ITR Processed, but Didn’t Receive Refund Yet? Here’s What You Should Do

Many taxpayers are experiencing confusion this year as their Income Tax Return (ITR) status shows ‘processed’, yet no refund has been credited to their bank accounts. This delay has caused confusion and frustration, especially when the record number of ITRs has been filed for the assessment year 2025-26. 

As of early September, more than 7.68 crore returns have been filed this year, with more than six crore already processed by the Income Tax Department. Despite this, many taxpayers have written on social media that their refunds are still pending/missing, even though their ITRs have been marked as processed on the portal.

What may be reasons behind delayed/pending refunds?

A ‘processed’ status means the tax department has completed your return verification and final calculation of tax liability or refund. However, it doesn’t always mean that your refund has been credited. Behind the delay in refund, many factors like incorrect/incomplete bank details, not matching tax data, or simple backlogs at the processing stage, may be responsible.

In many cases, refunds fail because the bank account linked for the refund is either inactive, not fully verified, or the IFSC code entered is wrong. At times, there can be a mismatch between the tax deducted as shown in Form 26AS or the Annual Information Statement and what’s mentioned in your ITR. Such discrepancies/mismatches may cause a delay in the refund by putting the refund on hold until they are corrected.  

What steps can you take?

First, you can log in to the income tax e-filing portal and check the refund or demand status under your account.

If the portal indicates that your refund has been issued but you haven’t received it in your bank account yet, please double-check your account details and contact your bank to inquire about any potential delays on their end.

If the provided bank details are correct and no refund has been credited, you can raise a refund reissue request through the e-filing portal in this case. This request will help the department to recheck, reprocess, and reissue the refund to your verified bank account.

Sometimes, the refund may take anywhere between 15 to 30 days to be credited in your verified bank account, even after processing the refund. The delay could also be linked to the involvement of NSDL (now Protean eGov Technologies), which is responsible for handling refund disbursements for the department.  

If it has been more than a month since your ITR was processed and the refund is still not credited, you can reach out to the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) of the Income Tax Department in Bengaluru. You can also contact the department via the helpline numbers available on the e-filing portal or through the helpdesk section.

Moreover, every taxpayer must ensure that their email and mobile number registered on the e-filing portal are up to date, as the department sends alerts and refund updates through them.