Over 1.23 lakh income tax returns (ITRs) have been filed and more than 1.12 lakh returns verified in the first five days of the Income Tax Department kicking off the tax return filing with the release of Excel-based utilities (V1.0), a JSON schema, and validation tools for FY 2024-25 (AY 2025-26). These offline utilities support ITR-1 (Sahaj) and ITR-4 (Sugam) forms.

Days later, the tax department also enabled ITR-1 and ITR-4 to be filed through online mode with prefilled data at the e-filing portal. “Excel Utilities of ITR-1 and ITR-4 for AY 2025-26 are also available for filing,” the Income Tax Department said in a statement.

With this, taxpayers can now conveniently file their returns through the official e-filing portal with prefilled data, making the process easier and less error-prone.

The ITR filing this year has started with a significant delay, primarily due to non-availability of ITR forms first and then supporting utilities. The tax department made available the ITR forms in April end and ITR-1 and ITR-4 utilities very recently on the Income Tax Department’s portal.

Also read: ITR Filing: Excel utilities for ITR-1, ITR-4 released; Check if you can use them to file Income Tax Return

Now that the ITR filing has started with a strong response from taxpayers with over 1.23 lakh ITRs already filed and almost 90% of the returns verified, all eyes will be on income tax return processing and issue of refunds.

So when will the tax department start processing these ITRs and how soon can taxpayers expect their tax refunds this year?

Commenting on the number of ITR filers in the first 5 days, CA (Dr.) Suresh Surana says this is normal early in the filing season. The CPC usually begins processing only after verifying taxpayer data from Form 26AS, the Annual Information Statement (AIS), and the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) — which are updated following the May 31 TDS filing deadline, he adds.

Since a significant number of taxpayers have already completed the verification step, the processing of returns may begin shortly in June 2025, Surana believes. Refunds are generally issued within 5–7 days after intimation, barring any adjustments or issues, he further said.

Also read: Income Tax Department opens online filing for ITR-1 & ITR-4 – Check eligibility, deadline and other details here

ITR Filing: Cross-verification of information

The Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) initiates the processing of ITRs only after cross-verifying the information furnished in the return with third-party data sources such as Form 26AS, AIS, and TIS. These sources are populated based on information submitted by prescribed entities under the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) and TDS returns. Notably, the deadline for filing TDS returns for the last quarter of the financial year is 31st May immediately preceding the Financial Year (FY).

Once submitted, it may typically take 4–5 days for the system to incorporate and update this data to reflect on Income Tax Portal. Only after this stage can Form 26AS and AIS/TIS be considered complete for the purpose of ITR processing.

Further, the CPC begins processing an ITR only after it is duly verified either through electronic verification or upon receipt of the physical ITR-V at its office in Bengaluru.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while addressing the parliament last year, stated that the ‘average processing time’ for ITR now has come down to 10 days as compared to 93 days in 2013.