What is Form 26 AS?

Benjamin Franklin once said that “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes” and we believe that tax returns too should be included for that. In the last few years, tax filings in India have taken the digital route, and the tax authorities have access to a lot of information about tax filers thanks to the requirement of providing a permanent account number (PAN) for all major financial transactions.

Form 26AS is an Annual Tax Statement, specific to a Permanent Account Number (PAN) furnished under the Income Tax Act, 1961. Initially, Form 26AS was synonymous with reconciling tax details especially tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) credits, etc. but over time the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) expanded the scope of Form 26AS by introducing an Annual Income Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) to help provide complete details of the taxpayer to promote transparency and simplify the tax return filing process.

Read more about Types Of TDS Deduction

Form 26AS is a statement that outlines the following details:

Form 26AS is like an account statement where all annual tax information about a tax filer is available and can be downloaded easily to view from the TRACES website. It has information on taxes paid by or on behalf of the taxpayer including Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS) that is obtained from:

1. Tax deducted from salary.
2. Details of tax collected source(s).
3. Any advance tax paid by the taxpayer.
4. Self-assessment tax payments.
5. Details of Income tax refund and interest received on it.
6. High-value transactions regarding real estate, shares, mutual funds, etc.
7. Details of mutual fund purchases and dividends.
8. Foreign remittances, salary break-up details, etc.
9. TDS on sale of immovable property.
10. TDS defaults made during the year.
11. Details reported in GSTR-3B.
12. Any pending and completed income-tax proceedings.

All of this is reflected in your Form 26A. Taxpayers should review the above information and reconcile financial data to avoid unwarranted notices and tax liability.

Structure and Parts of Form 26AS?

The following is the structure of Form 26AS from the fiscal year 2022. It has a breakdown of ten parts and they are:

1. PART-I – Details of Tax Deducted at Source.
2. PART-II-Details of Tax Deducted at Source for 15G / 15H.
3. PART-III – Details of Transactions under Proviso to section 194B/First Proviso to sub-section (1) of section 194R/ Proviso to sub-section(1) of section 194S.
4. PART-IV -Details of Tax Deducted at Source u/s 194IA/ 194IB / 194M/ 194S (For Seller/Landlord of Property/Contractors or Professionals/ Seller of Virtual Digital Asset).
5. PART-V – Details of Transactions under Proviso to sub-section (1) of section 194S as per Form-26QE (For Seller of Virtual Digital Asset).
6. PART-VI-Details of Tax Collected at Source.
7. PART-VII- Details of Paid Refund (For which source is CPC TDS. For other details refer to AIS at E-filing portal).
8. PART-VIII-Details of Tax Deducted at Source u/s 194IA/ 194IB /194M/194S (For Buyer/Tenant of Property /Person making payment to contractors or Professionals/Buyer of Virtual Digital Asset).
9. PART-IX – Details of Transactions/Demand Payments under Proviso to sub-section (1) of section 194S as per Form 26QE (For Buyer of Virtual Digital Asset).
10. PART X-TDS/TCS Defaults* (Processing of Statements).

How to view Form 26AS?

As a taxpayer you can view Form 26AS in two modes:

1. The TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System (TRACES) is an online service at www.tdscpc.gov.in.
2. The net banking facility of your bank account.

How to Download Form 26AS?

To View Tax Credit Statement (Form 26AS), a taxpayer can perform the following steps to view or download the Form-26AS from the e-Filing portal:

1. Logon to ‘e-Filing’ Portal https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/
2. Go to the ‘My Account’ menu, and click the ‘View Form 26AS (Tax Credit)’ link.
3. Read the disclaimer, click ‘Confirm’ and the user will be redirected to TDS-CPC Portal.
4. In the TDS-CPC Portal, Agree to the acceptance of usage. Click ‘Proceed’.
5. Click on View Tax Credit (Form 26AS).
6. Select the ‘Assessment Year’ and ‘View type’ (HTML, Text or PDF).
7. Click ‘View / Download’.
8. To export the Tax Credit Statement as PDF, view it as HTML > click on ‘Export as PDF’.

Things to Verify in Your TDS Certificate with Form 26AS

As a taxpayer, once you download Form 26AS (annual tax statement) it is must verify with the details of Form 16 (for salaried individuals) and Form 16A (for non-salaried individuals) which is a TDS certificate in order to make sure that the TDS deducted from the tax filer’s income was deposited with the income tax department. Things to verify in Form 26AS are as follows:

1. Name of the taxpayer, PAN number, employer or deductor’s TAN, refund amount, and TDS amount.
2. Verifying if the TDS amount reflecting the TDS certificate has been received by the government. Using the TDS data on the payslips with the Form 26AS data, taxpayers can ensure that this is done correctly.
3. If the deductor or employer has not filed or submitted the TDS on your behalf, contact the deductor asking them to file the TDS return and submit the tax amount at the earliest.
4. Check if the TDS mentioned in Form 26AS is the same as in Form 16/16A.

In the case of any mismatch in details may create problems while filing ITR. So, to avoid that the onus lies with the taxpayer to inform your deductor and get the discrepancy between the TDS certificate and Form 26AS corrected immediately.

TDS Certificate (Form 16/16A) vs. Form 26AS

Form 16/16A also known as a TDS certificate has a different purpose in comparison to Form 26AS despite having the same information. Form 26AS and the information in it alone suffices for ITR reporting, however, a taxpayer should obtain a TDS certificate. This is required to ensure that taxpayers can verify information available on Form 26AS with their details from the TDS certificate ensuring transparency of information.

If a taxpayer does not have a TDS certificate or Form 26AS, it becomes difficult to verify the details and find any discrepancies that may have occurred. If both forms are available then it becomes an easier task to verify all tax information and rectify discrepancies (if any). For salaried individuals, Form 16 shows the break-up of income, and deductions claimed under Chapter VI such as Section 80C to Section 80U which is not available in detail in Form 26AS.

Latest updates in Form 26AS

As soon as the income tax department processes the TDS returns filed by the TDS deductors, Form 26AS gets updated and 31st May of every year stands as the last date for filing TDS returns for the fourth quarter of a financial year. It takes up to seven days to process the filed TDS return. Post successful processing, Form 26AS gets updated information on TDS against your PAN.

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