Pre-Validate Bank Account For Smooth Tax Refunds
Filing your Income Tax Return (ITR) is just the initial step towards receiving your tax refund. A vital follow-up action is pre-validating your bank account on the e-filing portal, as the Income Tax Department cannot process refunds without this validation.
For Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26, it is crucial to ensure that the bank details linked to your Permanent Account Number (PAN) are accurate and up-to-date. The portal facilitates adding new accounts, removing inactive ones, and re-validating existing accounts. Here’s why pre-validation is essential:
1. Refund Eligibility: Refunds are only credited to pre-validated accounts.2. EVC Generation: A pre-validated account allows you to generate an Electronic Verification Code (EVC) for e-verifying your ITR and other secure transactions.3. Security: Pre-validation minimizes the risk of errors and fraud by linking only verified accounts to your tax profile.
To add and pre-validate your bank account, log in to the e-filing portal, navigate to the My Profile section, and select My bank Account. After entering the required details and validating, a confirmation message will be displayed, along with notifications sent to your registered mobile and email.
Taxpayers can pre-validate multiple bank accounts for flexibility in receiving refunds. However, if there’s a mismatch between your bank's registered mobile/email and the income tax portal, you’ll need to update your records accordingly and re-validate.
In summary, for AY 2025-26, pre-validating your bank account is essential for a seamless refund process. Ensure your details are correct to avoid unnecessary delays in receiving your tax refund.