ITR Refund Delay 2026: Refund Wait Continues For Many Taxpayers, With Little Clarity On Timelines

Several taxpayers who filed their income-tax returns months ago are still waiting for refunds to show up in their bank accounts, according to a recent report by Mint, prompting quiet anxiety over what exactly is holding things up this year.

For most people, refunds aren’t just a pleasant bonus. They can be part of household cash flow and budgeting, especially when returns are filed early in the cycle. That is why the delay has become a talking point among taxpayers who swear they did everything “by the book”—filed on time, verified the return, and even triple-checked that the bank account was active.

The reasons for the holdup are not uniform. A senior tax practitioner said that the income-tax department is now cross-checking returns against a wider pool of information than before. Details from 26AS, AIS, and TIS are being matched against disclosures in the return, and even small mismatches can put a file in a slow lane. “The department has more data than ever; the scrutiny isn’t adversarial, just cautious,” the practitioner said.

Verification Gaps And Quiet Adjustments

In some cases, the delay is less dramatic. A few taxpayers appear to have clicked past the verification step, assuming filing alone was enough. If the return isn’t verified through Aadhaar OTP, net banking, or old-fashioned ITR-V, there is no refund, only an invalid return waiting to be revived. Others discovered their bank account, though correct, wasn’t pre-validated on the portal. A dormant account or an outdated IFSC code can be enough to send the refund into limbo.

The department also quietly adjusts refunds against earlier dues. These adjustments are supposed to be communicated through intimations, but many filers don’t notice until they check the portal. “The portal tells the story, but only if you bother to look,” a financial adviser half-joked.

When Patience Starts To Wear Thin

What should taxpayers do if the silence continues? The first port of call is still the e-filing portal. Notices, mismatches, adjustments, and processing notes usually sit there before they show up anywhere else. If nothing is amiss, the next step is a grievance. Those with patience have also reached out to the CPC helpline and, in stubborn cases, to the assessing officer. None of these are glamorous route, but they tend to prod files out of dormancy.

What the episode reveals is not hostility from the tax office, but an administrative culture that now errs on the side of double-checking. The modern tax system leans heavily on data, and the data takes its time to reconcile. While refunds will eventually be paid, taxpayers have learnt that “processed” does not mean “credited,” and certainly not on a schedule of their choosing.