The figures look fine. The portal accepts the return. An acknowledgement arrives in the inbox. You close the laptop and start thinking about when the refund will reach your account.
Then nothing happens.
Days turn into weeks, and you begin checking the refund status more often than you would like to admit.
In many cases, the delay is not caused by a major tax dispute. It starts with something ordinary: an old bank account, interest from a forgotten fixed deposit, a missing Form 16 or a return that was filed but never verified.
That is why ITR Filing 2026 should not be treated as a last-minute formality. A return can be accepted by the portal and still contain incomplete, outdated or mismatched information.
For Assessment Year 2026–27, taxpayers need to report the income they earned during Financial Year 2025–26. The Income Tax Department has made the online and offline filing facilities for ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 available on the official e-Filing portal.
The filing process has become easier over the years, but easier does not always mean error-free. Pre-filled data, online calculations and imported tax information can help, but they still need to be checked.
Here are 10 mistakes that deserve your attention before you press the final submit button.
1. Picking the ITR Form You Used Last Year
People often assume that once they have used a particular ITR form, they can keep using it every year.
That is not always true.
Your financial situation may have changed even if your job has not. Perhaps you sold shares, redeemed mutual funds, started consulting on weekends or bought another property. Any of these changes could affect the form you need to file.
Consider Rohan, a salaried employee who has always filed ITR-1. During FY 2025–26, he sold some mutual fund units. When filing his return, he selected ITR-1 again because that was the form he knew.
The problem is that the correct ITR form depends on your complete income profile, not just your main occupation.
For ITR Filing 2026, look at every source of income before choosing the form. Salary may be your main income, but capital gains, rent, business receipts or foreign assets can change which form is appropriate.
The official e-Filing portal has separate applicability guidance for salaried taxpayers, non-residents, older taxpayers, firms and other categories. It is worth checking this guidance before starting the return.
A quick review is usually enough. Write down where your money came from during the year—salary, interest, rent, investments, consulting work or anything else. Then select the form.
Do not choose a form simply because it looks shorter.
2. Treating Pre-Filled Information as Verified Information
Pre-filled data creates a false sense of security.
When your name, address, salary and bank details are already visible, it is tempting to believe that the portal has checked everything for you.
It has not.
The information may have come from an earlier return, an employer, a bank or another reporting entity. It can be incomplete, outdated or incorrectly reported.
People change their mobile numbers. Bank branches merge. IFSC codes change. Old salary accounts become inactive. Addresses remain unchanged on tax profiles long after someone has moved.
Take a minute to review your personal details instead of scrolling past them.
Check the spelling of your name, PAN details, residential status, email address, mobile number and bank information. The email and phone number should be ones you currently use, not the ones you had five years ago.
This part of the return looks boring. It is also where a surprisingly expensive mistake can hide.
3. Forgetting an Employer After Changing Jobs
Changing jobs midway through a financial year can make tax filing slightly messy.
You may receive two Form 16 documents. Each employer may calculate tax based on the information available to them. Your new employer may not know exactly how much salary you received from your previous organisation unless you reported it.
Meera changed jobs in September. When filing her return, she downloaded Form 16 from her current company and completed the process using those figures.
She completely forgot about the Form 16 issued by her previous employer.
It was an honest mistake. Her current job felt more relevant, and the old Form 16 was buried somewhere in her personal email.
However, tax deducted by both employers could still appear against her PAN. If her return includes income from only one employer, the numbers may not line up.
Job changes deserve special attention during ITR Filing 2026. Collect Form 16 from every employer, combine the salary figures and check whether deductions or exemptions were considered more than once.
There is another issue too. Both employers may have separately considered deductions or tax thresholds while calculating TDS. Once the salaries are combined, the final tax liability can look different.
This is one of those situations where a refund shown in the initial calculation may disappear after the complete income is entered.
Not pleasant, but better to discover it before submission.
4. Ignoring Interest Because the Amount Looks Small
A few hundred rupees credited as savings-account interest does not feel like “income” in the same way a salary does.
That is why people forget it.
The same thing happens with an old fixed deposit. You may no longer think about that account, but the bank continues crediting interest and reporting the transaction against your PAN.
Aman had fixed deposits in three banks. He downloaded an interest certificate from his main bank but forgot about a deposit he had opened several years earlier.
The missing interest was visible in his Annual Information Statement.
AIS provides a broader view of information reported for a taxpayer and allows the taxpayer to submit feedback when a transaction is incorrect or duplicated.
That does not mean you should copy every AIS entry without checking it. AIS can sometimes contain information that needs clarification. Use it as a cross-check alongside bank statements, interest certificates and your own records.
Go through all your accounts, including those you rarely use.
A small amount may not dramatically change your tax liability, but leaving it out can still create a mismatch.
5. Assuming Form 16 Contains Your Entire Financial Life
Form 16 is useful, but it knows only what your employer knows.
It normally does not tell the full story if you earned money elsewhere.
Maybe you received freelance income. Perhaps you collected rent from a property, earned dividends or sold an investment. You might have completed one paid project for a friend’s company and never considered yourself a freelancer.
The label does not matter as much as the nature of the payment.
A person may say, “It was only one project,” or “The amount was not very large.” That does not automatically make the income irrelevant for tax reporting.
During ITR Filing 2026, open your bank statements and scan the credits received during the year. Look beyond the regular salary date and check payments from clients, tenants, investment platforms and unfamiliar company names.
This is not about becoming suspicious of every transaction. It is simply easier to remember a side income when you can actually see the credit in your statement.
6. Copying Last Year’s Deductions
Last year’s tax return can be a helpful reference. It should not become a template that you copy without thinking.
Your payments may have changed. Your tax regime may be different. A policy may have matured, a loan may have closed or an investment may not have been made during the relevant financial year.
Yet people often carry forward deduction amounts because those figures look familiar.
Another common mistake is entering the amount they planned to invest instead of what they actually invested.
For instance, you may have told your employer in December that you intended to invest ₹1 lakh. By March, you managed to invest only ₹60,000. Your return should be based on the eligible amount actually paid, not the earlier declaration.
The old and new tax regimes also do not offer identical deductions. Choose the regime carefully and compare AIS, Form 26AS and actual tax-paid information before filing.
Keep the supporting documents for every claim.
You may not be asked to upload them while filing, but you should know where they are.
7. Claiming TDS That Is Missing from Form 26AS
This mistake often begins with a perfectly valid document.
Your employer or client gives you a TDS certificate. You enter the amount in your return and expect the credit.
But when you check Form 26AS, the entry is missing or the amount is different.
Perhaps the deductor used the wrong PAN. Maybe the TDS statement has not been corrected. In some cases, the taxpayer enters the same credit twice—once through imported data and again manually.
The refund shown on the screen may look attractive, but the calculation is only as reliable as the figures entered into it.
A careful ITR Filing 2026 review should include a comparison between the TDS claimed in the return and the credit available in Form 26AS. When the figures do not match, find out why before submitting.
When TDS is missing, contact the employer, bank or client that deducted it. They may need to correct the filing from their end.
Do not reduce your income simply to make the figures match. That solves one problem by creating another.
https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/help/how-to-view-annual-information-statement
8. Missing the Tax-Payable Figure at the End
A refund is not guaranteed just because tax was deducted during the year.
Additional tax may still be payable when you have income that was not considered by your employer. Bank interest, capital gains, rental income and independent work are common examples.
This can also happen after a job change.
Imagine that each employer calculated TDS separately, without having the full picture of your annual income. When both salaries are combined, the total tax may be higher than the amount already deducted.
The final page of the return deserves more than a quick glance.
If the calculation shows tax payable, check why. Confirm the income, deductions and tax credits. If the figure is correct, pay the self-assessment tax through the authorised facility and ensure that the payment details appear correctly in the return.
Paying the challan does not automatically submit the ITR.
And submitting an ITR does not make unpaid tax disappear.
It sounds basic when written down. It is much easier to miss when you are filing at 11:45 at night.
9. Sending the Refund to an Account You No Longer Use ITR Filing 2026
Priya had an old salary account listed on her e-Filing profile.
She had not used it for months, but it was still visible, so she selected it for her refund.
The return was processed. The refund failed.
The Income Tax Department’s bank-account facility allows taxpayers to add and pre-validate an account, remove a closed account and nominate a validated account for receiving a refund.
The department also advises taxpayers to ensure that the nominated account is linked with their PAN, because a refund cannot be credited to an account that is not PAN-linked.
Before submitting your return, check the account as though you were about to transfer money to it yourself.
Is the IFSC current? Has it been validated? Is it nominated for the refund?
Do not rely on the fact that the account appears on the screen. Old information can remain visible long after it stops being useful.
10. Filing the Return but Not E-Verifying It
This is probably the most avoidable mistake on the list.
You complete the return, click submit and receive an acknowledgement. Naturally, you assume the job is finished.
But the status may still say that verification is pending.
The current time limit for e-verification or submission of ITR-V is 30 days from the date of filing. When verification is completed within that period, the original upload date is treated as the filing date. If verification happens later, the verification date can be treated as the filing date, along with the applicable consequences.
Verification can be completed through permitted methods such as Aadhaar OTP, net banking or an Electronic Verification Code, depending on the taxpayer’s circumstances and available options. Some EVC methods require a pre-validated bank or demat account.
Do it immediately after filing.
Then check the status again.
Do not assume that receiving an acknowledgement means every step has been completed.
What Happens If You Find a Mistake Later?
First, do not panic.
People discover mistakes after filing all the time. The correct response depends on what went wrong and whether the return has already been processed.
A revised return may be appropriate when you need to correct information submitted in the original return, subject to the applicable conditions and timelines.
Rectification is different. It is generally intended for a mistake apparent from the record in an intimation or order.
The two should not be treated as interchangeable shortcuts.
For a straightforward error, such as omitted income or an incorrect entry, the portal guidance may help you understand the next step. More complicated situations foreign assets, business income, substantial capital gains or a tax notice—may need professional review.
Trying to save a small consultation fee can become expensive when the return involves something you do not fully understand.
Before You Finally Submit
Leave the return for ten minutes.
Then come back and review it once more.
Check the assessment year. Confirm the ITR form. Look at income from every employer and bank. Compare Form 16, Form 26AS and AIS with your own documents.
Make sure the deductions are genuine and belong to the correct year. Read the final tax calculation. Check the bank account digit by digit.
A final ITR Filing 2026 check should cover the form, income, deductions, TDS, tax payable, bank details and verification status. Once the return is submitted, verify it immediately and save the acknowledgement somewhere you can find it.
A folder named “Tax” is better than searching through WhatsApp, email and the Downloads folder six months later.
Final Thoughts
Most ITR mistakes are not clever mistakes.
They happen because someone is tired, rushing or relying too heavily on pre-filled information.
Form 16 has arrived, so the return feels ready. The bank account is visible, so it must be active. The portal has accepted the return, so it must be complete.
None of those assumptions is always safe.
Approaching ITR Filing 2026 with a little patience can save you from weeks of checking refund status, contacting a former employer or trying to understand why the amount was not credited.
Slow down at the boring parts.
That is usually where the important details are hiding.
