sort out this issue …
Thanks Manish for guiding me. As far as returns are concerned, I think whatever is deducted from my salary in a year comes back (all or a portion of it) if I submit proofs of tax-saving investments I guess.
Saurav
Was there any refund in your case ?
For any refund related query the tax payer should contact Aaykar Sampark Kendra at 0124 2438000 or email at the id’s given in the article .
For refund related query/ or any modification in refund record relating to Return processed at CPC Bangalore, the CPC may be contacted by the taxpayer on 1-8004252229 or 080-43456700
ECS refund is convenient and we can avoid the difficulties of collecting or accepting the cheque, deposit it in time etc.
Jerry
That happens if the proper bank info is given
Manish
This is in Reply to comment of Utpal………U can give ur present address in ITR from if it is different from PAN address….i am doing this since last 2 years and i m getting refund cheque at my new address.
Not sure mate i did provide my present address but they sent it to an address where i used to live 6 yrs back when i got my PAN card and the CPC callcenter folks asked to update the PAN address and after doing it they sent it to the new address.
Dear Manish
Please note that there is no rule in IT Act, if you delay the income tax return filing, in that case you will lose the refund money. I filed always return after due date and got refund in the next AY. Currently I filed the return on 25 Aug’2011 and got refund in Dec’11. Last date of filing return does not mean you lose refund money, if you delay the IT return and attract any penalty, if you file the same till in the next AY. Subsqueant, AO may impose Rs 5000 as penalty for non filing of return, if your tax liability arises and not deposited on time. Hence, last date of filing of return means, if you have any outstanding tax liability, you do deopsit the same before or on last date of filing of return, otherwsie, you would have to deposit
with interest @ 1.5% p.m. and there is no other issue.
Happy tax filing return
Suresh
yea .. there is mistake in what i wrote , you acutally loose the interest part on refund amount incase you file return late
Thanks for pointing that out
Manish
Manish,
“you acutally loose the interest part on refund amount incase you file return late” even this statement is also wrong. Even I was in the same impression till sometime back. I’ve got interest for the refund amount even after I filed my returns after sept. Even in the rule book and from some CA’s I got this info that you will lose interest but IT dept is still paying interest for that.
Great info Suresh bhai,
can U solve 1 of my queries plz? I would like to talk to U if U r ok with it.
Hi,
I shifted my residence during April,2011 & my refund cheque was returned back in the month of May-2011. In the meanwhile I have changed my address with IT thru my Consultant vide a letter & supported by PAN address changed with the new.
Still as on date I have not received my refund cheque in my new address.
On consulting my consultant they say f.up on. In such circumstance what should i do.
Please reply.
Rajit
this refund thing takes a lot of times sometimes .. so you have to be patient
Manish
Hi Manish,
Nice article. I have a query regarding income tax refund claim. I have only salary+interest income, which means i can use Sahaj (ITR-1) form for return filing. In case i was unable to provide rent details to my employer, how do i claim a refund while filing return using ITR-1 ? ITR-1 has only fields for writing 80* deductions, and nothing for HRA claim !
Secondly, what should i fill in Circle/Ward field ? Is it mandatory to fill the same as last year (or whatever it shows on IT website under jurisdiction section) ? Is it possible that last year i filed the return under CPC bangalore ward, and this time i file from another ward say in Noida ?
Thanks in advance !
Ritesh
In that case you dont need ITR 1 , choose a form which also has place to mention refund
Manish
Hi Manish,
I checked all the forms, none of them have Section 10 (13A) for HRA provision. I think ITR-1 should suffice, and we may have to deduct calculated HRA exemption from total income!
Any clue on the ward/circle query ?
Thanks.
Applied for CIBIL TransUnion Score (Including CIR) today. Payment done using credit card- No Issues faced. But there was nowhere to upload the ID and Address proofs requested, so wondering what to do about it??
Also, though I have held/hold many credit cards but I entered information only about 2 under the assumption that they need it for PAN and other accounts correlation/verification purpose and once verified they’ll be able to fetch my other accounts details too. Hope that is okay!!
Now just waiting to get my credit score with fingers crossed.
Manish- I am planning for a home loan in near future, can I leverage this CIBIL report (hoping it comes out good) for negotiating on interest rates or anything? I mean in India, do the banks (nationalised or private) really give enough weightage to this report?
Umang
When you apply for your CIBIL score online, you dont need to upload those documents ,you mention those documents so that incase of failure in payment, you can send the same documents via post to them to get your score .
Now, if you have a good score ,you can really negotiate your interest rate or atleast ask them to waive off processing charges and ask them for faster disbursement of your loan , You can also tell them that you have some relative at Some XYZ bank and he was saying that you can get better interest rates at their banks.
Manish
Hi Manish,
Thanks for your response.
I have got my Credit Score- 795/900. How do you think is it? Can I really use this score for negotiations anywhere?
Also, to be frank I was expecting a real good score since I have never defaulted my credit card payments and have taken no loan in the past. Thus, I am really wondering why my score has come low as 795!!
The report is so huge, I am hardly able to make out anything from it other than my score. There are not even any reasons stated on the report describing why this score!! How am I supposed to improve this score unless I know where it went wrong?
Regards,
Umang
Umang
795 is a good score . Dont worry too much , but definately a much higher score is better . How old is your credit history ? Because a good score comes when there is good history , if it has been just 1-2 yrs , then your score might be less because of that . Keep paying your dues on time and make sure you utilise your credit behaviour too . It will improve over time . Also find out more on how to read the CIBIL score, its there on net
Manish
hi manish,
i m a regular reader of ur articles.
as return filing time is up ahead , hats off to you for yet another nice article at the right time.
well i have sm queries.
1. i hv bought a house for 35 lacs, for which i took 26 lacs of loan frm HDFC, can i get exemption of 1 lac capital and 1.5 lac interest paid that means a total of 2.5 lacs.
2. if suppose i buy a second house can i realy get full interest exemption .
3 if my wife and i become the co-owner of the house can v both get exemption of unlimited interest seperately.
4. if my wife was a co-owner of my first house (which is not the case as i m the only owner of my first house) cud v hv both enjoyed the exemption of 1 lac for capital and 1.5 lac interest paid separately.
5. one more thing about filing of return: as per now i m filing a return thru a CA who is taking 12 %of refund money as he brings the cheque. one benefit of this thing that he surely brings the chaeque in abut 5-6 months, can it be safe to go for ECS option for refund. what if the money is not refunded or delayed because i can run to get money back as i remain very busy.
Dear manish ,
my refund check is returned and the reason mentioned is that “no such adress”.
Now what is the possible recourse .
pls tell.
chandan Garg
Chandan
You will have to contact the tax department and investigate why this happened ? May be the postal department was not able to find out the address
GUIDE ME
PAN NO:BPHPS1924N I HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE INCOMETAX REFUND
FOR A.Y. 2009-10 AND A.Y. 2010-11. THE CHEQUES WERE SENT TO MY
ADDRESS BUT I WAS NOT IN TOWN THEREFORE THE CHEQUES NOT
DELIVERED AND RETURN TO YOU. KINDLY SEND BOTH THE REFUNDS
IN MY BANK A/C. THROUGH ECS. MY BANK NAME: DENA BANK BRANCH:
SUN MIIL COMPOUND S/B A/C NO: 051310003116 MICR CODE:400018072
I’ve been e-filing for the last 4 years. For 3 of these years, there has been a refund due.
When I check at CPC, it says the case has been transferred to the jurisdiction office. They are unable to tell me why. The jurisdiction office, for some reason, has not changed, even though the last time I filed a return with that address was 3-4 years back.
My attempts to take this further are now stuck, because I don’t know anyone in that city to follow up in that local office.
For financial year 2009-10, finally, there is an update as on Jan 25th, 2012 – “Adjusted against outstanding demand. (CIN-BSR code 0004329 Challan deposit date – 24012012 Challan Sequence no – xxxxx)”
Anyone has any clue what this is? I have not received any communication from the deptt. about any demand. (at least on my email address – anything sent to a previous physical address- who knows!)
For other years, it keeps saying that refund banker has not received refund order.
People keep receiving refunds within 2-3 months of filing. I’ve yet to see a refund in 4 years
Better ask this on jagoinvestor.com/forum
hi,i did not rec my tax refund of assessment year 2009-10 because of my wrong address.my refund cheque got sent back what do i need to do? plzzreply
Surinder
There are contact details given in the article , contact there !
I filed my I. Tax Return before due date manually for AY 2011-2012.
Do I have to wait till 31 – 03 -2012 before I can expect the refund cheque.
Sudhir
When you do not do it online, then it takes couple of months like 10-12 months , sometimes even more
Thanks Manish,
I need to move to online for future.