Refund Failed or Stuck? How to Check Status and Raise a Refund Reissue Request on the e-Filing Portal

You e-verified your return in July 2026, the intimation under Section 143(1) confirmed a refund, and yet four weeks later your bank account is still untouched. This is one of the most common post-filing worries for salaried taxpayers, and in almost every case the money is not lost: it is held up by a single fixable detail such as an unvalidated bank account or an inoperative PAN. The Income Tax Department lets you check the exact status and re-trigger the credit through a refund reissue request, and this guide walks through both steps with a worked salary example.

Refunds are processed by the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) in Bengaluru only after a return is e-verified, and the portal exposes the live status for every assessment year. Knowing how to read that status, and what each failure reason means, turns a stressful wait into a five-minute fix.

The Scenario

Consider Arjun, a salaried software engineer in Pune. He filed his ITR-1 for Assessment Year 2026-27 on 18 July 2026, e-verified it the same day, and the system computed a refund of Rs 19,200 because his employer and bank together deducted more TDS than his final liability. By 20 August 2026, more than four weeks later, no credit had arrived. When he logged in, the refund status read "Refund Failed".

This is the typical timeline that triggers anxiety: the Department states that refunds usually take 4 to 5 weeks to credit, and processing begins only after e-verification of the return. So a return filed and verified in mid-July could legitimately still be in the pipeline in late August. The difference between "still processing" and "failed" is exactly what the status screen tells you, and the fix depends entirely on which one you see.

The most common reasons a refund of any size fails, per the Income Tax Department refund user manual, are an unvalidated bank account, a name mismatch between the bank records and PAN, an invalid IFSC code, or an account that has since been closed. A separate but frequent blocker is an inoperative PAN: if your PAN is not linked with Aadhaar, the portal treats it as inoperative and withholds the refund entirely until linkage is restored.

Statutory Answer

The right to a refund flows from Section 237 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which entitles a taxpayer to a refund where the tax paid for an assessment year exceeds the amount properly chargeable. The refund is quantified when your return is processed and an intimation is issued under Section 143(1), which is the document that confirms the refund figure you are chasing.

Where the refund is delayed, the Act compensates you. Under Section 244A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, interest is payable at 0.5 per cent per month (6 per cent per annum) on the refund amount. For a return filed within the due date, the interest generally runs from 1 April of the assessment year up to the date the refund is granted. A built-in proviso means no interest is payable if the refund is less than 10 per cent of the tax determined, so very small refunds may carry no interest.

Two other provisions matter when a refund seems to vanish. Section 245 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 permits the Department to set off a refund against any outstanding tax demand from an earlier year, but only after giving you prior written intimation and an opportunity to respond. If your status reads "Adjusted against demand" rather than "Failed", this is the provision at work, and you must respond on the portal within the 30-day window stated in the Section 245 intimation. Separately, the inoperative-PAN block stems from the requirement to link PAN with Aadhaar, which has been mandatory under Rule 114AAA and the related CBDT circulars.

You can confirm the statutory text of these sections on the official code repository at indiacode.nic.in, and the procedural rules are documented in the Department's own help pages on incometax.gov.in.

Worked Resolution

Take Arjun's numbers in full so the refund figure is transparent. His gross salary for FY 2025-26 is Rs 18,00,000 and he opts for the new tax regime. After the standard deduction of Rs 75,000, his taxable income is Rs 17,25,000. Applying the FY 2025-26 new-regime slabs, his tax works out as follows.

Because his income exceeds Rs 12,00,000, the Section 87A rebate of up to Rs 60,000 does not apply, so his final liability is Rs 1,50,800. During the year, TDS of Rs 1,70,000 was deducted across his salary and fixed-deposit interest, which means Rs 1,70,000 minus Rs 1,50,800 leaves a refund of Rs 19,200. You can reproduce this in seconds with the income tax calculator, and compare regimes using the old vs new regime calculator to confirm the new regime is right for your profile.

Now the reissue itself. To check the status, log in to the e-Filing portal and navigate to e-File then Income Tax Returns then View Filed Returns, and open View Details for Assessment Year 2026-27. If the status shows "Refund Failed", the credit reached the banking layer and bounced, so the cause is almost always a bank-account problem. First, pre-validate the correct account under My Bank Accounts, ensuring the account is active, the IFSC is valid, and the name matches your PAN exactly. Only a validated and EVC-enabled account can receive a refund.

Once the account is validated, raise the reissue: go to Services then Refund Reissue, click Create Refund Reissue Request, select the assessment year, choose the pre-validated bank account, and submit using Aadhaar OTP or another e-verification method. The Department then re-attempts the credit, typically within a few weeks of a successful request.

On the interest, Arjun's refund of Rs 19,200 exceeds 10 per cent of his tax determined (10 per cent of Rs 1,50,800 is Rs 15,080), so Section 244A interest applies. If the corrected refund is credited four months after 1 April 2026, the interest is 0.5 per cent per month for four months, that is 2 per cent of Rs 19,200, or roughly Rs 384, paid on top of the refund. If too much TDS is a recurring problem for you, the TDS calculator helps you estimate deductions before they happen.

Before you raise any reissue, run two quick checks. First, confirm your PAN is operative by viewing the Link Aadhaar Status under Profile; an inoperative PAN silently blocks every refund regardless of how many reissue requests you file. Second, reconcile the refund figure against your Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement so the TDS credited matches what you claimed, because a mismatch can cause the CPC to recompute and reduce the tax refund for that assessment year.

FAQ

How long does a refund reissue request take to process?

The Department states that refunds usually take 4 to 5 weeks to credit from the point processing begins. A reissue request, once the bank account is validated, generally follows a similar few-week window. Keep checking the status under View Filed Returns for Assessment Year 2026-27 until it reads "Refund Issued".

My PAN is inoperative. Will I still get my refund?

No. An inoperative PAN, caused by PAN not being linked with Aadhaar, blocks the refund until you restore linkage. Check the Link Aadhaar Status under Profile on incometax.gov.in, complete the linking, and only then raise the refund reissue request, otherwise the credit will fail again.

Why does my status say "Adjusted against demand"?

This is Section 245 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 at work: the Department has set off your refund against an outstanding demand from an earlier year. It must give you prior intimation, and you have 30 days from that Section 245 notice to agree or dispute the adjustment on the portal before the set-off is confirmed.

Do I earn interest while my refund is stuck?

Yes, in most cases. Section 244A grants interest at 0.5 per cent per month (6 per cent per annum) on the refund, generally from 1 April of the assessment year to the date it is granted, provided the return was filed on time. No interest is payable where the refund is less than 10 per cent of the tax determined.

My refund failed because of a closed bank account. What do I do?

Pre-validate a different, active account under My Bank Accounts, making sure the IFSC is correct and the account-holder name matches your PAN. Once it shows as validated and EVC-enabled, raise a fresh refund reissue request under Services then Refund Reissue and select the new account.

What if I never e-verified my return?

Then processing never started, which is why no refund moved. Refunds are released only after e-verification, and you must e-verify within 30 days of filing. If you missed that window, complete e-verification and, where needed, follow the condonation route before expecting any refund or reissue.

Can a name mismatch alone cause a refund to fail?

Yes. If the name on your bank records does not match the name on your PAN, the banking validation rejects the credit and the status turns to "Refund Failed". Correct the name with your bank or pre-validate an account whose name matches your PAN exactly, then raise the reissue request.