With the due date for filing income tax return (ITR) fast approaching, one of the most important documents that you need to verify prior to filing your ITR is Form 26AS.

Income Tax Department has launched a revised Form 26AS or Annual Information Statement from the financial year 2020-21. This form will contain an annual statement which has details of the tax credited against the PAN of a taxpayer. ITR Filing for FY 2021–22 (AY 2022–23) Tutorial: How To File Income Tax Returns on incometax.gov.in; Read Step-by-Step Guide

This form is an annual consolidated tax statement that can be accessed from the income-tax website by all taxpayers using their Permanent Account Number (PAN). If you have paid taxes on your income or tax has been deducted from your income, the Income tax department already has these details in their database.

In addition, Form 26AS also contains details of your deductors such as their names and Tax Deduction Account number (TAN). ITR Filing for FY 2021–22 (AY 2022–23): What Is Form 16 and Why It Is Important for Filing IT Return?

The revised Form 26AS, i.e., one's tax passbook, is effective from June 1, 2020, and contains additional information including information regarding tax demands (if any) against your name. These changes were notified by the government via a notification dated May 28, 2020.

From an Annual Tax Statement, the new Form has now become an Annual Information Statement (AIS). Though at present both the Form 26AS and AIS are currently available on the portal but the old Form 26AS would be discontinued and replaced by the AIS till the new AIS is validated and completely operational.

The new AIS has two parts: Part A and Part B.

Part A of the Form contains general information about the taxpayer against the following fields:

1. Permanent Account Number

2. Aadhaar Number

3. Name

4. Date of Birth/Incorporation

5. Mobile number

6. Email address

7. Address

Part B of the Form contains the following information:

1. Information relating to tax deducted or collected at source

2. Information relating to specified financial transactions (SFT)

3. Information relating to payment of taxes

4. Information relating to demand and refund

5. Information relating to pending proceedings

6. Information relating to completed proceedings

7. Any other information in relation to sub-rule (2) of rule 114-I

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 27, 2022 03:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).