What is Form 26AS (and the AIS)?

1What Form 26AS contains

Form 26AS is your tax-credit statement. Think of it as a passbook of all the tax paid on your behalf or by you during the year. It includes:

• TDS deducted by your employer, banks (on FD interest), and tenants (on rent)
• TCS collected by sellers (e.g. on car purchases, foreign remittances)
• Advance tax and self-assessment tax you paid via challan
• Refunds paid to you during the year

2What the AIS adds

The Annual Information Statement (AIS) is broader than 26AS. Where 26AS focuses on tax credits, the AIS captures your financial transactions — even those without TDS. It includes savings and FD interest, dividends, share and mutual-fund transactions, foreign remittances, property deals and more.

There's also a simpler version called the TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary), which groups the AIS data by income type to make filing easier.

3Why reconciliation matters

Your return must agree with these statements on two fronts:

• Tax credits: only claim TDS that appears in 26AS — claiming credit that isn't there holds up your refund.
• Income: report at least the income shown in your AIS — declaring less invites a 143(1) adjustment or scrutiny.

4How to download and use them

Both are free on the income-tax e-filing portal:

1. Log in to incometax.gov.in.
2. Form 26AS: e-File → Income Tax Returns → View Form 26AS (it opens the TRACES portal).
3. AIS: go to the 'AIS' menu and download the AIS/TIS PDF or JSON.
4. Compare them against your salary slips, bank statements and broker reports before you file — and if you spot a wrong entry in the AIS, submit feedback to correct it.

5The TIS sits between the AIS and your return

Most guidance stops at Form 26AS and the AIS. There is a third document, and it is the one the department actually works from.

The Taxpayer Information Summary is the aggregated, processed version of the AIS. Where the AIS lists every reported transaction, the TIS shows a derived value for each information category — and it is that derived figure which flows into your pre-filled return.

When you submit feedback on an AIS entry, the TIS is what updates. If the TIS still shows the original figure after your feedback has been accepted, the pre-filled return will too.

6How to give feedback when an entry is wrong

The AIS is built from third-party reporting, and third parties make errors — a sale reported twice, interest attributed to the wrong PAN, a transaction belonging to a joint holder shown in full against you.

Feedback is submitted against the individual entry on the AIS portal, choosing from the defined options: information is correct, transfer not in the nature of sale, income not taxable, information relates to another PAN or year, information is duplicate, or information is denied.

Submitting feedback does not delete the entry. It records your position alongside it, and the modified value flows to the TIS. Keep the acknowledgement, because the mismatch may still surface at processing and the acknowledgement is the answer to it.

7What these documents do not cover

Neither Form 26AS nor the AIS is a complete statement of your income, and treating them as one produces under-reporting.

They contain what third parties reported. Cash receipts, rent paid directly without TDS, income from a client who did not deduct tax, foreign income and most capital gains computations are simply absent — the AIS may show a securities sale value without any cost of acquisition, which is not the same as a gain.

The return remains a declaration of your total income. These documents are a cross-check against it, not a substitute for it.

8What moved out of Form 26AS

Form 26AS used to be the single place where high-value transactions appeared. Most of that content has moved.

It now focuses on tax-related entries: TDS and TCS, advance tax and self-assessment tax paid, refunds issued, and demands outstanding. The Specified Financial Transactions — large deposits, property purchases, mutual fund and share transactions, credit card spends — now sit in the AIS.

So a taxpayer checking only Form 26AS will see their tax credits correctly and miss the reported transactions entirely, which is exactly the half of the picture that generates mismatch queries.