The income tax department on Monday rolled out a new annual information statement (AIS) on its portal that provides a comprehensive view of taxpayer information and an option to submit feedback.
The new AIS includes additional information related to interest, dividend, securities transactions, mutual fund transactions and foreign remittance information.
It said that until the complete operationalisation of new AIS, Form 26AS will continue to be available on the TRACES portal.
The new AIS also provides for a simplified taxpayer information summary (TIS), which shows aggregated value for the taxpayer for the ease of filing return.
If the taxpayer submits feedback on AIS, the derived information in TIS will be automatically updated in real time and will be used for pre-filling of return which shall be implemented in a phased manner.
”The taxpayers are requested to view the information shown in annual information statement (AIS) and provide feedback if the information needs modification,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.
In case the ITR has already been filed and some information has not been included in the ITR, the return may be revised to reflect the correct information as shown in TIS.
”In case there is a variation between the TDS/TCS information or the details of tax paid as displayed in Form 26AS on TRACES portal and the TDS/TCS information or the information relating to tax payment as displayed in AIS on compliance portal, the taxpayer may rely on the information displayed on TRACES portal for the purpose of filing of ITR and for other tax compliance purposes,” it added.
Shailesh Kumar, partner at Nangia & Co LLP, said that in comparison to Form 26AS, AIS is a more comprehensive single reference document for taxpayers which can also be modified by the taxpayer if he believes the information reported is incorrect.
It provides a complete and detailed information related to interest, dividend, securities/ mutual funds transactions, he said.
”The wordings of the press release suggest that existing Form 26AS shall be gradually replaced by this utility. In addition to AIS, a simplified taxpayer information summary, which captures the aggregate values for taxpayer to ease return filing process, has also been rolled out,” he added.
AMRG & Associates Director (Corporate & International) Om Rajpurohit said the roll-out of AIS on the compliance portal is a bold move as it will serve as a thorough reference for taxpayers in terms of reported transactions that must be included in ITR Forms, since the AIS contains comprehensive information.
”Further, the ability to submit online comments/ feedback for adjustment will aid both taxpayer and tax department in detecting and removing the duplicate/incorrect transactions early on,” Rajpurohit said.
