To describe what is Form 26AS, it is an annual statement form that contains information about the tax credit against a taxpayer’s PAN. A taxpayer can access this form via the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal by entering their Permanent Account Number (PAN). For further details, you can refer to your Form 26AS for details on your income (from which taxes have been deducted) and the taxes paid to the government treasury by you or on your behalf by the deductor (the deductor could be your employer, bank, etc.).
What is Form 26AS?
Form 26AS is a consolidated annual tax statement that includes information about tax deducted at source, tax collected at source, advance tax paid by the assessee, and self-assessment tax. This data pertains to a Permanent Account Number (PAN).
The form also includes information on the sale or purchase of the real estate, mutual funds, cash deposits or withdrawals from savings accounts, and so on. When filing their income tax return for the fiscal year, an assessee can claim the tax deducted on form 26AS.
Importance & Uses of Form 26AS
Form 26AS proves to be helpful for verifying the tax credits and computation of income before filing income tax returns. It lets you ensure whether the tax deducted has been deposited on time.
As a taxpayer, you need to make sure that the claim mentioned in Form 26AS matches all the taxes that you have paid. This means that there should be no difference between the TDS amount claimed in your tax return and the amount updated in Form 26AS.
Form 26AS is an important document as it contains all your tax-related statements. You can check whether the deductor has accurately filed the TDS statement or the collector has accurately filed the TDS, giving the details of the tax deducted.
Moreover, as a taxpayer, you must ensure that the ITR is in sync with Form 26AS. If the income tax department finds any kind of discrepancy, they will issue a tax notice to seek an explanation for the discrepancy. The income tax department treats Form 26AS as the benchmark for all its verification and analysis. The notices are further issued accordingly in case of discrepancies.
There is one more purpose to Form 26AS. There are certain transactions that are required to be reported by the banks and other financial institutions directly to the IT department based on the PAN number. For instance, property buying is directly reported to the Income Tax department. This transaction will appear in Form 26AS under the AIR (Annual Information Return) column.
What are the Components of Form 26AS?
Apart from what Is Form 26AS, it is also important to know all the different parts of Form 26AS. Form 26AS is divided into seven sections: Part A, Part B, Part C, Part D, Part E, Part F, and Part G. Form 26AS is divided into the following sections.
Part A – Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)
Part A of your tax credit statement includes all the information about TDS on your salary, pension income, interest income, prize winnings, and other sources of income. It also consists of the deductor’s Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) and TDS amount deducted and deposited.
Part A1 – TDS for Form 15G/Form 15H
Part A1 of what is Form 26AS contains information about your income for which TDS was not deducted when you submitted Form 15G/Form 15H. If you have already submitted the aforementioned form, you can check the status of the TDS deduction. If you have not submitted Form 15G/Form 15H, the message ‘No transactions present’ will appear in this section.
Part A2 – Details of Tax Deducted on Sale of an Immovable Property
When you sell a plot, a flat or an office, the buyer should deduct TDS from the amount that is being paid. The TDS on your sale of the property is recorded under this section.
Part B – Tax Collected at Source (TCS)
Part B of Form 26AS includes all the information on the seller’s tax collected at the point of sale. Only if you happen to be a seller who has already collected tax at the point of sale will an entry be made in Part B.
Part C – Details of Tax Deducted (other than TDS & TCS)
If you made your own tax deposits, information about them would appear in Part C of Form 26AS. This section of what is Form 26AS will also include self-assessment tax and advance tax information. It will also include information about the challan used to deposit taxes.
Part D – Details of Refund Paid
Part D of Form 26AS will include information about any refunds. It will also include information about the assessment year relevant to the refund, the mode of payment, the amount and interest paid, and the date the payment was made.
Part E – Details of SFT Transaction
Banks and financial institutions are expected to report high-value transactions to tax authorities. Part E of Form 26AS will include information on high-value mutual fund purchases, high-value corporate bond purchases, property purchases, and so on.
Part F – Details of Tax Deducted on Sale of Immovable Property u/s 194IA (For Buyer)
Part F of Form 26AS contains information about the TDS you deducted and deposited if you bought a property.
Part G: TDS Defaults (Processing of Defaults)
Part G of Form 26AS contains information about statement processing.
Did You Know?
This form is a consolidated annual credit statement issued in relation to your PAN. You must compare Form 16 from your employer with Form 26AS.
What is New in Form 26AS?
The new form has been renamed an Annual Information Statement from an Annual Tax Statement. The old form only detailed tax deducted at source (TDS) against your PAN, tax collected at source (TCS) on your PAN, and other taxes paid and income tax refunds. The new Form 26AS is divided into Part A and Part B.
Part A of Form 26AS includes general information about the taxpayer in the fields listed below:
1. Permanent Account Number (PAN)
2. Aadhaar Number
3. Name
4. DOB/Incorporation
5. Mobile number
6. Email address
7. Residential Address
It is critical to note that the new form includes a field for the taxpayer’s mobile number and email address, which were previously not captured. This demonstrates the significance of a mobile phone number and an email address in the whole scheme of things, in which all correspondence with the tax authorities will be handled solely through a faceless mechanism.
Part B of the Form includes the following details.
1. All the information relating to tax deducted or collected at the source.
2. All the information relating to specified financial transactions (SFT).
3. Information relating to the payment of taxes.
4. Information relating to demand and refund.
5. Information relating to pending proceedings.
6. Information relating to completed proceedings.
7. Any other information about sub-rule (2) of rule 114-I.
The information to be disclosed in Form 26AS against other items that have been inserted remains the same as in the previous form (except for information relating to tax demands).
How to Download Form 26AS?
You can easily download Form 26AS from the TRACES website.
You can also go to https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/ and log in with your unique user ID and password.
In another way, you can also download Form 26AS using the banks mentioned above’ net banking services.
Here’s how to download Form 26AS using your income tax department account, step by step:
- Please go to https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/.
- Click the ‘Login’ button.
- Enter your User ID. To complete the login process, you must enter your PAN’s Aadhaar number. You must first complete the registration process before you can log in.
- After you’ve entered your User ID, click ‘Continue.’
- Choose ’e-file.’
- Then, select ‘Income Tax Returns.’
- Then, select ‘View Form 26AS’.
- Next, click ‘Confirm.’
- On the following page, click ‘Proceed.’
- Then, select ‘View Tax Credit (Form 26AS)’.
- Next, select the ‘View Type’ and ‘Assessment Year’ options.
- Next, select a format.
- To finish the process, click ‘View/ Download.
How to View Form 26AS?
When speaking of how to view form 26AS, the TRACES portal can be used to check Form 26AS. It is linked to your PAN, and you can access Form 26AS through your net banking account from FY 2019-20 to the previous fiscal year. The following banks have registered with NSDL to allow users to view Form 26AS.
| Axis Bank | Corporation Bank | IDBI Bank | State Bank of India | Saraswat Co-operative Bank |
| Citibank | Bank of Maharashtra | Indian Bank | State Bank of Patiala | Federal Bank |
| Bank of India | City Union Bank Limited | Oriental Bank of Commerce | UCO Bank | |
| ICICI Bank | Indian Overseas Bank | State Bank of Mysore | State Bank of Travancore | |
| Bank of Baroda | Kotak Mahindra Bank | Indian Bank | Union Bank of India |
Also, if you want to know how to check Form 26AS in some other way, here’s the guide for you.
- Register as a Taxpayer on the Traces Portal.
- Access https://contents.tdscpc.gov.in/ and To view Form 26AS, click ‘View / Verify Tax Credit’.
- To view form 26AS, go to the bottom of the page and click the link View Tax Credit (Form 26AS).
- Choose the Assessment year, and the format (HTML/pdf/text) in which you want to view your Form 26AS, enter the verification code, and then click view/download.
- After some time, Form 26AS will be available in the Downloads Section.
Key Takeaways
- Form 26AS is helpful in verifying the tax credits and computation of income before filing the ITR.
- The IT department treats Form 26As as the benchmark for all the analysis and verification. Therefore, as a taxpayer, you must ensure that the ITR is in sync with Form 26AS.
- If the income tax department finds any kind of discrepancy, they will issue a notice seeking an explanation.
How Does Form 26AS Help in Filing ITR?
Now that you are clear with what is Form 26AS? It is time to learn how Form 26AS is extremely helpful throughout the tax-filing process. If you are a salaried individual, you should cross-check your Form 26AS with Form 16 to ensure that the taxes deducted and the advance tax paid during the year match the tax deposited according to the IT department’s records.
If you file your ITR online, TDS deductions for investment redemptions on FDs, pension funds, etc., will be reflected in the ITR form automatically, which can be matched to Form 26AS. However, not every detail which is required to be declared in the ITR form may show up, and therefore Form 26AS is needed to assess the final numbers.
Conclusion
While the CBDT stated in an earlier press release that “the new Form 26AS is the faceless hand-holding of taxpayers to e-file their income tax returns quickly and correctly,” with the information now readily available, the possibility of it being misused cannot be ruled out. With these changes, Form 26AS will become even more important, as it may be used to conduct due diligence by banks and other institutions lending money to taxpayers.
FAQs
This could be because the bank made an error in its data entry. You must take this matter up with your bank and correct the amount.
Yes, if the PAN holder’s information is incorrect, you can always update it. You should apply on the official website using the ‘Request for new PAN card or/and changes or correction in PAN data’ option.
Part A1 of this form contains information about your income for which TDS was not deducted when you submitted Form 15G/Form 15H.
According to 285BA of the Income Tax Act, individuals who have made any high-value transactions during the year must furnish a statement of those transactions to the tax authorities.
No, Form 26AS and ITR are not the same. ITR is a form that a taxpayer needs to submit to the IT department of India, whereas Form 26AS contains all tax-related information which helps file ITR.
If TDS is not visible on the tax book, it will imply that either the taxpayer has not paid the taxes or the deductor has not filed the TDS return/TDS statement with the IT department. In both cases, the credit of TDS is disallowed by the IT department, and a notice of tax demand is issued to the taxpayer.
Once your Advance tax is paid, it will be reflected on your Form 26AS within the next 3 to 4 working days of making the payment.
