Decoding the Annual Information Statement(AIS)

Heard of the Annual Information Statement (AIS)? It may well replace Form 26AS in the coming future. So what is the Annual Information Statement (AIS)? And how is it going to impact taxpayers? Let’s find out.

What is the Annual Information Statement?

Up until now, Form 26AS served as a consolidated annual tax statement which included details of any TDS that might have been deducted and deposited on your behalf, Advance or Self Assessment Tax paid, as well as records of high-value transactions that you may have made.

The Annual Information Statement on the other hand includes many more categories of information like securities & mutual fund transactions, interests, dividends, foreign remittance information and more. The reported information has been processed to remove duplicate information.
It may contain any other transaction-related information that may be available with the Income Tax Department. Taxpayers will be able to download the AIS in JSON, PDF and CSV format.

Form 26AS will continue to be available on the TRACES portal until the AIS is validated and is completely operational.

What are some of the important features of the AIS?

1. Taxpayers can submit online feedback on AIS. If the taxpayer feels that any incorrect information has crept in, they can submit that feedback online. Taxpayers can also submit the feedback offline via AIS utility.
   
2.  A Simplified Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) will also be provided to each taxpayer. This will show the a summary of a taxpayer’s incomes as per ITD. If the taxpayer changes any information on the AIS, the derived information in the TIS will get updated in real-time. With the help of TIS, taxpayers can :
   • Tally their security transactions with the broker statement.
   • Cross verify the dividends that they have received in the bank. account with what is mentioned in AIS.
   • Access information related to refund or demand for previous year’s ITR.

Why does trading data in AIS not match with Trading data in your Broker statement?

The equity data being reflected in AIS is based on inputs from agencies like depositories, property registrars, and asset management companies. This includes receipt/income from different sources such as salary, interest etc., or sale or purchase of securities such as equity shares, mutual funds, bonds, etc. Therefore, AIS shows all the financial transactions done by you that the income tax department knows about.

However, there are certain discrepancies between actual trading data and the AIS data.

Following may be the reasons for discrepancies in the AIS data and the trading data:

• The estimated cost of acquisition for the credit is determined on the best possible available price with the reporting entity. As a result of which, data on sale/purchase of shares is showing the day’s closing prices rather than prices at which the sale/purchase was executed.
• The estimated cost of acquisition is taken as NIL for OFF Market credits in AIS. This may affect correct valuation of gift transactions.
• AIS Data is showing pledged shares as sale of shares.
• AIS is showing only the total purchase & the total sales value of securities. It doesn’t show previous year holding as a result of which capital gains are mismatched.
• Property is sold by 2 people. However, total sales may be reflected in the first PAN only.
• Duplication of Entries may happen. Further, it may happen that the information relates to another person/year.
• The difference in the Amount column of source wise aggregated information of one or two rupees may be occurring because of rounding off of decimals.

A facility has been provided to submit feedback online. Feedback can also be furnished by submitting multiple information in bulk. An AIS Utility has also been provided for taxpayers to view AIS and upload feedback in an offline manner. The reported value and value after feedback will be shown separately in the AIS. In case the information is modified/denied, the information source may be contacted for confirmation.

What does this mean for taxpayers? 

Taxpayers need to carefully check all the transactions reflected in the AIS and make necessary amends (if any) because this information will be vital for filing ITR.
In case of any mismatch in the TDS/TCS details displayed on Form 26AS and AIS – at present, it is recommended to follow Form 26AS available on TRACES.

How to view AIS?

Users can access the AIS by clicking the link “Annual Information Statement (AIS) under the “Services” tab of the new Income Tax Portal. 

Taxpayers need to check and verify the information shown in the AIS and make amends (if necessary) before filing ITR for the current tax season. However, if the ITR has already been filed and some information has not been included or has been wrongly included, the return may be revised to reflect the correct information.