Income Tax latest news: I-T dept gives important update on ITR refund status message

The Income Tax department has stated that it has issued over Rs 1.76 lakh crore worth refunds to over 1.65 crore taxpayers in this fiscal so far. 

Out of the total income tax refunds,  personal income tax refunds of Rs 58,631 crore have been issued in 1,62,39,742 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 1.17 lakh crore have been issued in 2.11 lakh cases.

"CBDT issues refunds of over Rs 1,76,217 crore to more than 1.65 crore taxpayers between 1st April 2020 to 18th January 2021," the income tax department tweeted.

January 10 was the last date of filing Income Tax Returns for the financial year 2019-20. However, the deadline was for taxpayers whose accounts are not required to be audited and who file their returns using ITR-1 and ITR-4 forms. 

The due date for taxpayers requiring audit is February 15.

ITR-1 is opted by individuals whose income does not exceed Rs 50 lakh while ITR-4 is for individuals, who have an income of up to Rs 50 lakh and presumptive income from business and other professions.

The income tax department is issuing refunds only electronically this time. This means that refunds are credited directly to the bank accounts and if there is an issue with the details of the same, the refunds would get delayed.

The bank account details can be corrected online on the income tax department's portal. It is to be noted that the bank account is required to be linked with the PAN.

The income tax refunds can only be issued to the bank accounts that are prevalidated. It can be done on the tax department's website. The taxpayers can log in with their PAN and password and choose the option to prevalidate their bank account. It requires a bank account number, mobile number, IFSC code and email ID linked to the bank account to finish the process.