Pending assessments may delay ITR refunds
Published in The Economic Times | April 2025
Gaurav Jain, Partner, Direct Tax, shared key insights on the withholding of income tax refunds in light of pending assessments, as flagged by the Income Tax Department.
He said, "Every ITR is processed by the income tax department in a faceless manner, through a Centralized Processing Unit (CPC) at Bangalore. The CPC can either accept the same as it is, raise tax demand, or process a refund of tax as per the claims made by such assessee in its ITR.
The aforesaid time of 50 days is the time available with the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer to examine case of the assessee and seek approval from the higher officer, i.e. CIT to communicate to the CPC to withhold the refund due to the assessee, to protect interest of the revenue from any tax demand that may arise, if an assessment is pending in case of such assessee."