Form 26AS
Form 26AS is the annual consolidated tax credit statement issued by the Income Tax Department that shows all TDS, TCS, advance tax, self-assessment tax, and refunds linked to your PAN in a financial year.
Understanding Form 26AS
Form 26AS is essentially your tax credit ledger maintained by the IT department, populated from quarterly TDS returns filed by deductors. Before filing your ITR, you should reconcile every TDS entry: confirm the deductor name, amount, and whether status is "Booked" (deposited).
Since 2020, AIS supplements Form 26AS with additional data: high-value transactions reported by banks/registrars (large cash deposits, mutual fund redemptions, sale of property, foreign remittances). AIS is more comprehensive but Form 26AS remains the primary tax-credit statement.
Why it matters
Always check Form 26AS in mid-June (after the Q4 TDS return filing deadline) and again before filing your ITR. Any mismatch — wrong amount, missing deductor, status "Pending" — should be flagged to the deductor immediately. Filing without reconciling is the single biggest cause of refund delays and tax-department notices.
Example
An employee whose Form 16 shows ₹85,000 TDS but Form 26AS shows only ₹70,000 has a problem — the employer has not deposited ₹15,000 of the deducted tax. Until this is reconciled, the employee can claim only ₹70,000 as TDS credit on their ITR, and would have to pay the ₹15,000 again as self-assessment tax (then chase the employer separately).
An employee whose Form 16 shows ₹85,000 TDS but Form 26AS shows only ₹70,000 has a problem — the employer has not deposited ₹15,000 of the deducted tax. Until this is reconciled, the employee can claim only ₹70,000 as TDS credit on their ITR, and would have to pay the ₹15,000 again as self-assessment tax (then chase the employer separately).