AIS should be checked on income tax portal every quarter

Taxpayers need to check their annual information statement (AIS) every quarterly on the income tax portal to flag any discrepancies. By doing so, the move will help in curbing instances of wrongful HRA deductions. Last year, in November, the Income Tax department launched an AIS facility on its portal to provide a comprehensive view of taxpayers’ information and also allow the option for submitting feedback. According to Finance Ministry, taxpayers should not only check AIS on the portal during return filing but every quarter.

At an event, Joint Secretary in the finance ministry Kamlesh Varshney said, “You must keep on checking your AIS not only at the time of return filing but quarterly. You should check your AIS and (report) if anything wrong is reported so that the other person who is wrongly claiming some kind of benefit should be caught,” reported PTI.

Read Also: AIS shows all of your digital financial transactions to IT department

Varshney added that AIS has played an important role in ensuring voluntary compliance as it provides details of all financial transactions to assesses while filing their income tax returns (ITR).

He also gave an example such as the tax officer said many people submitted a false declaration to their employer regarding house rent paid to claim HRA deductions. According to him, these declarations would also be visible on the AIS of the person to whose account the rent amount has been credited.

Thereby, he advised taxpayers to review their AIS every quarter, and in case of any discrepancy – they should submit feedback immediately so that the other person who is wrongly claiming some kind of benefit can be caught.

Read Also: Annual Information Statement in Income Tax- What new changed in Form 26AS?

As per the Income Tax website, the Annual Information Statement (AIS) is a comprehensive view of information for a taxpayer displayed in Form 26AS. A taxpayer can provide feedback on the information displayed in AIS. AIS shows both reported value and modified value (i.e. value after considering taxpayer feedback) under each section (i.e. TDS, SFT, Other information).

The object of Annual Information Statement is to display complete information to the taxpayer with a facility to capture online feedback, while also promoting voluntary compliance and enabling seamless prefilling of returns. Notably, AIS is an extension of Form 26AS.