Income Tax Refund Delayed? What a Freelancer Can Do

You filed your return in July, e-verified it, and the status still says nothing useful. Your income tax refund is delayed, the TDS your clients deducted is sitting with the department, and every week you check the portal hoping the money has landed. Most people either keep waiting or start ringing random numbers.

Before anything else, check that your PAN is operative: an inoperative PAN holds back refunds.

A delayed refund usually has a cause you can find and fix yourself: a return that is not e-verified, a mismatch in your tax statements, a bank account the portal has not validated, or an old demand. This post walks through each one in the order worth checking, how to ask for a refund to be sent again, what interest you can expect, and where to complain. It covers returns for assessment year 2026-27 (financial year 2025-26).

A refund is paid only after e-verification and processing, so check those two first

The department pays a refund only after your return is verified and processed. An unverified return is treated as if it was never filed properly, so nothing moves. If you filed but skipped e-verification, do that first, and if you are past the date, read the guide on what to do after missing the ITR deadline.

Processing is the step where the department compares your return with the data it holds and issues an intimation. If the intimation shows a refund, the department queues it for payment to your bank account. If it shows a mismatch or a demand, the refund waits, and the guide to the intimation under Section 143(1) explains how to read it. Refund delays are rarely random. Something sits between processing and payment, and the rest of this post covers the usual suspects.

Check the refund status on the portal before you assume it is stuck

Log in to the income tax e-filing portal and look at the status of your return for the assessment year, then open the refund details if they are shown. The status tells you whether the return is verified, processed or still pending, and whether a refund has been issued or has failed. Your answer to "is it stuck" is on that page, not in a forum thread.

Read any message on the portal and any email from the department along with it. A refund failure, an outstanding demand or a request for information all show up there. If the status shows a refund that was issued but you see no credit, the bank account is the next thing to check.

A bank account that is not validated is the most fixable cause

A refund is paid only to a bank account that is pre-validated on the portal. If your account is not validated, or the details do not match, the refund fails even though your return was fine. The portal lists accounts that failed under "Failed Bank Accounts" and gives a Re-Validate option. Listed reasons for failure include a PAN, bank and IFSC linkage failure, a name mismatch and an account number mismatch.

Freelancers hit this more than salaried people because they change banks, open a new current account for the business, or carry a name on the account that differs from the PAN spelling. Check that the account you chose for the refund is the one that is validated, that the name matches your PAN, and that the account is active. Fix it first, and then raise a reissue request as described below.

A mismatch with 26AS or AIS holds back a refund

If the TDS you claimed does not match what appears in your Form 26AS or AIS, or your reported income does not match them, the department can hold the refund until the difference is resolved. A client who deducted TDS but did not deposit it or did not file the TDS return leaves you with a credit you claimed that the department cannot see.

Compare your return line by line against 26AS and AIS. If a client's deduction is missing, the guide on TDS not deposited and 26AS mismatches explains how to chase the client and use the TRACES grievance route. If the mismatch is your own error, correcting the return is usually the cleaner fix, and the guide to the 143(1) intimation shows how to respond.

A refund can be set off against an old demand, and you get written notice first

The department can adjust your refund against a demand that is still outstanding from an earlier year, but it has to tell you in writing before it does. You respond on the portal under Pending Actions, using "Response to Outstanding Demand". If you agree with the demand, you can let the adjustment happen. If you disagree, say so in your response with your reasons.

Read the deadline on the actual notice you received, because it decides how long you have to answer. If you never saw such a notice, check your registered email, including spam, and the notices on the portal, since an old demand is the sort of thing that sits unnoticed for years.

Request a refund reissue when the refund fails

When a refund fails, you raise a refund reissue request on the portal after the department has communicated the failure. You need a filed return with a refund failure, a validated bank account, and a way to verify the request, which is Aadhaar OTP, a digital signature certificate or an EVC. The steps are in the department's own refund reissue user manual.

On the portal, go to Services, then Refund Reissue, then Create Refund Reissue Request. Pick the record, choose a validated account, and select Proceed to Verification. E-verify the request and note the Transaction ID it gives you. You can track the request afterwards under "View Refund Reissue Request". Keep the Transaction ID with your return acknowledgement, since you will quote it if you need to follow up. The manual also lists the CPC helpline numbers, 1800 103 0025 and 1800 419 0025, which work from 08:00 to 20:00 on Monday to Friday.

Section 244A interest compensates for delay, with limits

If your refund is delayed, the department pays simple interest at 0.5 percent per month or part of a month under Section 244A for returns of financial year 2025-26. For refunds of TDS and advance tax, the interest runs from 1 April of the assessment year. Interest is not paid for a delay that is your own doing, such as filing late or responding late to a notice.

As an illustration for AY 2026-27 only, take a refund of ₹20,000. Each month or part of a month in the interest period adds ₹100 (0.5 percent of ₹20,000), so ten such months would be ₹1,000, before any period that is excluded as your own delay. The exact amount shows on the intimation and the portal, so check there rather than counting months yourself. The Income-tax Act 2025 has the equivalent in Section 437, also at 0.5 percent per month, but returns for AY 2026-27 are still under the 1961 Act. If you want to see what your own tax and TDS credit could look like before you file, the freelance tax estimator gives a rough picture, and the simple guide to freelance tax covers the basics.

Raise a grievance when nothing moves

Raise a grievance on the portal under the CPC-ITR Refund category. Do it after you have checked verification, the bank account and any pending actions. Scroll to the footer, open Contact Us, choose Grievances, and pick the CPC-ITR category for Refund. You get an acknowledgement number, and you track the grievance under View Grievance.

Write the grievance with facts: your PAN, the assessment year, the acknowledgement number of your return, the refund amount you claimed, and what you have already done, such as re-validating the account or raising a reissue request. A specific grievance gets a specific reply. Where the portal's own replies run out, a CA can look at your return and notices and tell you what the department is actually holding.

Keep your records ready so the next refund is cleaner

Keep your invoices and client payments in one place so you can check them against 26AS and AIS yourself. Rinto lets you mark invoices paid and always know who owes you what. Rinto does not file returns, track refunds, reconcile tax statements, give tax advice or compute your final tax, so the return and the refund stay on the income tax portal. This post is general information, not tax advice, and a CA or the portal can confirm what applies to your return.

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