ITR refund status: how to check it and what to do when it is stuck

1. Log in to the e-filing portal.
2. Open e-File, Income Tax Returns, View Filed Returns.
3. Choose the assessment year and open View Details. The life cycle shows each stage with dates: filed, verified, under processing, processed, refund issued.

The payment leg can also be tracked on the NSDL (Protean) refund status page with your PAN and assessment year, which shows the date and mode of credit once the refund has been sent to the banker. The intimation under section 143(1), emailed when processing completes, states the refund amount determined.

1. Bank account not pre-validated, closed, or in a name that does not match the PAN. The refund is credited only to a validated account linked to your PAN.
2. Return not e-verified. Processing does not begin until it is.
3. TDS claimed that is not in Form 26AS. The credit is denied and the refund shrinks or becomes a demand; see our 26AS guide.
4. Mismatch with the Annual Information Statement. Income reported by a bank or broker that is not in the return holds the return for verification.
5. An outstanding demand for an earlier year. The department proposes to adjust the refund under section 245 and waits for your response on the portal.
6. PAN inoperative because it is not linked to Aadhaar. No refund, and no interest for the period, until it is linked.
7. Large or unusual refunds selected for additional checks, or a defective-return notice you have not answered.

1. Under My Profile, My Bank Account, add or revalidate the account. It must be a savings or current account in your name, with the PAN and mobile number matching, and the status must show validated and nominated for refund.
2. Open Services, Refund Reissue, create a request, choose the assessment year and the validated account, and e-verify the request.
3. The refund is usually re-credited within two to three weeks.

Under section 244A the department pays simple interest at 0.5 percent a month, 6 percent a year, on refunds of tax deducted or paid in advance, from 1 April of the assessment year where the return was filed on time, or from the date of filing where it was late, up to the date the refund is granted. No interest is paid where the refund is less than 10 percent of the tax determined, or for delay attributable to the taxpayer. The interest is itself taxable as income from other sources in the year you receive it.

If processing has stalled for months with no communication, raise a grievance on the portal under e-Nivaran addressed to the CPC, quoting the acknowledgement number. If a demand or an adjustment is wrong, the response has to be filed, with workings, on the portal; our notice reply service does exactly that, and a CA-filed return avoids most of the seven reasons in the first place.