All you want to know about the revised Form 26AS

The simplified form will comprise details of taxpayers’ MF transactions, pending and completed I-T proceedings, status of income tax demand, besides TDS and TCS.

In line with the Budget provisions, the government on Thursday notified the simplified version of Form 26AS, a single form providing comprehensive information related to specified transactions of an assessee including purchase of shares or property.

Easing taxpayer compliance, the annual information statement has been subsumed in the Form 26AS.

The simplified form will comprise details of taxpayers’ mutual fund transactions, pending and completed income tax proceedings, status of income tax demand, besides tax deducted at source and tax collected at source (TCS).

Form 26AS is an annual tax credit statement containing details of various taxes deducted on income.

Rakesh Nangia, chairman Nangia Andersen Consulting said that Form 26AS in its new avatar seeks to provide much more comprehensive information regarding taxes paid by a taxpayer in a single form/ statement.

"With all the information/ details available at one place, it will also assist tax authorities doing e-assessment and having no/ limited interaction with taxpayers, as tax authorities will be able to easily compare information available in Form 26AS vis-a-vis information reported by taxpayer in ITR and any mismatch may be easily flagged by the systems to tax authorities," Nangia said.

It will also assist taxpayers in identifying and taking corrective action, in case any incorrect information/ detail is reported in Form 26AS, he added.

"The Form 26AS has been made more comprehensive pursuant to the announcements made earlier on several occasions.

"It would also include information about financial transactions carried out by the taxpayer and would further ease the tax filing process as much of the information would be extracted from this only," said Amit Maheshwari, Partner, AKM Global.

Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters