Heard of the Annual Information Statement (AIS)? It may well replace Form 26AS in the coming future. So, what is the Annual Information Statement (AIS)? And how is it going to impact taxpayers? Let’s find out.
What is the Annual Information Statement?
Up until now, Form 26AS served as a consolidated annual tax statement which included details of any TDS that might have been deducted and deposited on your behalf, Advance or Self-Assessment Tax paid, as well as records of high-value transactions that you may have made.
The Annual Information Statement on the other hand includes many more categories of information like securities & mutual fund transactions, interests, dividends, foreign remittance information, and more. The reported information has been processed to remove duplicate information. It may contain any other transaction-related information that may be available with the Income Tax Department. Taxpayers will be able to download the AIS in JSON, PDF, and CSV format.
Form 26AS will continue to be available on the TRACES portal until the AIS is validated and is completely operational.
Features of Annual Information Statement:
- Taxpayers can submit online feedback on AIS. If the taxpayer feels that any incorrect information has crept in, they can submit that feedback online. Taxpayers can also submit the feedback offline via AIS utility.
- A Simplified Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) will also be provided to each taxpayer. This will show the summary of a taxpayer’s income as per ITD. If the taxpayer changes any information on the AIS, the derived information in the TIS will get updated in real-time. With the help of TIS, taxpayers can:
- Tally their security transactions with the broker statement.
- Cross verify the dividends that they have received in the bank. An account with what is mentioned in AIS.
- Access information related to refund or demand for the previous year’s ITR.
What does this mean for taxpayers?
Taxpayers need to carefully check all the transactions reflected in the AIS and make necessary amends (if any) because this information will be vital for filing ITR.
In case of any mismatch in the TDS/TCS details displayed on Form 26AS and AIS – at present, it is recommended to follow Form 26AS available on TRACES.
How to view AIS?
Users can access the AIS by clicking the link “Annual Information Statement (AIS) under the “Services” tab of the new Income Tax Portal. Taxpayers need to check and verify the information shown in the AIS and make amends (if necessary) before filing ITR for the current tax season. However, if the ITR has already been filed and some information has not been included or has been wrongly included, the return may be revised to reflect the correct information.
Written by: CA Rithm Choudhury
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