Error in AIS on Tax Portal; Point out Issue & File Return

Checking your Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the tax portal in advance of the deadline for filing your income tax return may be helpful. The government has pledged to assist in resolving any issues that might have arisen as a result of inaccurate reporting or a system that wasn’t able to adequately record the information.

The Annual Information Statement (AIS), launched last year, contains information compiled from several sources based on your PAN about the tax deducted at source, property transactions, dividends, fixed deposits, mutual funds, shares, and other assets. The goal is to provide taxpayers with the information that the government has to offer so they may file accurate returns even though they might have overlooked some important data.

Tax authorities have guaranteed that filing your taxes won’t be a problem and that they won’t necessarily be scrutinised just because the information in the AIS and the forms doesn’t match. Although it may take up to 90 days to correct the information, according to government officials, the data has frequently been corrected in a matter of minutes.

A senior officer advised people to go ahead and file their returns without waiting for the data to be updated, adding that they should discuss the matter with the tax department and the reporting agency, if at all possible.

The information has generally been deemed accurate by taxpayers, however there have been situations when each owner’s AIS shows the full amount of a property sale involving many owners since the property registrar sharing the data does not contain the portion that each owner had. The interest income may have also been displayed in the AIS of both account holders in the event of joint accounts. According to tax officials, similar information might be recorded in the “remarks” section in circumstances like real estate transfers or joint accounts.

Officials noted that a taxpayer has five alternatives after viewing the information. She can accept the data or reject it in the event that it does not apply to her and might be incorrectly represented in her tax account. Alternately, it can be associated to another person’s PAN, the prior year, be duplicate, or be connected to other data.

The taxpayer should choose the appropriate box, according to officials, and then type the information in the notes section. The differences must be reported in the tax system, according to the authorities, as they will be accessible in the event that your case is investigated.

Source: Times of India