Am a regular IT filer. Filed on 2-Jun-23 and e-verified on the same day. Checked online - went to the first processing on 1-Sep. Continues to be there. Finalization stage has not been reached yet, to get refund. Several grievances raised in the portal but to no avail. I get only machine driven reply! Who can I escalate to?

Ans: The Income Tax Act provides that no intimation under section 143(1) can be issued after the expiry of 9 months from the end of the financial year in which the return of income is filed. Therefore, the filed ITR has to be processed within nine months from the end of the financial year in which the ITR was submitted. If the ITR is not processed within this time period, the tax department has to flag the submitted ITR for further scrutiny, etc.

There are several reasons why it takes a long time for an ITR to get processed. “The ITR processing time generally depends on several factors, such as the complexity of the ITR , the ITR form selected, amount of claims in the form of deductions / exemptions, whether such deductions / exemptions are already covered in Form 16, etc.

In case a taxpayer’s ITR remains unprocessed even after waiting for a considerable time, he/she may raise a complaint on the “Grievance tab” of the income tax portal. Also, the taxpayer can reach out to the central processing centre (CPC) through their helpline numbers.

After the tax return is processed by IT Department, it usually takes an average of 4-5 weeks for the tax refund to be credited to the bank account of the taxpayer. Also, it is seen that in some cases, the tax refund has been processed within 7-8 days of filing the tax return.