ITR Refund: Still not received yourrefund? What the reason for payment stuck, Know here

ITR Refund Delay: Tax return filers wonder when they will receive their refunds. However, many face a long wait. Meanwhile, the delay in refunds for the financial year 2025-26 is again in the news. Because a large number of taxpayers are still waiting for their money even after months. Let’s find out what’s behind this delay.

Understand the reason for the delay in data

According to government data, a total of 88,920,822 returns have been filed as of March 24, 2026. Of these, 87,786,233 have been verified. A further 85,059,270 have been processed. This means that approximately 2.7 million returns are still pending processing. This has resulted in many people’s refunds being held up and their payments facing delays. If you’re also experiencing delays in receiving your return, there could be a few reasons.

Reasons for delay in refund

If the information in your ITR, AIS, and Form 26AS doesn’t match, the system puts it on hold for verification. This is also a reason for refund delays.

Those who haven’t completed e – verification after filing their returns are not allowed to proceed with their cases, resulting in a refund delay.

A large number of people file their ITRs simultaneously around the deadline , which puts pressure on the system and slows down processing.

Returns that include multiple incomes, capital gains, or large refunds are subject to more scrutiny and therefore take longer .

If the bank account details are incorrect or are not linked to the PAN, there could be issues in issuing the refund.

How to link PAN with Aadhaar?

After the deadline of December 31, 2025, a late fee (penalty) of Rs1,000 is now mandatory for linking PAN and Aadhaar. The step-by-step linking process is given below:
Visit the portal: First of all login to the official website of Income Tax incometax.gov.in.
Select Link Aadhaar: Click on ‘Link Aadhaar’ in the ‘Quick Links’ section on the homepage.
Enter details: Enter your PAN and Aadhaar number.
Penalty Payment: Pay late fee of ₹1,000 through ‘e-Pay Tax’ facility.
OTP Verification: Complete the process by entering the OTP received on the mobile number linked to Aadhaar.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated that refunds for 130,638 taxpayers have been withheld due to their PAN cards not being linked to Aadhaar. The total refund amount is Rs 340.30 crore. These taxpayers filed their ITRs on time, but their PAN cards were inactive because they were not linked to Aadhaar. The department cannot issue refunds until their PAN cards are activated. According to Finance Ministry data, 92,550,668 individual PANs in the country were inoperative as of January 1, 2026. The deadline for free PAN linking with Aadhaar was December 31, 2025.