Why verifying your tax credit is important

Quite some time has passed after you filed your income tax returns. Now it is time to hear from the Income Tax (IT) department on your already filed returns. Hence it is important to prepare for the same by taking few steps which can ensure that you do not receive any shock from the IT department in the form of income tax demand for non-credit of taxes.

Majority of us normally get our tax deducted at source (TDS) from the salaries paid by our employer or on the interest paid to us by the bank on our fixed deposit, whereas some of us having other incomes pay advance tax or self-assessment tax.

The existing procedure of the IT department does not allow attaching any document with the income tax returns as proof of the taxes.

The credit for all the taxes paid is given by the IT department on the basis of amounts reflecting as credit to your account in the records maintained by the IT department.

The department sends you the details of such credits during the year in the Form of Form No 26 AS by e-mail if your e-mail ID is registered with them.

The author is CFO, Apnapaisa.com.

Apnapaisa is a price comparison engine that allows consumers in India the ability to compare the EMI, , interest rates and other fees for home loans , car loans , personal loans , business loans , credit cards , compare online quotes and features of life insurance , health insurance , car insurance , travel insurance and other general insurance policies in India.

Form No 26 AS is an all-inclusive statement of credits of all the taxes paid on your behalf either by yourself or deducted while paying income to you. This form is dynamic and the deductor with the income tax department files changes every time any tax is paid on your behalf and relevant documents.

As the IT department will primarily give you the credit for your taxes as per the records available with them, it is advisable to gain access to the statement of your tax credit.

The IT department through NSDL provides online access to your tax credits statement.

How can you gain access to your Form No 26 AS?

As your credit of income tax or tax deducted at source depends on the records available with the IT department, it is very important for you to verify the credits of tax deducted or paid from the TDS certificates available with you with those getting reflected in the Form No 26 AS.

How to gain access to Form No 26 AS?

You can access Form No 26 AS online by visiting the link to the NSDL site: http://www.tin-nsdl.com/panregistration.asp.

You have to follow a three-step process:

First step is online registration. As a PAN account holder, you can register on the NSDL web site by filling up the registration form. Fill up all the mandatory fields like your PAN number, Name, Address, E-mail ID and your landline or mobile number.

This registration on the above website is one time activity. Once you have submitted all the requisite details on the site, you get an acknowledgement generated by the site, which you need to save and take a print.

Verification by TIN-FC

The second step is verification by the authorised centers called TIN-FC. There are two options with respect to verification. Either you can visit any of the TIN-FC yourself or can choose to request any representative of TIN-FC (TIN Facilitation Centres) to visit your place for such verification. This option has to be exercised while filling up the registration Form online. You get a choice to select from a list of TIN-FC in your area.

While registering for online viewing of tax credit, you will be asked to create your user ID and password.

In case you have decided to visit the TIN-FC, it is necessary for you to personally visit with printout of the above acknowledgement for registration and original with photocopy of your PAN card for verification.

In case you have requested any representative of TIN-FC to visit your place for verification, TIN-FC will call you and fix an appointment for the visit. The representative of the TIN-FC is supposed to carry his own identity and an authority letter with him when he visits you for verification.

The representative is supposed to visit your place within five days, failing which you can escalate the matter and contact the number/e-mail ID provided on the site.

The fee payable for visiting the TIN-FC is Rs 17. However if you want the representative of TIN-FC to visit your place for verification, the fee payable is Rs 110.

View tax credit

After three days of the registration and authorisation process, you can go and visit the site and view the tax credit in your account. In case you find that entries in respect of some of the TDS or advance tax are not reflected in the statement, it may be due to either non-payment or non-filing of the TDS return by the deductor. This may also happen due to some errors while filing the TDS returns of while filling up the challan for payment of tax.

In this case you need to take up the matter with the deductor/bank and request them to take remedial actions.

Even reflected entries may have some defects. In case the letter "U" is indicated against any entry, this denotes unverified entry and here also you need to take up the matter with the deductor or bank.

In case satisfactory reply is not received or the issue is not resolved, you can contact TIN Call Centre on telephone number 020 27218080. Fax: 020 27218081. You can also send e-mail to tininfo@nsdl.co.in.

Resetting the registration

In case you are not able to gain access to your account later on, you can always re-register by following the same process and after payment of the requisite fees.

So to avoid such a situation, log on to NSDL site and register yourself for tax credit.