Skip to main content

How to Get Your Pending Tax Refund - Tax Ombudsman

Delays in income tax refunds, even after the stipulated number of months, are faced by many tax payers. Running from pillar to post at the income tax office, having to deal with impolite income tax officials become a part of the ordeal. At such times tax payers often feel helpless with absolutely no recourse. To address such issues, the government has set up the Tax Ombudsman in select cities, to address grievances and to provide tax payers a platform to put forth his issues and problems.

  

What is the Tax Ombudsman?

The Ombudsman is an independent body initiated by the government and comprises of former Income Tax officials or officials from the Indian Revenue Service. These officers have been empowered to settle grievances and take up matters to the highest authority, with the sole aim of resolving it. They act as an arbitrator and are independent of the jurisdiction of the income-tax department.

 

Issues handled by Ombudsman:

  • Delay or discrepancy in tax refunds
  • Impolite behaviour of tax officials
  • Interest waiver
  • Seizure of account books by department
  • Issues relating to allotment of Permanent Account Number
  • Non credit of tax paid, including tax deducted at source.
  • Non-acknowledgement of letters or documents sent to the Department
  • Other administrative matters that have been violated

The Ombudsman however will not help if the issue is being looked at as an appeal, revision, reference or writ by any income-tax authority or appellate authority or tribunal or court.

  

Location of Ombudsman Offices

Currently there are 12 offices for ombudsman, located in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Kochi. To locate your nearest Ombudsman click on this: http://www.incometaxindiapr.gov.in/incometaxindiacr/home.jsp?p1=ombudsman_contacts

Complaints addressed to the Ombudsman could be sent to the nearest Ombudsman Office.

 Process to Address Grievances through Ombudsman

   

Ø Before you approach the ombudsman

If you are facing an issue, before you approach the Ombudsman, you should have already submitted a written complaint with your income tax officer. If the complaint has not been satisfactorily addressed, or if the officer rejects your complaint, or if no reply is received within 30 days of writing the complaint, only then should the issue be raised to Ombudsman. The complaint should be filed with the Ombudsman within one year, after the 30 day wait for a response from the I-T official.

 

Ø Submitting Documents and Details to Ombudsman

There is no standard format for addressing a complaint to the Ombudsman. However, while filing your complaint to the Ombudsman, the following details must be included.

 

a) Name, address and PAN of assessee

b) Facts and details about the grievance- date wise complaints filed, responses, and the time gap involved etc

c) Copies of the letter of the first complain made to the income-tax authorities

d) Other documents such as relevant income proof supporting your claim and complaint

e) The relief requested from the Ombudsman

  

Ø Resolving of Complaints

The Ombudsman acts as an intermediary between the Income Tax Department and the tax payer. It tries to resolve the issue by hastening the process. The Ombudsman has the power to pay penal interest for the duration of the delay. For cases where no resolution is passed in a month's time of receiving the written complaint, Ombudsman could pass a decision called award. If deemed probable, a monetary compensation could be paid by the Ombudsman.

 The Decision of the Ombudsman

The Ombudsman has been empowered by the government to help tax payers and also better the whole tax process. All decisions taken would be in line with the prevailing tax laws and only if the submitted documents are deemed fit. The decision of the Ombudsman thus has to be abided by the Income Tax Department and the tax payer. Once the Ombudsman decision is passed, tax payers need to make known their acceptance of the ombudsman decision of the final settlement within 15 days of receiving the letter stating the ombudsman's decision, or as per the time frame mentioned in the letter. If one fails to do so, any award proposed shall lapse and be of no effect.

Happy Investing!!

We can help. Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India)

Leave your comment with mail ID and we will answer them

OR

You can write back to us at PrajnaCapital [at] Gmail [dot] Com

 

---------------------------------------------

Invest Mutual Funds Online

Transact Mutual Fund Online

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms from all AMCs

Download Mutual Fund Application Forms

Best Performing Mutual Funds

    1. Largecap Funds Invest Online
      1. DSP BlackRock Top 100 Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Focused Blue Chip Fund
      3. Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund
    2. Large and Midcap Funds Invest Online

      1. ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan
      2. HDFC Top 200 Fund
      3. UTI Dividend Yield Fund
    1. Mid and SmallCap Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
      2. DSP BlackRock Small & Midcap Fund
      3. Sundaram Select Midcap
      4. IDFC Premier Equity Fund
    1. Small and MicroCap Funds Invest Online

      1. DSP BlackRock MicroCap Fund
    1. Sector Funds Invest Online

      1. Reliance Banking Fund
      2. Reliance Banking Fund
    1. Tax Saver Mutual  Funds  Invest Online
      1. ICICI Prudential Tax Plan
      2. HDFC Taxsaver
      3. DSP BlackRock Tax Saver Fund
      4. Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund
    2. Gold Mutual Funds Invest Online

      1. Relaince Gold Savings Fund
      2. ICICI Prudential Regular Gold Savings Fund
      3. HDFC Gold Fund

 

 

Popular posts from this blog

Section 80CCD

Top SIP Funds Online   Income tax deduction under section 80CCD Under Income Tax, TaxPayers have the benefit of claiming several deductions. Out of the deduction avenues, Section 80CCD provides t axpayer deductions against investments made in specific sector s. Under Section 80CCD, an assessee is eligible to claim deductions against the contributions made to the National Pension Scheme or Atal Pension Yojana. Contributions made by an employer to National Pension Scheme are also eligible for deductions under the provisions of Section 80 CCD. In this article, we will take a look at the primary features of this section, the terms and conditions for claiming deductions, the eligibility to claim such deductions, and some of the commonly asked questions in this regard. There are two parts of Section 80CCD. Subsection 1 of this section refers to tax deductions for all assesses who are central government or state government employees, or self-employed or employed by any other employers. In...

ULIP Review: ProGrowth Super II

  If you are interested in a death cover that's just big enough, HDFC SL ProGrowth Super II is something worth a try. The beauty is it has something for everybody — you name the risk profile, the category is right up there. But do a SWOT analysis of the basket, and the gloss fades     HDFC SL ProGrowth Super II is a type-II unit-linked insurance plan ( ULIP ). Launched in September 2010, this is a small ticket-size scheme with multiple rider options and adequate death cover. It offers five investment options (funds) — one in each category of large-cap equity, mid-cap equity, balanced, debt and money market fund. COST STRUCTURE: ProGrowth Super II is reasonably priced, with the premium allocation charge lower than most others in the category. However, the scheme's mortality charge is almost 60% that of LIC mortality table for those investing early in life. This charge reduces with age. BENEFITS: Investors can choose a sum assured between 10-40 times the annualised premium...

Education Loan: Loan to study, Save Tax Later. Repayment comes with tax breaks

‘UPON THE Education of the people of the country, the fate of the country depends.’ Our country seems to have taken the wise words of UK’s inter-war year’s Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli in true spirits. Given the high level of illiteracy in the country, and the need to ensure that Indians are as competitive as their global peers, the government has been taking steps to boost education sector. While the government has been raising the budgetary allocation for education every year and has also imposed 3% cess to promote primary and secondary education in the country, it also provides tax breaks for those who are pursuing higher education. Section 80E of the Income Tax Act is in fact a boon for students who wish to undertake graduation and post graduation courses in various educational fields. Rising cost of education has forced most students to take loans to pursue their dreams. Section 80E, thus, ensures that any interest paid on these educational loans is exempt from incom...

Initial PublicOffer (IPO) Process

Where can an investor get a form for applying/ bidding for the shares? The form for applying/bidding of shares is available with all syndicate members, collection centers, the brokers to the issue and the bankers to the issue. These are also available with your friendly neighborhood news paper vendors and sub brokers. How are offer documents prepared? The offer documents such as prospectus etc. are prepared by an independent entity know as Merchant Banker, which is registered with regulatory authority SEBI. They are required to carry out due diligence while preparing an offer document. The draft offer document submitted to SEBI is put on website for public comments. Is it compulsory for an investor to have a Demat Account? All the public issues of size in excess of Rs.10 crore, are to made compulsorily in the demat more. Thus, if an investor chooses to apply for an issue that is being made in a compulsory demat mode, he has to have a demat account and has the responsibility to put the...

Deflation - Economics of lower inflation

There are chances of the economy moving into deflation. Here we outlines some implications The stock markets had a few surprises last week. Here, the inflation rate fell to historic lows. The market participants were now foreseeing a possibility of inflation hitting zero. It just showed how times had changed in a short span of a few months. Just a while ago, investors were praying for lower inflation numbers every Thursday. But the consistent decline in the inflation numbers has left them pondering whether they got more than what they had bargained for, as India may experience negative inflation WoW soon. What is deflation? A temporary dip into the negative side will not be immediately considered as deflation. Deflation should not be confused with a temporary fall in prices. It is a sustained fall in prices that occurs when the inflation rate passes down below zero percent. In a deflationary environment, the price of goods and services keep falling. Hence, consumers have an in...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now