Here's Why Your ITR Is Yet To Be Processed
If you are among those, whose ITR are yet to be processed, you may be wondering why is it taking longer.
The deadline to file income tax returns for the Assessment Year 2024-25 came to an end on July 31 with over 7 crore taxpayers filing their returns.
According to data available on the Income Department's portal, 7,43,52,113 taxpayers had filed their return of which 7,17,75,297 ITRs were verified as of 4 pm on Aug. 23.
The IT department has processed over 5.3 crore forms, or 74.44%, of the total ITRs verified. This means that more than 25.5%, or 1,83,43,686 forms, are yet to be processed.
If you happen to be part of this group, you may wonder why is it taking longer for your ITR to process and if you should be worried.
The government claims that the average ITR processing time has been cut down to 10 days now from 53 days a decade ago. So what's causing the delay in the processing of pending ITRs? There could be multiple factors:
Form Type: A key reason why some ITRs take longer to be processed than others is the type of form they have been filed under. ITR-1 or ITR-4 forms are typically processed faster than ITR-2 and ITR-3.
Refund Claim: Another reason why your ITR processing is taking longer than usual is the size of your refund claim. For larger claims, the tax authorities follow rigorous checks and balances.
Discrepancies In Data: The Income Tax Department may have come across some discrepancies in the data submitted in your ITR form. Such errors require re-verification by the taxpayer post communication from the tax department.
There are high chances that the delay in your ITR processing may be because of procedural reasons.
The statutory timeline for processing ITRs for AY 2024-25 is Dec. 31, 2025. The Income Tax Department can take up to the end of this window to verify your ITR, and further, if there are any valid reasons.
