Don’t panic when you get message about Income Tax refund:Chance to correct mistakes till Dec 31; Know 5 major reasons why your tax refund may be stuck

The Income Tax Department has sent emails and SMS to taxpayers in bulk over the past few days. These messages indicate that their refund has been put on hold due to some discrepancies found in ITR filing. These notifications have been sent under the ‘Risk Management Process’. The messages that taxpayers are receiving typically state – Under the Risk Management Process, some discrepancies have been found in your refund claim, therefore return processing has been stopped. Details have been sent to your registered email. The opportunity to correct errors by filing revised ITR is only until December 31. 5 Major Reasons for Refund Getting Stuck If your refund is stuck, these could be the reasons behind it How long will it take to get the refund? Tax expert and founder of SD Singh Associates, Suraj Singh explains that those whose refunds have been flagged in risk management may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to receive their money. There is no fixed timeline for this. However, this delay should not be too long since these alerts were generated by the department’s AI system. If discrepancies are found in the department’s records, you may receive a notice. In such cases, refunds are only issued after document verification (scrutiny). Both Old and New Regime Received Notices According to experts, these messages were not sent only to taxpayers of one tax regime, but to both old and new regime taxpayers. However, the number of taxpayers who chose the old tax regime is higher in this. This is because the old regime has many options for tax savings through deductions. Meanwhile, those under the new regime received this notice when they had hidden their income or not disclosed it. Suraj Singh says, nowadays data automatically matches from different sources. Therefore, if someone has made an inflated claim or attached fake documents, the system catches it immediately. No need to panic, just match the data Ashok Mehta, member of The Chamber of Tax Consultants, says that if the system has held your refund, it means there is a mismatch somewhere between ITR and TDS details. The department is giving you a chance to correct the mistake. If you are a genuine taxpayer, there’s no need to panic. You just need to review your filing and match data with Form 26AS, AIS or TIS. If there are any unintentional mistakes, correct them. Only those who have deliberately provided wrong information to claim refunds need to worry. What happens if you miss the December 31 deadline? The last date to file revised returns is December 31, 2025, meaning only 5 days are left. ITR-U Option: If you miss this deadline, you will only have the option of filing an Updated Return (ITR-U). Penalty Applies: Filing ITR-U may require you to pay penalty and interest along with tax. No Refund: Most importantly, you cannot claim refund in ITR-U. This means even if you were right, you might lose your refund money. Fear of Scrutiny: If you have not taken any action, the tax department can send a notice under Section 133(6). If the response is not satisfactory, scrutiny may begin under Section 147. ​