Form 26AS is a very important financial document required for filing your income-tax returns (ITR). It contains all tax-related information of the taxpayer and is an official annual consolidated statement that includes details of the tax deducted at source (TDS) from the taxpayer. The form also shares the tax credit and advance tax against the PAN (permanent account number) of the taxpayer. It also contains the details of income-tax refunds that were paid to you from your tax department during the financial Year (FY).
There are three ways to download this tax credit statement:
1. The TRACES website;
2. The taxpayer's Internet banking (Not all banks provide you the facility to view/ download Form 26AS);
3. Income tax e-filing website of the government.
TRACES (TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System) is a web-based application of the income-tax (I-T) department that provides an interface to all stakeholders associated with TDS administration. It enables viewing of challan status, downloading of Conso File, Justification Report and Form 16 / 16A as well as viewing of annual tax credit statements (Form 26AS).
The first two options require one to register (create your login id for viewing / downloading Form 26AS) and, hence, most taxpayers prefer to download their Form 26AS from the I-T department's e-filing website since they are already registered to file their returns. It is thus easy to download Form 26AS through the I-T e-filing website using the same login credentials.
One can use Form 26AS to check the TDS deducted and deposited by one’s employer, in case one has not received Form 16. Even if you have received Form 16, you can cross-check tax credit figures in both documents to ensure that they match. Similarly, you can also cross-check with other TDS details (interest income, rental income) and see if they match. In case you spot any discrepancies, you have to contact that respective individual/ bank/ employer and get it corrected so that the correct figures reflect here.
This helps to avoid getting a notice u/s 143(1) in case you forget to disclose any income in your ITR for which taxes have been deducted as per Form 26AS. Hence, it is absolutely important to download and cautiously go through all the necessary details.
Here are the steps to download your Form 26AS from the I-T e-filing website:
Step 2: Enter your User ID (PAN number), Password, the Captcha displayed and then, click on the 'Login' tab.
Step 3: Once logged in successfully, click on 'My Account' tab. Click on 'View Form 26AS (Tax Credit)' from the drop-down options available.
Step 4: After clicking on 'View Form 26AS' under 'My Account' tab, you will be redirected to the TDS-CPC website to view/download Form 26AS statement. Since TDS-CPC website is operated by other parties, you have to provide a confirmation on the disclaimer by clicking on the 'Confirm' tab before proceeding further.
Step 5: After you are redirected to the TRACES website, which is the TDS-CPC website, click on the 'View Form 26AS'.
Step 6: You can now choose the 'Assessment Year' from the drop-down menu. To download Form 26AS in PDF format, under 'View As' tab drop-down list select 'HTML' and click on view/download tab then click on 'Export as PDF' tab. To download Form 26AS in text format, under 'View As' tab drop-down list select 'Text' and click on 'View/Download'.
Form 26AS helps you verify the tax credits and computation of income before filing the ITR. It enables one to check that the tax deducted or collected by the deductor or collector, respectively, has been deposited on time.
Apart from this, Form 26AS also reflects details of annual information return (AIR), which is filed by different entities, based on what an individual has invested or spent, mostly high-value transactions.
