Form 26AS vs AIS: What to Check Before Filing ITR

Taxpayers should use Form 26AS vs AIS to reconcile both tax credits and reportable income before filing their ITR. Form 26AS confirms TDS, TCS and taxes paid, while AIS captures wider transactions such as savings interest, dividends, securities trades, mutual fund redemptions and property deals.

Form 26AS is your tax credit statement: what was deducted, collected and paid against your PAN. The Annual Information Statement is much wider: it reports your financial transactions, including interest, dividends, share and mutual fund trades, property deals and large cash movements. Check 26AS for the tax you can claim, and the AIS for the income you must declare.

Most mismatch notices come from treating them as the same document, or from ignoring the AIS because Form 16 looked complete.

The difference in one table

The rows that matter most are the ones where 26AS says no. Savings interest, dividends below the TDS threshold and mutual fund redemptions do not appear in 26AS at all. Rely on 26AS alone and you will under-report, without any intention to.

Where to find them

Both live on the income tax e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in, under e-File, then Income Tax Returns, then View Form 26AS and under Services, then Annual Information Statement.

The AIS download is password protected. The password is your PAN in lowercase followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY. Note that it differs from the Form 16 convention, which uses the first five PAN characters in uppercase.

Alongside the AIS you will find the Taxpayer Information Summary, a condensed version showing aggregated values by category. Use the TIS for a quick overview and the full AIS when you need to see individual transactions.

What the AIS catches that you might forget

Reading the AIS honestly is uncomfortable, which is rather the point. Items people routinely omit:

• Savings bank interest. No TDS is deducted, so nothing appears in 26AS, but it is taxable. Section 80TTA allows ₹10,000 for those under 60, and Section 80TTB allows ₹50,000 for senior citizens, both under the old regime only.
• Dividends. Taxable in your hands at slab rates since FY 2020-21. Where the amount was below the TDS threshold, 26AS shows nothing and the AIS shows everything.
• Mutual fund redemptions. Every redemption is a capital gains event, including a switch between schemes and an SWP withdrawal. People who never sold a fund but ran an SWP all year are often surprised.
• Interest on the income tax refund you received last year. Taxable, and consistently forgotten.
• Rent received, where the tenant deducted TDS.
• Foreign remittances under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
• Large cash deposits, credit card payments above thresholds and high-value purchases. These are not income, but they are visible, and an expenditure pattern well beyond declared income invites questions.

The AIS can be wrong, and you can say so

This is the feature most people do not use. Every AIS entry carries a feedback option, and submitting feedback creates a documented position rather than an unexplained gap.

The options are, in substance: information is correct; income is not taxable; information is not fully correct; information relates to another PAN or year; information is duplicate; information is denied.

Genuine cases where the AIS overstates things are common:

• Joint accounts. Interest on a joint fixed deposit may be reported in full against both holders. Only the actual owner should declare it, and the other should mark it as relating to another PAN.
• Jointly held property. A ₹80 lakh sale by two co-owners can appear as ₹80 lakh against each.
• Gross versus net. Securities transactions may show gross sale value, which is not your gain. Do not mistake sale proceeds for income.
• Duplicates, where the same transaction is reported by two entities.

Submit the feedback and file correctly. Do not silently declare a different figure and hope the difference is not noticed, and equally do not declare an inflated figure just because the AIS shows it.

Reconciling before you file

Fifteen minutes, in this order.

1. Download all three: Form 26AS, the AIS and the TIS.
2. Match Form 16 Part A against 26AS. The TDS figures must agree. If they do not, your employer’s TDS return has an error, and only your employer can correct it by filing a revised statement.
3. Confirm every TDS entry in 26AS is claimed in your return. Unclaimed TDS is money you are leaving with the government.
4. Work down the AIS category by category and ask, for each, whether it appears in your return.
5. Submit feedback on anything wrong before filing, not after.
6. Keep a copy of all three with your filing records. If a query arrives eighteen months later, the AIS will have been updated in the meantime.

One timing point: the AIS updates through the year as reporting entities file their statements. Filing on 1 April against an AIS that is still filling up is a common cause of mismatch. Late June onwards is usually when it is reasonably complete, though entries can still be added afterwards.

If they disagree with each other

They serve different purposes, so some divergence is normal rather than alarming.

For claiming TDS credit, Form 26AS governs. You can only claim tax that has actually been deposited against your PAN. If your employer deducted tax but never paid it, it will not appear in 26AS and you cannot claim it, however clearly your payslip shows the deduction. Keep the payslips and take it up with the department, but the credit will not appear until it is deposited.

For declaring income, the AIS is the broader net. It shows income that carries no TDS and therefore never reaches 26AS.

If a figure in the AIS is genuinely wrong, use feedback. If a figure in 26AS is wrong, only the deductor can fix it.

Common questions

Which do I need to file my return?
Both. 26AS for the tax credits, AIS for completeness of income.

Can I file without Form 16?
Yes. Form 26AS and the AIS together contain what you need, which is why an employer who has not issued Form 16 does not prevent you filing.

What is the AIS password?
PAN in lowercase plus date of birth as DDMMYYYY.

Does the department act on AIS data automatically?
Significant discrepancies between the AIS and your return are one of the standard triggers for an automated query. It is not an assessment, but it is worth avoiding.

My AIS shows a transaction that is not mine.
Submit feedback marking it as relating to another PAN or as denied. It may be a PAN reporting error by the entity.

The short version

26AS proves what tax has been paid on your behalf. The AIS shows what you earned and did, including the savings interest, dividends and mutual fund redemptions that 26AS never reports. Reconcile Form 16 against 26AS, work through the AIS line by line, and use the feedback facility on anything that is wrong rather than quietly filing a different number.