Aligarh government employee asked to return excess salary. Will he also get tax refund?

A government employee, who had been drawing extra salary for the last 17-18 years due to wrongful allocation, has been asked to return the excess money now. The unusual case is that of Aligarh, where Ashok Kumar paid tax below the 30% tax limit.

Her question on CNBC Awaaz’s ‘Tax Guru’ show was simple: “Will I get tax refund if I return salary?” Tax expert Gauri Chadha said there was no provision for this in the Income Tax Act.

“Unfortunately, there is no provision in the Income Tax Act in this regard. If you have been earning a higher salary for many years and have paid the corresponding taxes, you cannot review the return for the last few years. The time to review your Income Tax return has now been reduced. In fact, you do not have the provision to review the return for the last year either,” Chadha said.

He noted that there was no section in the Income Tax Act to claim previous returns when filing this year.

How to get money back?

Chadha advised the government employee to speak to his employer. “At some point, this is a loss for you. You will have to speak to your employer and tell him that you will suffer losses because of his mistake,” he said.

At least they should not withhold the amount of tax you paid earlier, he said, adding that the Income Tax Department will not provide any relief in this matter.

He added that “normally, these things do not happen. It is a typical case where the employer has given more salary to the employee. If this happens for a shorter period, then there is a solution, but this is not the case.”

READ ALSO | New and old income tax regime: which is better for you after the 2024 budget changes? | Calculations here