About Income Tax Refund
Refund processing rectification under Section 154 outstanding demand reconciliation and CPC follow-up. Forms handled: Form 26AS, AIS, Section 154 application. Legal basis: Section 154 rectification Section 244A interest.
Plain-English glossary for this service
Stay of demand is the order under Section 220(6), or by CIT(A), ITAT or a higher court, restraining the recovery proceedings against an outstanding demand. The stay protects the demand from being adjusted under Section 245 against a determined refund, provided the stay order is uploaded with the response.
Article 226 of the Constitution of India confers writ jurisdiction on the High Courts. Refund-related writs before the Madras High Court are common where rectification under Section 154 is not disposed of within the Section 154(8) six-month window or where Section 241A withholding is patently outside the statutory scheme. The remedy is supplementary, not parallel.
Form 26AS is the tax credit statement maintained on the TRACES platform under Rule 31AB. It consolidates TDS deducted by deductors, TCS collected, advance and self-assessment tax paid, refund issued, SFT entries and other tax-relevant data. Reconciliation of Form 26AS with the return is the first step in refund-claim verification.
Refund Reissue Request is the e-filing portal workflow to re-trigger the disbursement of a refund that failed to credit on the first attempt. The request requires selection of a pre-validated bank account and is processed by CPC after revalidation of the underlying assessment record.
Annexure E intimation is the format prescribed by CPC for issuing the Section 245 set-off notice. The intimation lists the assessment years of the demand sought to be adjusted, the quantum and the response window. Practitioners check Annexure E for stale, stayed or extinguished demands and frame the disagree response accordingly.
Refund is the amount returned by the income-tax department to the taxpayer where the aggregate of tax deducted at source, tax collected at source, advance tax and self-assessment tax exceeds the tax properly chargeable for the assessment year. The right to refund is conferred by Section 237 of the Income-tax Act 1961, and the quantum is determined either by summary processing under Section 143(1) or by regular assessment.
AIS is the comprehensive annual information statement introduced under Section 285BB read with Rule 114-I, capturing TDS, TCS, specified financial transactions, demand-and-refund history, securities transactions, foreign remittances under Section 195 and rental income. AIS feedback is the optional taxpayer response against any line in the statement, flagging it as fully correct, partially correct, denied or duplicate.
Outstanding demand is the amount payable by the assessee under any provision of the Income-tax Act 1961, as reflected on the Outstanding Demand register maintained on the e-filing portal. The demand may be raised on processing, scrutiny, penalty, interest or appellate giving-effect; it is the eligible counterpart for Section 245 set-off against a determined refund.
TDS credit is the credit for tax deducted at source available to the deductee under Section 199, read with Rule 37BA. The credit is claimable in the assessment year in which the income subjected to deduction is assessable. Mismatches between Form 26AS and the return drive summary disallowance and refund shrinkage.
Withholding under Section 241A is the discretionary hold placed on a refund determined under Section 143(1), where the return has been picked up for scrutiny under Section 143(2) and the Assessing Officer apprehends adverse impact on revenue. The withholding requires recorded reasons and Pr. CIT approval.
Section 245 set-off is the power of the Assessing Officer or CPC to adjust a refund due to a taxpayer against any sum payable by the same taxpayer for any earlier year, after giving thirty days' prior intimation to respond. Old demands sitting in the e-filing portal for years can surface only when a current-year refund attaches to them, which is why the 'Outstanding Demand' tab must be cleared before every fresh refund-eligible filing.
Outstanding Demand tab is the e-filing portal section under 'Pending Actions' that shows every demand outstanding against the taxpayer across all assessment years, including stale legacy demands that have never been intimated by post. Clearing this tab — either by paying, contesting under Section 154 or rectifying — before every refund-eligible filing is the only reliable way to pre-empt a Section 245 surprise set-off.
Operative provisions cited on this page
Every claim on this page can be traced back to a section or rule below.
Section 237 of the Income-tax Act 1961 establishes the foundational right to a refund. It is to be noted that any person who satisfies the Assessing Officer that the amount of tax paid by him, or on his behalf, or treated as paid by him for any assessment year exceeds the amount with which he is properly chargeable under the Act for that year is entitled to a refund of the excess. The entitlement is statutory and not discretionary; the role of the Assessing Officer is to verify, not to grant ex gratia.
View sourceSection 238 prescribes the legal representative competent to claim a refund where the income of one person is included in the total income of another, where the assessee is a deceased individual, an insolvent, a lunatic, or any other person under a legal disability. Sub-section (1) clarifies that the refund is claimable by the person on whose behalf the tax was paid; sub-section (2) authorises the legal representative, trustee, guardian or receiver as the case may be. The provision avoids the unjust enrichment of the revenue at the cost of the actual contributor.
View sourceSub-section (1) of Section 239 provides that every claim for refund under Chapter XIX shall be made by furnishing a return of income in accordance with the provisions of Section 139. The earlier requirement of filing a separate Form 30 stood substituted by the Finance Act 2019 — the return itself is treated as the refund claim. The limitation period is governed by Section 139 — for original returns up to the due date under sub-section (1), and for delayed claims through the updated-return route under sub-section (8A) where eligible. Refund claims outside these timelines require condonation under Section 119(2)(b).
View sourceSection 240 obliges the Assessing Officer to refund any amount which becomes due to the assessee as a result of an order passed in appeal or other proceeding under the Act, without the assessee having to make a fresh claim. The proviso clarifies that where the assessment is set aside or cancelled and an order of fresh assessment is directed, the refund becomes due only on the basis of the fresh assessment. The Assessing Officer is duty-bound to give effect to the appellate order within the limitation period prescribed under Section 153(5).
View sourceSection 241A, inserted by the Finance Act 2017, empowers the Assessing Officer to withhold the refund determined under Section 143(1) where the case has been selected for scrutiny under sub-section (2) of Section 143, if the grant of refund is likely to adversely affect the revenue. It is to be noted that the withholding requires the prior approval of the Principal Commissioner or Commissioner, and reasons in writing must be recorded. The provision is a check on automatic refund release where a scrutiny addition is reasonably anticipated, and the assessee retains the remedy under Section 244A for interest on any refund eventually granted.
View sourceSection 242 lays down that in any claim for refund under Chapter XIX, the assessee shall not be entitled to question the correctness of any assessment or other matter which has become final and conclusive, or to ask for a review of the same. The refund proceeding is confined to verification of the excess of tax paid over the tax properly chargeable; it is not a parallel route to reopen completed assessments. The remedy against an adverse assessment lies in appeal under Section 246A, revision under Section 263 or 264, or rectification under Section 154, as the case may be.
View sourceSection 243 governed the payment of interest on delayed refunds for assessments completed before the first day of April 1989. Sub-section (1) provided for interest at six percent per annum from the date immediately following the expiry of three months from the end of the month in which the refund order was passed. For assessments on or after 1 April 1989, Section 243 stands superseded by Section 244A. The section retains residual application to legacy refund disputes and to writ litigation involving pre-1989 assessment years.
View sourceSection 244 covered the payment of interest at fifteen percent per annum where the refund arose from an order passed in appeal or other proceeding and was not granted within three months of the appellate order. The provision applied to refunds for assessment years up to 1988-89. From assessment year 1989-90 onwards, the unified interest framework under Section 244A occupies the field. Knowledge of Section 244 remains relevant where the underlying refund relates to a legacy assessment year reopened by appellate intervention.
View sourceForms used in this engagement
Captures salary, one house property, other-source income and refund claim for resident individuals not having business income; Schedule TDS and Schedule TCS feed the refund computation
Used by salaried persons with capital gains, foreign assets, multiple house properties or income exceeding the SAHAJ thresholds; Schedule TDS-1, TDS-2 and TCS feed the refund determination
Captures business and profession income including partner-of-firm income; Schedule TDS-2 covers non-salary TDS; Schedule BP feeds the computation underlying the refund
Used by resident individuals, HUFs and firms (other than LLP) with presumptive income up to ₹50 lakh from profession or ₹3 crore from business; refund arises where TDS by clients exceeds the presumptive tax
Captures partnership and LLP income; refund commonly arises from advance-tax overpayment or TDS by clients exceeding the entity-level liability
Captures domestic-company income; refund commonly arises from MAT credit set-off under Section 115JAA or advance-tax overpayment; Schedule TDS feeds the credit pool
Used by entities claiming exemption under Sections 11, 12, 13A, 13B, 10(23C) and similar; refund arises where TDS on interest income or rental income exceeds the entity-level tax after exemption
Filed by the deductor on TRACES to claim refund of tax deducted in excess of liability; supported by an indemnity bond and the CIT(TDS) sanction
Triggered on the e-filing portal after a refund credit failure; requires a pre-validated and EVC-enabled bank account selection from My Bank Account
Standalone refund claim form used prior to the Finance Act 2019 amendment that integrated the refund claim into the return of income; retained for legacy or special-circumstances claims
Filed on the e-filing portal under Services > Rectification to correct an intimation that mis-stated tax credit, denied a deduction or omitted advance-tax payment
Manual application to the jurisdictional authority establishing genuine hardship; supported by reasons explaining the delay and proof of the underlying excess-tax payment
Compliance deadlines that matter
Miss any of these and the next consequence kicks in automatically.
Standard Section 244A Refund vs Section 245 Set-off Withheld Refund
Three named tax practitioners — not a faceless outsourcer
B.Com, CA Inter, GST Practitioner. 15+ years and 500+ Chennai engagements. Leads the notice-reply and CMA project-report practice.
B.Com. 15+ years in statutory and ROC compliance, partnership-firm matters, and audit-support engagements.
B.Com, M.Com. 5+ years on monthly GST returns, GSTR-2B reconciliation, and ASMT-10 first-touch responses.