What the department already has
The Annual Information Statement pulls together what banks, brokers, mutual funds, employers and registrars have reported against your PAN: salary, savings and deposit interest, dividends, securities transactions, property purchases, and high-value spending.
Form 26AS is narrower and shows tax credited against your PAN — TDS, TCS and advance tax. The two overlap but are not the same document, and you want both.
The portal also shows a Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) — the simplified, category-wise view built from the AIS, and the one your return gets pre-filled from. When AIS and TIS disagree with your own records, your records plus proof win, but only if you fix the return before filing.
The mismatches that actually happen
Savings account interest that you forgot, because no TDS was deducted on it. TDS is not deducted below the threshold, but the interest is still taxable and still reported.
A joint account where the whole interest shows in one holder’s AIS. Dividends reported gross while you remembered the net credit. A mutual fund switch treated as a redemption, because it is one.
A client who deducted TDS under the wrong section, or against the wrong PAN, so your credit does not appear.
| Where it comes from | What people miss |
|---|---|
| Savings interest | Taxable even with no TDS deducted |
| Fixed deposits | Interest accrues annually, not only at maturity |
| Mutual funds | A switch is a redemption and a fresh purchase |
| Dividends | Taxable at slab rate since FY 2020-21 |
| Freelance income | TDS under 194J (a 1961-Act number — the 2025 Act folds TDS into one schedule) may be against a different address or PAN |
What to do with a mismatch
The AIS has a feedback mechanism. If something is genuinely wrong — a transaction that is not yours, or an amount that is overstated — submit feedback rather than silently filing a different number.
If the AIS is right and your memory was wrong, include it. An omission you correct yourself costs you the tax; an omission the department finds costs you tax, interest and a conversation.
One date frames all of this: for most salaried people the return is due by 31 July following the tax year, and filing late costs a fee under section 234F plus interest. Reconciling in June beats discovering a mismatch on 30 July.