• Notification Date: 31-07-2023
• Notification No: N/A

Income Tax Refund Time reduced to 12 hours as Taxpayers file in Record Numbers

Income Tax Refund processing time has become faster than before. Earlier, taxpayers, who filed their Income tax returns for AY 2023-24 had to wait for a few weeks for the processing of refunds. But in July, many tax filers received their refunds within a few days.  

On Thursday, a taxpayer on social media claimed he received his tax refund within 12 hours. Sharing screenshots of his ITR filing and refund deposit messages, Twitter user Nirnay Kapoor, who is a journalist by profession, wrote he had never experienced such fast processing of the refund. He had filed his return in the morning on July 27 and received the message of refund deposit by the evening of the same day. 

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that tax-filing reforms have resulted in the speedy filing and processing of income tax returns. She said there has been a 100 percent increse in the total percentage of ITRs processed within one day of their filing compared to the previous year. 

According to tax experts, return filers should never worry about refund processing as the system has become very fast compared to previous years. Instead, taxpayers should try to file their returns as early as possible to become eligible for early refunds and avoid last-minute filing hassles. 

There is also another benefit of early ITR filing. The Income Tax Department pays interest at the rate of 0.5% per month on the refund when ITR is filed by a taxpayer before the due date. The calculation of this interest is done from April 1 till the date of refund. 

The due date to file ITR for taxpayers whose accounts don’t need to be audited is July 31. Till July 27, more than 5 crore returns have already been filed by taxpayers. Also, the Income Tax Department has already processed over 2.69 crore verified ITRs. If you haven’t filed your ITR yet, you should try to file it as soon as possible to avoid late fee and other consequences.