Income tax refund will be payable to you only after the tax department processes your ITR and confirms the same through intimation notice. Here is how you can check the status of tax refund.

If you have paid more tax than your actual tax liability for a financial year, then you are eligible to get income tax refund after filing the income tax return (ITR) for that year. However, you will only receive this income tax refund after the tax department processes your ITR and confirms the same via an intimation notice.

This intimation notice is sent to you under section 143 (1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
This year returns have to be filed for FY2020-21 for which the extended last date is currently December 31, 2021.

The income tax refund is processed by the State Bank of India (SBI) and is directly credited to the bank account nominated by the taxpayer in his/her ITR at the time of filing it. Thus, it is important to ensure that you have mentioned the correct bank account number and IFS code.

Further, the bank account must be pre-validated on the government’s new income tax e-filing portal and PAN must be linked with the bank account.

How to track status of income tax refund
You can track the income tax refund on:
a) The new income tax portal or
b) The NSDL website

• On the new income tax portal

The income tax refund status can be tracked on the government’s new income tax portal by following the steps below:

1. Visit www.incometax.gov.in and log in to your account by entering PAN as user ID, and your password.
2. After logging in click on ‘e-file’ option. Under the ‘e-file’ option, select ‘Income tax returns’ and then select ‘View Filed returns’.