Pre-Validate Your Bank Account to receive Income Tax Refund

From March 2019 onwards, income tax refunds will only be credited to bank accounts that are pre-validated in the e-filing portal. Only pre-validated accounts can be used in the income-tax return while e-filing.

Effective from 1st March 2019, the income tax refunds will be credited only to bank accounts (savings/current/cash/OD) which are linked to PAN. If your PAN is not yet linked with your bank account, you must provide the details of the same to your bank branch to get an Income Tax refund.

If your bank is integrated with the e-filing portal, pre-validation can be done directly through EVC (Electronic Verification Code) and net-banking route.

On the other hand, if your bank account is not integrated with the e-filing portal, then the income tax department will validate the bank account itself from the details filled up by you.   

How to Pre-Validate Bank Account to receive Income Tax Refund?

Now you understood the importance of Pre-Validate Bank Account to receive Income Tax Refund.

What are the conditions to Pre-Validate Bank Account to receive Income Tax Refund?

1. PAN shall be linked to Bank account.
2. The mobile number shall be linked to Bank account.
3. Name in bank account shall match the name in income-tax records.

There are two ways through which you can Pre-Validate Bank Account to receive Income Tax Refund. They are as below.

# Using the e-Filing Website

1.  Login to income-tax e-filing portal.
2. Under Profile Settings, you have to select the option “Prevalidate your bank account”.
3. Enter PAN number, name as in PAN Card, bank account, IFSC, Mobile number
4. Click on “Prevalidate” tab.
5. The details will be cross-validated with the bank and if confirmed with the bank and if confirmed by bank then your bank account will be treated as validated and ready for ECS credit of any refund due.

# Using Internet Banking facility of your Bank

1. Login to internet banking of your account.
2. Select the income-tax e-filing option.
3. When asked whether to pre-validate this account, select Yes.
4. There you check the details like your name, Bank Account details, and PAN number.
5. If everything is fine, then click on the tab “Confirm”.
6. The Account No. selected by you will be forwarded as a part of the message to the Department of Income Tax for refund usage.

However, if your account is already validated, then if you login to e-filing portal and click on Profile>Prevalidate your Bank Account then you will find the status as it is “Validated”. Hence, I suggest you to first check whether it is validated or not.

Hope this will be helpful for all taxpayers.

Refer our other posts related to PAN and IT Returns.