Income Tax Department rolls out new Annual Information Statement

The Income Tax Department has launched the new Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the Compliance Portal, which provides a comprehensive view of information to taxpayers and allows them to provide online feedback. The new AIS can be accessed by going to the “Services” tab on the new Income Tax e-filing portal (https://www.incometax.gov.in) and clicking on the link “Annual Information Statement (AIS)”. The display of Form 26AS on the TRACES portal will also continue until the new AIS has been validated and is fully operational.

The new AIS includes more information about interest, dividends, securities transactions, mutual fund transactions, foreign remittances, and so on. The reported data has been processed to remove duplicate data. The taxpayer will be able to download AIS data in PDF, JSON, and CSV formats.

If a taxpayer believes that the information is incorrect, relates to another person/year, is duplicate, or is otherwise incorrect, an online feedback form is available. Feedback can also be provided by submitting a large amount of information in bulk. An AIS Utility has also been made available for taxpayers to view AIS and upload feedback offline. In the AIS, the reported value and the value after feedback will be displayed separately. If the information is changed or denied, the source of the information may be contacted for confirmation.

For each taxpayer, a simplified Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) has been generated, which shows aggregated value for the taxpayer for ease of filing return. TIS displays the processed value (i.e., the value generated after information deduplication based on pre-defined rules) as well as the derived value (i.e. the value derived after considering the taxpayer feedback and processed value). When a taxpayer provides feedback on AIS, the derived information in TIS is automatically updated in real time. The derived information in TIS will be used to populate the Return (pre-filling will be enabled in a phased manner).

Taxpayers should keep in mind that the Annual Information Statement (AIS) contains information that is currently available with the Income Tax Department. Other transactions involving the taxpayer that are not currently displayed in the Annual Information Statement may exist (AIS). Taxpayers should double-check all related information and report complete and accurate data on their Income Tax Return.

Taxpayers are asked to review the information in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and provide feedback if it needs to be changed. The value shown in the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) may be taken into account when filing the ITR. If the ITR has already been filed and some information was omitted, the return may be revised to reflect the correct information.

If there is a discrepancy between the TDS/TCS information or tax payment details displayed in Form26AS on TRACES portal and the TDS/TCS information or tax payment details displayed in AIS on Compliance Portal, the taxpayer may rely on the information displayed on TRACES portal for ITR filing and other tax compliance purposes.

Taxpayers can consult the AIS documents (AIS Handbook, Presentation, User Guide, and FAQs) in the “Resources” section or contact the helpdesk via the “Help” section on the AIS Homepage if they have any questions.