ITR Filing 2026: Income tax refund in 24 hours? Taxpayer gets money in just a day; here's why - Full story inside

Income Tax Refund: With the ITR season underway, one of the surprising developments that taxpayers have come across recently is that many taxpayers are reportedly receiving their Income Tax Refunds within just 24 hours of income tax return filing. In some cases, refunds have been credited within a few hours. However, the most common scenario is within 24 hours.

It is a significant update from the previous year. It's worth noting that there was a time when refunds could take 90 days or more to arrive. But to taxpayers' surprise, the refunds are being processed within 24 hours.

According to various taxpayers who filed their ITR this year, they shared on social media that they have received their refunds within 24 hours of filing their returns and completing e-verification. According to tax experts earlier, it took an average of 30-40 days or more for income tax refunds to be processed.

Before you get on cloud nine. It is important to note that the benefit is not currently available to all taxpayers. The time limit for refunds depends on the taxpayer's case, the nature of the return, and the verification process. Nevertheless, the process has become much faster and better than before.

ITR Filing 2026: Filed at 3:57 PM, refund received by 11:06 PM — A real-life case study

One of the taxpayers informed ET Now Swadesh that their refund arrived within 24 hours, even though the amount was over Rs 50,000.

The taxpayer stated that they completed their ITR processing on July 20th at 3:57 pm, and their refund was credited to their account on July 21st at 11:06 am.

The taxpayer also said that they had to wait 10 to 15 days for their refund last year. From 90 days to 10 days and now just 24 hours.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament a few years ago that in the financial year 2013-14, it took an average of 93 days to receive an income tax refund.

By the financial year 2023-24, this time had decreased to about 10 days. Now, in AY 2025-26, many taxpayers are receiving refunds within 24 hours, reflecting the increasing efficiency of the digital tax system.

Why is your ITR refund arriving within 24 hours?

There are various major changes behind the speeding up of the refund process. For instance, the entire process of the Income Tax Department has now become almost completely digital.

ITR processing and verification are largely automated. Data processing has been accelerated by replacing the old Excel-based system with JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)- based filing.

The refund process starts as soon as e-verification is done.

Pre-validation of bank account and PAN-Aadhaar linking ensures that refunds are sent directly to the correct account.