A tax refund or tax rebate is a refund on taxes when the tax liability or the amount of tax to be paid is less than the amount of taxes paid by the individual.

However, you can also claim a tax refund in case the taxes were deducted because you did not declare your investments which could have some of the taxes that you paid.

For salaried individuals, it is possible that that the company deducted excess tax because you did not declare any of your investments to the company. In such a case, a tax refund may be helpful.

To see whether you are eligible for a tax refund, you need to file your tax returns or check the Form-16 that you receive from your employer if you are a salaried individual.

In case if the tax return already shows that you are getting a tax refund you need not apply for it. The tax return cheque directly comes to the address mentioned on the Return of Income document filed with the Income Tax department.

Tax return can also be debited directly to your bank account which needs to be mentioned on the tax return.

In a situation where you think that you forgot or did not have the proper documents to show the investments made, a Revised Return of Income needs to be submitted. Also, the actual claim for the tax refund needs to be done using Form 30.

The Income tax department has recently started an initiative where you can check your tax return status online.