ITR Refund Still Not In? How to Check Its Status, Why It Gets Stuck, and the Interest You Get

If you filed your income tax return for FY 2025-26 months ago and the refund still has not arrived, you are not alone. CA Dilbagh Singh, writing on 8 November 2026, says most returns are processed and refunds issued within weeks, but a large number are still pending in November, and in most cases the hold-up is something you can check and fix yourself. There is no official 2026 refund timeline that could be verified, according to Spendzie's research published on 6 November, so your own return's status on the Income Tax Department's e-filing portal is the most reliable answer, not a date quoted in a forwarded message.

Start by checking the status properly. Log in to incometax.gov.in with your PAN and go to e-File, then Income Tax Returns, then View Filed Returns, and open your AY 2026-27 return. As CA Dilbagh explains, the timeline shows submitted, verified, processed, and then refund issued or refund failed. Also check your email and the portal's Pending Actions for an intimation under Section 143(1) or a notice, because many refunds are reduced or held back due to an adjustment explained in that intimation.

The common reasons for a stuck refund are straightforward. Your return may not be e-verified, and a return is complete only after verification, which should be done within 30 days of filing. Your bank account may not be pre-validated on the portal or linked to your PAN, and refunds are credited only to a pre-validated account. Your PAN may be inoperative if it is not linked with Aadhaar, in which case no refund is issued. Or the income or TDS in your return may not match your AIS or Form 26AS, or the refund may have been adjusted against an outstanding demand from an earlier year under Section 245.

If the status shows refund failed, the department tried to pay but the credit bounced, usually because of a closed account, a name mismatch or an incorrect IFSC, according to CA Dilbagh. Update and pre-validate the correct bank account under My Profile, then use Services and then Refund Reissue on the portal to ask for the refund to be paid again. If there is no progress for a long time, raise a grievance through the Grievances menu on the portal with your acknowledgement number.

A delayed refund also earns interest. Under Section 244A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, interest is paid at 0.5% for every month or part of a month, which works out to 6% a year, as both Spendzie and CA Dilbagh report. For a return filed by the due date, interest runs from 1 April of the assessment year, which is 1 April 2026 for AY 2026-27, to the date the refund is granted. If you filed late, interest runs only from the date of filing. No interest is paid if the refund is less than 10% of the tax determined, any delay caused by you is excluded, and the interest itself is taxable as income from other sources in the year you receive it.

Separately, there is a deadline coming up for a smaller group of taxpayers. The CBDT has extended the ITR due date for specified tax-audit cases for AY 2026-27 from 31 October 2026 to 21 November 2026, and the tax audit report date from 30 September to 21 October 2026, under Circular No. 07/2026 dated 28 September 2026, as reported by India Briefing on 29 September and by Spendzie. The extension applies only to persons subject to tax audit, not to all taxpayers, and transfer-pricing cases under Section 92E sit in a separate category. If your PAN is not linked with Aadhaar, that alone can block a refund, so our guide explains how to link your PAN card with Aadhaar.