Form 26AS
Form 26AS

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.

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.

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

Sample Form 26AS: Annual Tax Statement

Components of Form 26AS Tax Credit Statement

  • Part A
  • Part A1
    • Contains the details regarding Tax Deducted at Source in case Form 15G / 15H has been submitted by the deductee.
  • Part A2
  • Part B

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.

How to Rectify TDS Mismatch in Form16 and Form26AS

TDS(Tax Deducted at Source) should ideally be the same in Form 26AS and Form 16 or 16A. However, sometimes there might be inconsistencies owing to several reasons including clerical mistake.

Form 16 and 16A are tax credit statements that confirm the deduction of tax from income of an individual or company. While Form 16 is issued annually on TDS from salary, Form 16A is issued every 3 months for TDS on income from other sources. Form 26AS, on the other hand, is a government record of the tax deducted from an individual or company and deposited with the Income Tax Department.

Once TDS or TCS (Tax Collected at Source) is deducted from an income, the person who is in charge of deducting TDS or TCS should deposit the amount collected with the IT Department. Sometimes, if the employer has not deposited the amount with the department on time, it is likely that TDS mentioned in Form 16 or 16A will not match with Form 26AS.

To be able to file your income tax return, it is essential that tax credit in Form 26AS and Form 16/16A should be the same. For tax computation, it is important to know the TDS already deducted from your salary so that any additional tax on other incomes can be determined properly. If excess TDS has been deducted, then you may also be liable for a refund from the department.

If there is any difference in the tax credit figures of Form 26AS and Form 16/16A, and you have not rectified it in time, then the taxman will consider the figure in Form 26AS for calculations.

Once you compare the forms and identify the error, you must:

  • Inform the person responsible for deducting TDS from your income, i.e. your employer.
  • If the reason for mismatch is a mistake from your employer’s side, it is easier and faster for them to make corrections.
  • The employer has to file a revised TDS Return. Ensure that the details are correct in the revised TDS return in order to avoid another mismatch.
  • If you have received a notice from the Income Tax department about tax credit mismatch, you can respond to it online through Income Tax e-filing portal.
  • You need to choose ‘Taxpayer is correcting data for Tax Credit Mismatch only’ under the options and fill in the relevant details.

Filing of revised TDS Return will take some time, and even after the revised version is filed, it will take more time for the correction to reflect in Form 26AS. The best way to ensure that there is no discrepancy in TDS is to check your Form 26AS periodically. If you file your income tax return online, Form 26AS can be accessed from your Income Tax e-filing account.

Reasons For TDS Mismatch

If you find a mismatch of TDS in Form 26AS and Form 16/16A, you may first want to find out why the mistake happened. This will help you take the right steps towards correcting the discrepancy. For this, you must first compare both the forms and see which entries are not reflecting in Form 26AS.

The following are the common errors leading to TDS mismatch:

Form 26AS Download: Step by Step Guide

Follow the steps given below to download Form 26AS

  1. Login to the Income Tax e-Filing portalYou will land on the dashboard of the new income tax portal.

2. Navigate to eFile

Click on eFile and then click on income tax returns from the dropdown.

3. View Form 26AS

Now, click on View Form 26AS from the dropdown.

4. Disclaimer

Click on confirm.

5 Navigate to TRACES

Once you are redirected to TRACES, you will have to click on proceed to the disclaimer that appears on the screen.

View Form 26AS option

Click on the option to View Tax Credit (Form 26AS).

Download Form 26AS

Select the appropriate assessment year and “Text” under the view as option and click on the option to export the document as a PDF.

Actual TDS and TDS Credit in Form 26AS do not match

Every person deducting tax at source has to furnish the details of tax deducted by them to the IT Department. On the basis of the details of TDS provided by the deductor, the Income Tax Department will update Form 26AS of the deductee.

Often the actual amount of TDS and TDS credit as appearing in Form 26AS may differ and it may happen that the TDS credit appearing in Form 26AS may be less as compared to the actual TDS, this may happen due to reasons like non-furnishing of TDS details to the IT Department by the deductor, deducting the tax in incorrect PAN, etc. ​If a discrepancy is due to the deductor, then they may file the TDS/TCS correction statement and correct the same.

The Income Tax Department updates the TDS details in Form 26AS on basis of details provided by the person deducting the tax (i.e., the deductor), hence, if there is any default on the part of the deductor like non -furnishing of TDS details (i.e., TDS return) to the ITD, deducting the tax in incorrect PAN, etc. then Form 26AS will not reflect the actual TDS. The taxpayers are advised to confirm the tax credit appearing in Form 26AS and should reconcile the difference if any.