ITR Filing: Neglecting THIS step may cost you income tax refund

financialexpress.com:

Income Tax Return Filing AY 2024-25: The deadline to file the income tax return for FY 2023-24 is July 31 and salaried taxpayers are waiting for their employers to issue Form 16, a key document which certifies tax deduction at source and payment to the tax department. Form 16 is usually issued by companies in the first or second week of June every year.

Besides keeping ready all the necessary documents, including Form 16 and bank statements, to file their tax returns, taxpayers are also required to complete certain tasks beforehand. One of them is pre-validating their bank accounts in which they want to receive their tax refunds.

According to the Income Tax Department, only a pre-validated bank account can be nominated to receive income tax refund. Further, a pre-validated bank account may also be used by the individual taxpayer for enabling EVC (electronic verification code) for e-verification purpose. e-verification can be used for income tax returns and other forms, e-proceedings, refund reissue, reset password and secured login to e-filing account.

Also read: How is Form 16 different from Form 16A? How are they used while filing ITRs?

For successful pre-validation, one must have a valid PAN registered with e-filing, and an active bank account linked with the PAN.

The status of the validation request is sent to the taxpayer’s mobile number and email ID registered with the e-filing portal. If the validation fails, the details are displayed under failed bank accounts. The failed bank accounts can be re-submitted for validation in case of failed bank pre-validation: Click re-validate for the bank in the failed bank accounts section and the account with status ‘validation in progress’.

In such a case, there will be!