The July 31 deadline for filing income-tax returns (ITR) for the financial year 2024-25 is around two months away but this is a good time to prepare for the annual exercise to avoid last-minute panic and mistakes.
Make sure you have all the documents in order. To begin with, you must access Form 26AS (tax credit statement) and your Annual Information Statement (AIS). These will ensure that you do not miss declaring relevant financial transaction, asset purchase or income earned during the year.
Know your AIS and Form-26AS
Accessing and verifying the two documents is crucial. Form 26AS, or tax credit statement, has details of property purchases, high-value financial investments, and TDS/TCS transactions executed during the year.
AIS, an extension of Form-26AS, is more comprehensive. It also provides details of savings account interest, dividend, rent received, purchase and sale transactions of securities/immovable properties, foreign remittances, interest on deposits and so on.
It also allows taxpayers to provide feedback on the transactions reported in case there are some discrepancies.
How to access AIS
Step 1: Log on to incometax.gov.in with your user ID (PAN) and password
Step 2: Click on the “Annual Information Statement (AIS)” tab in the main menu
Step 3: Click on the “Proceed” button, which will redirect to AIS portal and click on AIS tile to view the Annual Information Statement
You can also go to the e-File menu after logging in, click on “Income Tax Return” and View AIS. Follow Step 3 to get the information.
Review your AIS
You must go through the records of financial transactions and tax deducted at source (TDS) to ensure that all income is declared. Since the AIS and Form 26AS contain the complete history of a taxpayer’s transactions, nothing will go unnoticed.
For instance, if you fail to report the sale of shares or mutual fund units or any other income, you could get a notice for non-disclosure when the I-T department processes your returns. AIS will display details of tax refunds, savings account interest or dividend earned, rent received, purchase and sale transactions of securities, immovable properties, foreign remittances and so on. Make sure that the ITR reflects all these details.
Report errors, inconsistences
AIS comes with a built-in grievance redressal mechanism. You need to first get on to the income tax e-filing portal and access the statement. You can verify the information and can report errors if any.
To raise a dispute on any figures mentioned in Part B [which contains income, tax deducted at source (TDS), specified financial transactions (SFT) details, etc] of the AIS, you need to:
– Click “Bulk feedback”, select the transaction where you have spotted an error, and click on “continue”
– In the “Feedback type” dropdown menu, select the appropriate grounds of complaints and “submit”
– If your contention is accepted, AIS will reflect the value reported by the deductors as well as data modified after your feedback
