Form 26AS is an annual consolidated credit statement that provides the details of the taxes deposited with the government by a taxpayer. Form 26AS can be accessed by a taxpayer from the Income Tax Portal using the PAN.
What does it include?
From AY 2023-24 onwards, Form 26AS will include every transaction where tax has been deducted (TDS) from a person’s income, be it by their employer or a bank, or any other person, and tax that has been collected (TCS) from a person. Ins short, it contains:
With this document, it is ensured that accurate tax has been deducted/collected from the taxpayer’s income and has been deposited with the government.
- Details of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) from the taxpayer’s income.
- Details of Tax Collected at Source (TCS) from taxpayer’s payments.
It is a very important document to have while filing ITR. However, you would not want to miss out on tax credits while filing ITR. You can download Form 26AS from the Income-tax e-filing website. The file that the user downloads are password protected. Form 26AS password is the D.o.B (Date of Birth) of the deductee.
Download Form 26AS through Income Tax Portal
Form 26AS can be downloaded on the TRACES website. Below are the steps to view and download Form 26AS from the TRACES website.
Step 1: Visit the e-filing website
Step 2: Enter your user ID- It can be either PAN or Aadhaar number. If the user ID is invalid, error message will be displayed. Continue with valid user ID details.
Step 3: Enter the password and continue.
Step 4:
- The following screen will appear. Go to ‘e-file’. Click on ‘Income Tax Returns’ and select ‘View Form 26AS’ in the drop-down.
- View Form 26AS
Step 5:
- Click on ‘Confirm’ to the disclaimer so that you are redirected to the TRACES website (don’t worry, this is a necessary step and is completely safe since it is a government website).
- TRACES Website
Step 6: You are now on the TRACES (TDS-CPC) website. Select the box on the screen and click on ‘Proceed’.
Step 7: Click on the link at the bottom of the page – Click ‘View Tax Credit (Form 26AS)’ to view your Form 26AS.
Step 8: Choose the Assessment Year and the format you want to see Form 26AS. If you want to see it online, leave the format as HTML. You can also choose to download it as a PDF. After you have made your choice, enter the ‘Verification Code’ and click on the ‘View/Download’ button.
Alternatively, Form 26AS can be downloaded by directly logging into TRACES portal. Form 26AS is not a password encrypted file.
CBDT Announcement Regarding New Form 26AS & AIS
The Ministry of Finance has released a new avatar of Form 26AS applicable from 1st June 2020. The notification states that Form 26AS will be divided into two parts; Part A and Part B. Form 26AS contains basic personal information of the taxpayer such as PAN, name, address, etc of the taxpayer. This helps taxpayers file their ITR with all the basic details available in Form 26AS.
Furthermore, the ITD has introduced the AIS (Annual Information Statement) will now incorporate all the information related to the following:
| Sl. No. | Nature of Information |
| 1. | Information relating to specified financial transactions (Property & Share Transaction Details) |
| 2. | Information relating to the payment of taxes (advance tax & self-assessment tax) |
| 3. | Information relating to demand and refund |
| 4. | Information relating to pending proceedings |
| 5. | Information relating to completed proceedings |
| 6. | Any other information in relation to sub-rule (2) of rule 114-I |
| 7. | Information related to foreign remittances |
Components of Form 26AS Tax Credit Statement
- Part A
- Contains the details regarding Tax Deducted at source including Name and TAN of Deductor, Total Amount Paid, Tax Deducted, and Deposited.
- Part A1
- Contains the details regarding Tax Deducted at Source in case Form 15G / 15H has been submitted by the deductee.
- Part A2
- Contains the details regarding Tax Deducted at Source on Sale of Immovable Property u/s 194IA, TDS on Rent of Property u/s 194IB, and TDS on Payment to resident contractor & professional u/s 194M. (For the seller/landlord of Property/payee of resident contractor & professional)
- Part B
- It has the details regarding Tax Collected at Source. Entries in Form 26AS will show the seller details of who has collected tax from you.
From AY 2023-24 onwards, these details shall be available in the AIS (Annual Information Statement).
- Part C: Contains the details of any Taxes paid other than TDS/TCS, i.e., Advance Tax, Self-assessment Tax.
- Part D: Contains details of Paid Refund. This section contains any information related to refunds in that assessment year.
- Part E: Contains details of SFT Transactions. Banks and other financial institutions must report high-value transactions to the tax authorities. High-value purchases of mutual funds, property purchases, and corporate bonds are all reported here.
- Part F: If you have bought a property/paid rent to the tenant/paid for contractual work or professional fees and deducted TDS on such payments. This section will show details of the TDS deducted & deposited by you.
- Part G: This part shows TDS defaults (after processing of TDS returns). However, they do not include demands raised by the assessing officer.
- Part H: This part shows the turnover of the taxpayer as reported in the GSTR-3B return.
View Form 26AS Without Login to Income Tax Portal
PAN holder can view Form 26AS using net banking account with any authorised bank, if the PAN number is linked to that account. This facility is available for free. The list of authorised banks in which you can view your Tax Credit Statement (Form 26AS) are as below:
- Axis Bank Limited
- Bank of India
- Bank of Maharashtra
- Bank of Baroda
- Citibank N.A.
- Corporation Bank
- City Union Bank Limited
- ICICI Bank Limited
- IDBI Bank Limited
- Indian Overseas Bank
- Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited
- Indian Bank
- Karnataka Bank
- Oriental Bank of Commerce
- State Bank of India
- State Bank of Mysore
- State Bank of Travancore
- State Bank of Patiala
- The Federal Bank Limited
- The Saraswat Co-operative Bank Limited
- UCO Bank
- Union Bank of India
Benefits of Form 26AS
- Form 26AS provides important information about tax deducted/collected and deposited with the government tax authorities by the authorized deductors /collectors.
- A taxpayer can view all financial transactions involving TDS/TCS for the relevant financial year in Form 26AS.
- Form 26AS helps in the computation of income and to claim the tax credits when filing an Income Tax Return (ITR) on income.
- Form 26AS helps in the computation of income and to claim the tax credits at the time of filing Income Tax Return (ITR) on income.
- A taxpayer can confirm the verification of refunds during the applicable financial or assessment year using Form 26AS.
Annual Information Statement (AIS)
- The income tax department has introduced an Annual Information Statement (AIS) to incorporate new details like:
- Foreign remittances,
- Off-market transactions,
- Interest on income tax refunds,
- Mutual fund purchases, and
- Dividend details.
- Moreover, information of certain transactions is available with the tax department through ITR filed by others. For example, the property seller reports buyers’ details in their ITR.
26AS v/s AIS
The following table presents the difference between Form 26AS and AIS.
| Basis of Differentiation | Form 26AS | AIS |
| Meaning | Form 26AS is a comprehensive document that contains all the TDS, taxes paid and other crucial information of the financial year. | AIS is an extension of Form 26AS, which contains additional information, other than what is available in Form 26AS. |
| Importance | In case of mismatch between form 26AS and AIS, form 26AS prevails | AIS will not be given precedence over Form 26AS data. |
| Information | TDS, Advance tax, Self assessment taxes, Significant high value transactions, GST turnover as per GSTR 3B, etc are incorporated in Form 26AS | AIS contains information not included in Form 26AS such asSale value of shares, Dividend, Purchase of securities, etc. |
| Password encryption | Form 26AS is not a password encrypted file | Your pan in lowercase followed by date of birth in DDMMYYYY format is the password for opening AIS. |
Discrepancies Between Form 26AS and AIS
- Generally, there should be no discrepancies between Form 26AS and AIS.
- However, if any inconsistencies do arise, the income tax department’s press release on the introduction of AIS will take precedence.
- As per the aforesaid press release, in case of conflict arising between AIS and 26AS ,the information in Form 26AS will prevail.
- Form 26AS should only prevail when the taxpayer lacks sufficient information or when it’s necessary to rely on the data available in the portal.
TDS Certificate (Form 16/16A) and Form 26AS
- A TDS certificate or Form 16/16A and Form 26AS have different purposes though they may seem to contain the same information.
- The tax deductor issues Form 16/16A, which serves as an evidence for TDS being deposited to the government under your PAN.
- Whereas, Form 26AS contains all relevant information related to TDS/ TCS sufficient to file ITR.
- If there are any mistatches between Form 26AS and TDS certificates it could be because of technical defect in the income tax portal and other errors.
- If Form 26AS is not showing TDS, it could be either because of an error or TDS itself has not been deducted in the first place.
- You can check with your deductor to confirm whether TDS has been deducted and appropriately filed with the income tax department.
Further, in the case of salaried persons, Form 26AS is not sufficient to file ITR since it does not show the break-up of the income and deductions claimed under Section 80C to Section 80U which are available in TDS certificate. Thus, you need a TDS certificate along with Form 26AS.
Things to verify in TDS certificate with Form 26AS
Form 26AS must be verified with the details of TDS certificate, i.e. Form 16 (for salaried individuals) and Form 16A (for non-salaried individuals), to ensure that the TDS deducted from the payee’s income was deposited with the income tax department.
Other things that taxpayers must verify in the TDS certificate and Form 26AS are as follows:
- Check the name, PAN number, deductor’s TAN, refund amount and TDS amount to ensure that they are correctly reflected. A mismatch in details may create problems while filing ITR.
- Check if the TDS as per Form 16/16A is reflecting in Form 26AS correctly. If not, the deductor has not deposited the tax deducted on your behalf. In such a case, you need to take action and contact the deductor to rectify it.
In the case of any discrepancy between the TDS certificate and Form 26AS, inform your deductor and get it corrected immediately. Ensure that the deductor has filed TDS using your PAN number and other details. In many cases, if the TDS is filed under an incorrect PAN, it can result in problems for you and the deductor.