The Directorate of Income Tax (Systems) has issued Version 1.0 of the “Foreign Assets Information User Guide – July 2026” to assist taxpayers in accessing, reviewing and responding to foreign financial information made available through the Income Tax Department’s Compliance Portal.
The User Guide has been prepared in accordance with the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026 (FAST-DS 2026). It explains the process for viewing and securely downloading foreign asset information received by the Government of India from overseas tax jurisdictions under international information-exchange arrangements.
The Income Tax Department has introduced a new Foreign Assets Information functionality on the Annual Information Statement Compliance Portal to improve transparency and enable taxpayers to verify foreign financial data available with the Department.
The information will not be displayed directly on the portal because of its sensitive nature and the applicable confidentiality and disclosure standards. Instead, taxpayers will be able to download the information in the form of a password-protected PDF report.
The facility will provide year-wise foreign financial information from Calendar Year 2022 onwards, subject to the availability of valid PAN-linked records received from foreign jurisdictions.
The downloadable report will contain the taxpayer’s PAN and name, along with calendar-year-specific details such as the country name, reporting financial institution, foreign bank account number, reported currency, dividend income, interest income, gross proceeds, other payments and account balance.
The report will also display the Indian rupee equivalent of dividend, interest, gross proceeds and other reported payments. Where an account is maintained in more than one currency, the balance may be displayed separately for each reported currency.
The Department has clarified that the information presented in the report will be based on the actual data received from foreign countries and will be made available without modification.
Taxpayers can access the facility by logging into the Income Tax e-filing portal using their PAN or Aadhaar credentials. After login, they may open the Annual Information Statement and proceed to the “Reports” tab on the Compliance Portal.
Under the Reports tab, taxpayers must select “Foreign Assets Information”, choose the relevant calendar year and click on the option to download the PDF.
The downloaded PDF can be opened using a password comprising the taxpayer’s PAN in lowercase followed by the date of birth in DDMMYYYY format. For example, where the PAN is AAAAA1234A and the date of birth is 21 January 1991, the password will be aaaaa1234a21011991.
The User Guide also introduces a structured mechanism for taxpayers to submit feedback against specific foreign financial records by using the Transaction Sequence Number, or TSN, mentioned in the downloaded report.
The feedback facility becomes available only after the corresponding foreign-assets PDF has been downloaded. A taxpayer will be required to enter the TSN exactly as appearing in the report and select the appropriate feedback category.
The available feedback options include:
- Information is correct
- Information does not pertain to me
- Information is partially correct
- Information is incorrect
Feedback may be submitted in relation to account balance, dividend, interest, other payments or all specified categories.
The taxpayer may also provide explanatory remarks, subject to the prescribed character limit. Feedback for a particular category against a specific TSN can be submitted only once.
After successful submission, the system will display a confirmation and generate an acknowledgement. The acknowledgement receipt can be downloaded through the Activity History section of the Compliance Portal.
The Guide states that taxpayers may download feedback acknowledgement receipts and preliminary-response acknowledgements available for the preceding ten days from the Activity History section.
The new functionality is intended to improve taxpayer awareness regarding foreign-asset reporting, provide a formal mechanism for correcting discrepancies and strengthen voluntary compliance.
The Income Tax Department has also provided access to related user manuals, training material, frequently asked questions and helpdesk support through the Resources and Help sections of the Compliance Portal.
Where an issue remains unresolved, taxpayers may raise a ticket, attach supporting documents, request a callback and monitor the status of the complaint through the portal.
The User Guide can be accessed at: https://a2ztaxcorp.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Foreign-Assets-Information-User-Guide_v1.0.pdf
