Ways to get unclaimed refund

There are many circumstance in which a person may forgot to claim the credit of Tax deducted at source or sometimes TDS has been lately credited in his account. This is specially truth of the cases where a person is either not supposed to file return of Income as most of his income is exempt income or his total income does not exceeds basic exemption limit, but tax has been deducted on his some income and he is not aware about claiming refund of TDS. In all such cases, it is possible to claim refund by filing condonation petition u/s 119(2) (b) of the I T Act even if such claim was not made in last six years.

For Example, if you find that you forgot to claim refund for Assessment Year 2008-­09, you can file the petition to condone the delay in filing of return and claim of refund to Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or CBDT till 31/3/2015 according to value of refund involved.

The important points of the scheme as per the CBDT circular no 9/2015, dated 09.06.2015 is as under

1. Time Limit:

1961- Application: The petition for condonation of delay in filling of returns claiming refund and returns claiming carry forward of loss and set-off thereof is to be made to u/s 119 (2) (b) of the Income tax Act, 1961.

1962- Disposing of an Application: A condonation application should be disposed of within six months from the end of month in which application is received by competent authority.

1963- Additional Time Limit: In case where refund claim has arisen due to court order then the time period of court case shall be ignored while calculating period of 6 years. But condonation application should be filled within 6 months from the end of the month in which court order was issued or end of the Financial Year w.e. is Later.

1964- No Time Limit: Time limit of 6 years in not applicable when applicant has made investment in 8% Savings (Taxable) Bonds, issued by Government of India.

2. Conditions

a. Basic Conditions:

i. Income of the assessee is not assessable in the hands of any other person.
ii. No interest u/s 244A will be allowed.
iii. Refund should be on account of TDS or TCS or Advance Tax and it also includes self-assessment tax.

b. The power to condone delay in claim of refund is as under

c. Pre-assumed Conditions while making the Application

i. It shall be ensured that the income / loss declared and /or refund claimed is correct and genuine and case is of genuine hardship on merits.
ii. Competent authority is empowered to remind back case to Assessing Officer for necessary scrutiny.

3. Other:

a. Supplementary Refund: A belated application for supplementary claim of refund (claim of additional amount of refund after completion of assessment for the same year) can be admitted.

b. Pending Applications: All pending application under 119 (2) (b) is covered under this circular.

Steps for Claiming Refund or carry forward of Losses

i. Write an application u/s 119 (2) (b) of the Income tax Act stating why you could not file return or claim refund.

ii. Enclose all the evidence in support of your claim.

iii. Enclose evidence of TDS / TCS or Advance Tax / Self-Assessment deposit.

iv. State the Computation of Income and tax for that year.

v. Once CIT / CCIT / CBDT makes an order condoning the delay u/s 119 (2) (b), the assessing office will issue the refund.

The author is a practicing Chartered Accountant in the fields of Audit, Direct and Indirect Taxes, Company Law, Due Diligence at Ahmedabad. He can be reached at ca.jainam @ gmail.com.