Income Tax: The last date to file income tax return (ITR) of September 15 is drawing closer. This is the time to hurry through your return filing process but carefully.
While filing your income tax return, in case you noticed that the TDS details in form 26AS and Form 16 do not match – then it is important to cross verify the information.
There could be instances when TDS detail is given in one form and missing in other. Then it is vital to reconcile these forms before filing your return.
Those who are not aware, these are the details of these forms:
Form 16: It is a TDS (tax deducted at source) certificate issued by the employer to employees detailing information pertaining to tax deducted at source (TDS).
Form 26AS: It is a statement which provides details of any amount deducted as TDS or TCS from various sources of income of a taxpayer. It also shows details of advance tax/self-assessment tax paid, and high-value transactions entered into by the taxpayer.
Annual Information Statement (AIS): It is a statement which provides complete information about the prepaid taxes and prescribed financial transactions entered into by taxpayer for a particular financial year
These are some of the steps you can take to fix this.
Steps to take
I. It is important to compare the TDS details such as amount deducted, name of deductor and PAN.
II. If the mismatch happend because of errors in Form 16, ask employer to issue a revised Form 16 with the correct TDS details. “This happens when there is problem with TDS return filing at the employer’s side. Taxpayer should first reach out to the employer about the difference and ask for revision in TDS return. Once the revision is correctly done, the difference is cleared. In case the TDS return revision is not possible, then the employee should file the return with help of available data like salary slips, amount credit in bank and document all the proofs,” says Pratibha Goyal, a Delhi-based chartered accountant and partner of PD Gupta & Company.
III. But if the revision in form 16 is not posssible, then employee should file the return with help of available data such as salary slips, amount credit in bank and document all the proofs.
IV. Taxpayer can also contact the income tax department to make necessary changes in case there are discrepancies in AIS and 26AS.
V. In case the department does not respond, then you can also file a grievance.