All taxpayers are aware of the Form 26AS which is an annual consolidated statement issued by the Income Tax Department under Section 203AA of Income-tax Act, 1961. It contains details of tax deducted on income by deductors, details of tax collected by collectors, advance tax paid by the taxpayer, self-assessment tax payments, regular assessment tax deposited by the taxpayers, details of the refund received by the taxpayer during the financial year, and other details.
After the amendment, a new section 285BB has been inserted with effect from 01.06.2020 by the Finance Act 2020, along with new Rule 114 -I(1) to make it more comprehensive. It provides that the Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) or the Director-General of Income-tax (Systems) or any person authorized by him shall, upload in the registered account of the assessee, an annual information statement containing additional more comprehensive information as envisaged by the amendment. The new statement would be called the “Annual Information Statement”.
In its endeavor to ease tracking of information, and also spreading awareness among tax payers / public, about authorities being in knowledge of the financial transactions, the amendment has been brought in to cover more information in the statement.
With advancement in technology and enhancement in the capacity of system, various information of tax payers / other persons like sale-purchase of immovable property, transaction in shares, securities, investments, etc. are to be captured. New amended statement will provide all such information to assesses in their income tax login, which can be tracked, matched & used for filing tax returns correctly. New Statement would also include details like pending tax demands, tax refunds, pending e- proceedings, completed proceedings etc. All these will help tax authorities to better administer the process, help track various transaction and bring them in tax net. It will also act as warning signal to tax offenders who may want to conceal such transaction to avoid paying tax.
Below is a comparison between the information which were included in the earlier 26AS and those which going forward, will be included in the newer AIS version:
| Earlier 26AS | AIS after amendment |
|---|---|
| Name of the Assessee , PAN, Financial Year, Assessment Year, Address | Name of the Assessee, PAN, Aadhar Number, Address, Financial Year, Assessment Year Date of birth/incorporation, Mobile number, E-mail address |
| Details of Tax Deducted at Source And Tax Collected at Source under various heads of income including sale of immovable properties | Details of Tax Deducted at Source And Tax Collected at Source under various heads of income including sale of immovable properties |
| Details of tax paid other than TDS/TCS like Advance tax, S A Tax. Details of Tax Refunds | Details of tax paid other than TDS/TCS like Advance tax, S A Tax. Details of Tax Refunds |
| Details of TDS defaults | Details of TDS defaults |
| Details of AIR Transaction | Details of specified financial transactions |
| Details of various Tax Demands & Refunds | |
| Details of Pending proceedings | |
| Details of Completed proceedings |
( Note : Specified Financial Transaction and the limits thereon for reflecting in AIS, has not been defined
in the Rules but CBDT will provide the details later on. But these transactions would on same lines as
provided u/s 285BA)
