TDS Refund Process: If you are an income taxpayer, you have likely already filed your income tax return. People often overlook the tax deducted at the source of income—known as TDS—when filing their returns. Since this tax is deducted from your income throughout the year, if you have paid more tax than necessary, it becomes essential to claim a TDS refund to recover the excess amount.
What is TDS?
The government uses TDS to collect tax directly from the source of your income. It is deducted from various income streams, such as salary, interest earned on fixed deposits, professional fees, etc.
What is a TDS refund?
If excess tax has been deducted at the source of your income, the process of recovering that excess amount is called a TDS refund. If the Income Tax Department delays the refund, it is liable to pay interest at an annual rate of 6%.
Benefits of a TDS refund
A major advantage of TDS is that if tax has been deducted in this manner, you can reclaim the excess amount by filing a refund claim. Additionally, claiming a refund can reduce your annual tax liability, potentially placing you in a lower tax bracket and allowing you to save even more money.
Who can claim a TDS refund?
Anyone whose total income for a financial year is below the government’s taxable income threshold can claim a TDS refund. Since they do not owe any tax, they are eligible to claim a refund for any TDS deducted from their income.
Learn how to claim a TDS refund online.
If you wish to claim a TDS refund online, you must first visit the Income Tax Department’s official website. If you haven’t registered yet, please register yourself on the portal. Next, log in to the portal using your login ID and password. Now, select the appropriate ITR form based on your category and file your return. After filling in all the required details in the form, submit it. Once submitted, you must e-verify the acknowledgement using a digital signature, net banking, or an OTP sent to your Aadhaar-linked mobile number.
Learn how to verify.
First, visit the Income Tax Department’s official e-filing website.
After logging in, go to the ‘e-File’ tab.
Select ‘Income Tax Return’ from the menu, and then choose ‘View Filed Returns’.
In the ‘View Filed Returns’ section, you will see a list of all the returns you have filed so far.
Click on ‘View Details’ next to the assessment year for which you want to check the status.
How to get information about the refund?
If your return has been processed and a refund is due, the status will be displayed there. Click on it to access details regarding your refund. The screen will show all relevant information, including the date of filing, the date of processing, and the date the refund was issued.