The season for tax filings has already started. Tax deducted at source (TDS) by the employer for the salaried category and is transferred to the tax department. The employer shall provide the specifics of the wage paid and the tax withheld on Form 16 at the end of the fiscal year. The specifics of the wages paid to you, tax withheld and deposited by the employer, and the deductions you claimed during the year are mentioned in Form 16. In addition, if you have received interest income in excess of Rs 10,000 in a financial year, banks will subtract TDS from it unless you have submitted Form 15H or 15G. So from separate channels, TDS may be deducted. Form 26AS, though is one important document that provides you with the TDS information deducted from separate sources.
Why Form 26AS is an important document and why do you need to check it?
Form 26AS is a cumulative annual credit document that is released with respect to the PAN. It is, therefore, necessary to make a distinction between Form 26AS and Form 16 acquired from the employer by the taxpayer. If a tax deduction has been made and is not included on the Form 26AS, it implies that either it has not been deposited or there has been a discrepancy in the deposit of the withheld TDS. In this scenario, you can contact your employer. There are also risks that the TDS has been wrongly deposited against an inaccurate PAN. It’s your responsibility to have it updated.
If there is a discrepancy between the original deposited TDS shown in Form 26AS and what you indicate in the income tax report, you will be asked by the tax department. Also, assume there was any interest income that you did not disclose when filing the tax return, but the bank withheld TDS and deposited it with the tax department, so you might have obtained an alert for under income reporting from the tax department.
Consequently, for any inconsistencies before filing tax returns, it is often advisable to check both Form 16 and Form 26AS.
How to get Form 26AS?
If you’ve already enrolled on the website, you can download Form 26AS from the Income Tax of India website by signing in to your account. If not, you’re going to need to register yourself using your PAN first. You can go to ‘My Account’ after signing in and click on Form 26AS. It will guide you to the website of the TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System (TRACES). There you will have to pick the year of review for which you have to include the 26AS form and in which form you want to see it. The password for opening Form 26As is written in the DDMMYYYY format as your date of birth.
