Filed your ITR? Don’t forget this essential step to receive your refund

Simply filing your ITR doesn’t guarantee a refund. You must link and validate your bank account on the e-filing portal. After e-verification, refunds are processed within 4–5 weeks, often with 6% annual interest for delayed payments.

New Delhi: Income Tax Refund (ITR Refund) is a process in which the Government of India refunds the amount of excess tax paid by the taxpayers. This situation arises when a person has paid more money than his actual tax liability during the financial year.

This excess payment can be due to various reasons, such as an excess amount of tax deducted at source (TDS), advance tax payment, or overpayment of self-assessment tax. While filing the income tax return, the taxpayer can claim the amount of this excess payment.

Once the return is filed and e-verification is completed, the Income Tax Department usually deposits the refund amount in the taxpayer's bank account within 4 to 5 weeks. However, just filing the ITR does not automatically result in a refund. Some important conditions need to be fulfilled for this.

Conditions to get return

The first and foremost condition is that the taxpayer's bank account should be linked and verified with the Income Tax e-filing portal. If the account is not added on the portal, or it is deactivated or closed, the refund amount will not reach your account, and the process may get stuck.

Therefore, it is extremely important to ensure that you have an active and valid bank account linked on the portal.

How to link your bank account?

The process of adding a bank account is quite simple. First, log in to the Income Tax e-filing website with your user ID and password. After that, go to the 'My Profile' section and click on the 'My Bank Accounts' option.

There you will see the 'Add Bank Account' button. After clicking on it, a new form will open where you have to enter your bank account number, type of account (such as savings or current), name of the account holder, and IFSC code of the bank.

After pressing the 'Validate' button, the system will check the account information and show a confirmation message on successful validation.

Government also pays interest on refund

A good thing is that the refund amount also receives interest from the government. This interest is paid for the time from the date of issuance of the refund to the date of issuance of the refund. The rate of interest is 0.5% per month (i.e., 6% per annum). Thus, by following the right procedure, the taxpayer not only gets his excess tax back but also receives interest as an additional benefit.