what is time limit within which Assessing Officer must complete assessment of income return, assuming an Individual asessee has submitted return before due date.
And what happens if assessing officer fails to do so within said time limit.
13 March 2014
well time bar is only on assessment and not on refunds. you can still approach AO for issue of refund. once the assessment is time-barred AO has to accept the return as filed by you and process the refund accordingly.
in case of online returns, the matter is a bit more difficult. There are instances of returns pending for last 3-4 years.
the way to deal this, if calls to CPC don't yield any result is to file complaint with Income tax department ombudsman.