Do not forget to check form 26AS before filing your income tax return. Here’s why

• Form 26AS is an annual statement of how much tax you have paid to the income tax department.
• A taxpayer has to ensure that the income tax return is in sync with form 26AS.
• Since the tax department will consider form 26AS as its authentic document it becomes crucial for taxpayers to check if there is any mismatch in tax credits filed.

If you have been paying income tax, there is something called 26AS you should be aware of. It is an annual statement that provides you with all the details of tax credit i.e., how much tax you have paid to the income tax department.

It is basically a consolidated annual tax credit statement that has all the details of various taxes deducted on your income at source. Form 26AS is a very important document to check before filing income tax returns. It helps one check that the tax deducted or collected has been deposited on time.

The form is available on the income tax website against a taxpayer’s permanent account number (PAN).

The form also shows details of sale/purchase of immovable property, mutual funds, cash deposits or withdrawal from savings account etc. For example, cash deposits of over ₹10 lakh in your savings accounts in a financial year or if you purchased a property worth over ₹30 lakh, it will show up in this statement.

An assessee can claim the tax deducted reflecting in their form 26AS while filing their income tax return for a financial year.

Now, a taxpayer has to ensure that the income tax return is in sync with form 26AS.

Another important aspect of form 26AS is that banks and other institutions can now ask for form 26AS for due diligence before lending money to the person/corporations.

Details in form 26AS

• Tax deducted at source (TDS)
• Tax collected at source (TCS)
• Details of advance tax, self assessment tax
• Information about income tax refund
• Details of tax deducted on the sale of immovable property
• Details of the high value transactions in respect of shares, mutual fund etc

How to download the form

• Login to income tax new website incometax.gov.in with your PAN number
• Go to ‘e-file’ menu and select ‘View Form 26AS (tax credit)’
• You will be asked for confirmation to be redirected to the Traces website regulated by the government of India. Click on confirm button
• Then click at 'View Tax Credit (Form 26AS)’ option
• Select the assessment year
• Click at 'View/Download'

How to handle mismatch in the form

26AS is your tax passbook just like a bank passbook. Now, since the tax department will consider form 26AS as its authentic document it becomes crucial for taxpayers to check if there is any mismatch in tax credits filed.

Mismatch or errors could occur because you may have missed paying tax on some capital gains or amount of tax deducted from salary is incorrectly reported by the employer, TDS deduction is reported in wrong section, incorrect PAN being punched in the TDS return by the deductor or your employer or client may have deducted tax, but not deposited. In either case, you must immediately take it up and get it rectified.

Therefore, while preparing your tax returns, you must tally the income details and tax deducted shown in the form 26AS with the details as per your records.

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