Income Tax: Delay in a refund due to multiple returns and last-minute filing of ITR..

There is a delay in getting an income tax refund this year. Last year people were getting refunds in 7-10 days, whereas this time even after a month has passed, people have not received refunds. In this case, the Income Tax Department says that the first reason is that this year a lot more ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed as compared to last year.

The second reason is that July 31 was the last date for filing ITR and in the last three-four days more than two crore people filed ITR. Their verification will take time. According to the Income Tax Department, 7.28 crore ITRs were filed till July 31 for the assessment year 2024-25, whereas 6.77 crore ITRs were filed till July 31 last year.

2.28 crore ITRs filed this year

51 lakh more ITRs had been filed till July 31. Due to the large number of ITRs, their verification also takes time, and due to this, there can be some refund delays. According to a senior official of the department, now the refund of those who have filed returns in the last week of July may take some time because it takes one month to verify TDS.

This year, 2.28 crore people filed ITR between 27 July and 31 July. Verification of these returns is expected to be done between 26-30 August. According to the official, as per the rules, a refund can be issued within 90 days of filing the return.

The Income Tax Department first checks the TDS and a refund is issued only if there is a correct claim. A senior Income Tax official said that in countries like America, a TDS refund is done immediately and there are a lot of frauds in this matter. But in India, the refund process is started only when the department is assured that the TDS amount has been received.

According to the department official, it usually takes four to five weeks for the refund to reach the account. If the refund is not received even after five weeks, then the taxpayer should check online once to see if there is any deficiency in the ITR. If there is any deficiency, the department is sending information about it online to the taxpayers.

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