Annual Information Statement (AIS)

With the objective of providing complete detailed information about the financial transactions done by the taxpayer or assessee during a particular financial year, a new statement has been rolled out by the Income Tax Department on 1st November, 2021. The new statement is called Annual Information Statement or AIS.

This would become a very important source of information gathering for Income tax department and would be used to identify the assessee who does not disclose income or does not file its Income Tax Return inspite of having taxable income.

Form 26AS would continue to exists till the time AIS is fully operational and validated.

Therefore, at the time of Income Tax Return filing, it would be very essential to reconcile the figures of Income Tax Return with AIS; otherwise any difference would result in Income Tax notice from the Income Tax department and would lead to commencement of  Income Tax Assessment.

What is Annual Information Statement or AIS?

Previously, Form 26AS was used as a statement by the Income Tax Department. Likewise, AIS is a much more detailed version of the statement wherein followingdetails are required to be included which were earlier not included-

a.       Dividends received

b.      Interests on Savings Account

c.       Income or salary received

d.      Mutual Fund Transactions in a financial year

e.       Tax Deducted at Source (TDS)

f.       Tax Collected at Source (TCS)

g.       Transactions related to Credits Cards, Insurance, Purchase of Property and Stocks and many more items.

It will be really helpful for the taxpayers also since they would be able to incorporate the transactions which they have forgotten to include in their Income Tax Return.

How to assess the Annual Information Statement :

To access the AIS, the taxpayer is required to follow the step by step guide given as under-

1.      One needs to log in to their registered account on the income tax portal.

2.      Go to the Services Tab on the homepage.

3.      The AIS is the last option on the said tab. Click on the same. The AIS comes with a drop down menu with the following two options available to choose from-

a.       Left side –It consists of the Tax Information Summary (TIS)

b.      Right side – It consists of the Annual Information Statement (AIS).

Both TIS and AIS are the same but the TIS, is a summarized statement whereas the AIS is a detailed statement. Taxpayers can download both by clicking on them for any future references.

4.      When the taxpayer downloads the TIS or AIS, they get a PDF version of them. However, a JSON option is also provided on the taxation website. The PDF version is password protected for which the password is usually the PAN Number (in Capital letters) plus the Date of Birth of the taxpayer.

Need for Annual Information Statements:

The need for introducing the new AIS arose due to the lack of information provided by the taxpayers while filing the Income Tax Return regarding some transactions like mutual funds, dividends, interest earned and property purchase etc.

With this new facility, the taxpayers are obligated to provide any such details to the Income tax Department.

This will facilitate the Income tax authorities in having more detailed information about the tax payers and can keep an eye on defaulter or tax evader. Further, it will facilitate in sending Income Tax notice to defaulters and commencement of Income tax Assessment against them.

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