In a major relief to taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Saturday extended the deadline for filing income-tax returns (ITR) for FY 2019-20 (AY 2020-21) till December 31, 2020.
But, irrespective of whether or not it is pushed ahead it is best to complete the process at the earliest. Before starting to file income-tax returns, one must go through Form 26AS to verify the tax deducted from your income.
This year the CBDT in order to enhance the flow of information between taxpayers and tax authorities, has a revised Form 26AS, which will reflect details of all high-value transactions.
On July 18, the Income Tax Department had said that the new Form 26AS will have additional details of taxpayers’ high-value financial transactions undertaken during a financial year and would facilitate voluntary compliance and ease of e-filing of I-T returns.
Now, the Form 26AS has been revamped to an “Annual Information Statement” which apart from the TDS/ TCS details, shall now contain comprehensive information relating specified financial transactions, payment of taxes, demand/ refund and pending/completed proceedings undertaken by a taxpayer in a particular financial year that has to be mentioned in the income tax returns.
What is form 26AS?
Form 26AS is an annual consolidated tax statement that can be accessed from the income-tax website by taxpayers using their Permanent Account Number (PAN).
The earlier Form 26AS used to give information regarding tax deducted at source and tax collected at source relating to a PAN, besides certain additional information including details of other taxes paid, refunds and TDS defaults.
But now, the new form will have Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs) in various categories to help taxpayers recall all their major financial transactions so that they have a ready reckoner while filing the ITR, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.
In May, CBDT had notified the revised Form 26AS, containing details of tax collected or deducted at source which will now include information pertaining to property and share transactions.
What are the details in Form 26AS?
In a statement, CBDT said the Department used to receive information like cash deposit/withdrawal from saving bank accounts, sale/purchase of immovable property, credit card payments, purchase of shares, debentures, foreign currency, mutual funds, cash payment for goods and services, etc. from “specified persons" like banks, mutual funds, institutions issuing bonds and registrars since Financial Year 2016 onwards. Now, all such information under different SFTs will be shown in the new Form 26AS, it added.
Steps to download the Form-26AS from e-Filing portal:
Step 1: Visit ‘e-Filing’ Portal www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
Step 2: Go to the 'My Account' menu, click 'View Form 26AS (Tax Credit)' link.
Ste 3: Read the disclaimer, click 'Confirm' and the user will be redirected to TDS-CPC Portal.
Step 4: In the TDS-CPC Portal, Agree the acceptance of usage. Click 'Proceed'.
Step 5: Click ‘View Tax Credit (Form 26AS)’
Ste 6: Select the ‘Assessment Year’ and ‘View type’ (HTML, Text or PDF)
Ste 7: Click ‘View / Download’
