Form 26AS – Definition and Purpose

Posted On August 17, 2022August 18, 2022

An essential tax document is Form 26AS. It is an annual statement that is sent to individual taxpayers and linked to their Permanent Account Number (PAN). Below you will find information on this form’s applicability as well as instructions on how to see or download it online.

What is Form 26AS?

An annual statement called Form 26AS contains information on the tax credits applied to a taxpayer’s PAN. A taxpayer can obtain this form using their login credentials from the Income Tax Department’s online filing site.

You can refer to it for information on your income (from which taxes have been deducted) and the taxes that have been paid to the government treasury by or on your behalf by the deductor (which could be your company, bank, etc.).

What purpose does it serve?

Before submitting their income tax return, taxpayers should compare their actual transactions to the ones listed on their Form 26AS (ITR). Omissions and other filing errors will be much reduced as a result of doing this. An investigation may be conducted if there is a discrepancy between the Form and your submitted income tax returns.

This form also attests to the fact that several organizations have paid taxes on your behalf and placed the funds in the government account.

How can it be downloaded?

You may get your Form 26AS from the website of the Income Tax Department. You need to already have a user account in order to register on the website.

If you do not log in, how can you access the form?

Additionally, you may access your Form using your bank account’s internet banking service. Only if your PAN is connected to your bank account then this function is accessible. Axis Bank, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, and Union Bank are a few of the banks that provide this service.

What has changed in Form 26AS?

The new form is now an Annual Information Statement (AIS) instead of an Annual Tax Statement. While the Form 26AS and the AIS are both now accessible through the portal, the old Form will be phased out and replaced by the AIS until the new AIS has been verified and is fully functioning. Only tax deducted at source (TDS) against your PAN, tax collected at source (TCS) against your PAN, details of other taxes paid, and information on income tax refunds were included in the previous form. Part A and Part B make up the new AIS.

Part A of the form contains general information about the taxpayer and the following fields:

1. Permanent Account Number
2. Aadhaar ID
3. Name
4. Date of Birth/Incorporation
5. Mobile number
6. Email ID
7. Address

It is significant to notice that the new Form includes a space for the taxpayer’s cell phone number and email address, which were not previously recorded. This demonstrates the value of the mobile number and email address in the overall scheme of things, as there will only be one faceless method used for all interactions with the tax authorities.

The following details are in Part B of the form:

1. Details on tax deductions or source-based collections
2. Details on certain financial transactions.
3. Information on tax-related payments

What makes Form 26AS and Form 16 different from one another?

While the contains all of a taxpayer’s tax-related actions, Form 16 is a declaration that details the total amount paid to an employee and the tax withheld during the course of a fiscal year.

For more details, Get in touch with the experts.