ITR Refunds For AY 2023-24: Step-By-Step Guide On How To Check Your Income Tax Refund Status?

The deadline to file your income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2022-23 return is approaching nearer with each passing day. The last date for filing your ITR for FY 2022-23(AY 2023-24) is July 31. If you miss the deadline, you will attract late fees under Section 234F, which can be Rs 5,000 if the taxable income exceeds Rs 5 lakh. In addition, taxpayers will be entitled to claim an income tax refund if the amount paid by them as taxes exceeds tax liability.

An individual is eligible to claim an income tax refund from the government if the taxes paid by then are in excess of their financial liability for the respective financial year. The refund amount is usually calculated at the time of filing ITR and credited to your bank account as and when the refund is processed by the income tax authorities.

Recently, the income-tax department asked taxpayers to rectify false claims of refund, if there is any, by filing revised returns for the current assessment year and updated returns for the last assessment year.

If this is not done and the tax department detects the fraud later, Taxpayers will have to pay a heavy penalty – 200% of the tax payable with 12% interest – and may even face imprisonment. 

Meanwhile, for those taxpayers who have already filed their ITR for AY 2023-24 and are waiting for your tax return, a new functionality has been launched on the income tax portal through which they directly check the tax refund status.

Earlier, taxpayers used to check the refund status on the TIN-NSDL website. Though one can still check their income tax return status from the TIN-NSDL website, this time there is a new functionality on the income tax portal (I-T portal), which allows you to check refund status from the portal itself.

Steps To Follow To Check Income Tax Refund Status:

Step 1: Go to the E-filing portal. 

Step 2: Scroll down the ‘Quick Links’ section till you see ‘Know Your Refund Status’. Click on it.

Step 3: Fill in details, including your PAN number, assessment year (2023-24 for the current year), and mobile number.

Step 4: You will receive an OTP. Enter the OTP in the given place.

Once this is done, it will show you the income tax refund status. If there are issues in your ITR bank details, it will just show: ‘No Records Found, please check your E-filing processing status by navigating through e-File - > Income Tax Returns - > View Filed Returns‘.

According to the income tax portal, as of July 2, 2023, around 1.32 crore ITRs have been filed for AY 2023-24. Of these, around 1.25 crore income tax returns have been verified so far. 

Of the total ITRs, over 1.25 crore returns have been verified by taxpayers. But to the surprise, only 3973 ITRs have been processed by the Income Tax Department till July 2.