The section states a single rule: every claim for refund under this Chapter shall be made by furnishing a return as per section 263. There is no separate application, form or procedure for a refund claim under the Chapter, and the section prescribes no period of its own.
Why it is there
A refund is the mirror image of a demand, and it can only be worked out once the year's income and tax are computed. Channelling every claim into the return means the claim is made on the same verified computation as the liability, and it removes the possibility of a free-standing refund application outside that computation.
Who it applies to
Any person claiming a refund under this Chapter
A person whose tax deducted at source, tax collected at source or advance tax exceeds his liability for the tax year
What this means in practice
The form of the claim is the return, so anything that governs the furnishing of a return under section 263 governs the refund claim as well — the section itself fixes no separate limitation, and the timing question therefore becomes a section 263 question. A letter, an application or a representation to the Assessing Officer is not a claim for refund under this Chapter, however clearly it identifies the excess. The word used is "shall", so there is no alternative route left open by the section.
An example
Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.
An individual has had Rs. 40000 more deducted at source during the year than his liability for it. He cannot recover that by writing to the Assessing Officer or by producing the deduction certificates: the section requires the claim to be made by furnishing a return as per section 263, and until that return is furnished there is no claim for refund under the Chapter at all.
Where you meet this section
You meet this section whenever a refund is sought outside a return — it is the provision that says the return is the claim, and it is the answer to a request that the Department release an excess without one.
The words themselves
Every claim for refund under this Chapter shall be made by furnishing return as per section 263.
Section 433, Income-tax Act, 2025.
What people get wrong
Making a refund claim by letter or application. The section requires it to be made by furnishing a return as per section 263.
Looking in this section for a limitation period. It states none; the period is governed by the furnishing of the return under section 263.
Treating the section as optional. It says every claim for refund under the Chapter shall be made in that way.
Assuming deduction certificates alone establish a claim. They evidence the deduction, but the claim under this Chapter is the return.
What this replaced
The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.
A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.
Circular No. 7 — Section 239 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 - Refunds - Procedure for Refund of TAX Deducted at Source under section 195 to the Person 2011-09-27
Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 433. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.
What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.