Income tax refund delay 2025: Latest payment timeline and how to check status, as per CBDT

Many taxpayers have not yet received the income tax refunds for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26). Several of them have even taken to social media to raise grievances related to the delayed income tax refund payments.

As of today, November 25, 2025, the replies section of the Income Tax Department on X (formerly Twitter) is flooded with queries about the income tax refund payment timeline.

While the Income Tax Department has not formally shared any timeline for the payment of pending refunds, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman, Ravi Agarwal, recently shared the expected timeline for the payment of delayed refunds.

Expected income tax refund timeline

Recently, news agency PTI quoted the CBDT chairman as sharing the following points to ease concerns of taxpayers:

• The income tax department is in the final stages of scrutinising high-value and system-flagged claims

• Most remaining refunds are expected to be credited by the end of this month or by December.

So, the expected income tax refund timeline, as per the CBDT chairman, is end of November or December 2025.

"Low-value refunds are being released. We have analysed and found that some wrong refunds or deductions were being claimed. So, this is a continuous process. We hope to release the remaining refunds by this month or by December," Agrawal was quoted as saying.

How to check refund status

Taxpayers can check the status of their income tax refunds on the e-filing portal of the tax department by following the below steps, according to information on the Income Tax portal:

Step 1: Go to the e-Filing portal homepage.

Step 2: Enter the user ID and password.

Please note that if your PAN is not linked with Aadhaar, you will see a pop-up message stating that your PAN is made inoperative as it is not linked with Aadhaar. You should first link your PAN with Aadhaar to check your tax refund status.

Step 3: Go to e-File tab > Income Tax Returns > View Filed Returns.

Step 4: Now you can check the refund status for the desired Assessment year.

You can also click on "View Details" to see the life cycle of your filed ITR. If the refund is issued, you can see the amount credited, date or clearance, and mode of payment. If the refund is partially adjusted, you can see date on which the refund was processed and partially adjusted. In case of refund failure, you can see the reason for failure, date of failure and other details.