What is Form 26AS | How to view and download Form 26AS

What is Form 26AS | How to view and download Form 26AS

The due date for filing income tax return is 31st July. Your Form 26AS is one of the most important documents required while filing income tax return (ITR). 

It is your tax credit statement which shows all taxes received by the Income Tax Department against your PAN number during the financial year. In this post, let's see what all details this form contains and how to view and download Form 26AS.

What is Form 26AS

It is the annual consolidated tax credit statement issued to PAN holders. This statement shows all the taxes received by the Income Tax Department against the PAN of the taxpayer during the financial year. It includes details of all the taxes deducted from your income by your employer, bank etc.

Form 26AS statement

The statement contains the following details.

1. Details of the tax deducted at source.

2. Details of the advance tax or self-assessment tax paid.

3. Details of the tax collected at source.

4. Details of the refund received from tax department during the financial year.

5. Details of Annual Information Return (Details of high-value transactions).

Therefore, always view and download Form 26AS for any discrepancies before filing your income tax return (ITR) for the year.

How to view and download Form 26AS

There are two ways to view and download Form 26AS.

1. View and download through the TRACES (TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System) website.

2. View through Net Banking facility of authorized banks.

View and download Form 26AS through the TRACES website

Step by step instructions to view and download  it from TRACES website.

Step 1

Go to the income tax department’s e-filing website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and log in using your login Id and password. If you do not have an account, you will have to register yourself on the income tax department's website (www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in). You have to fill your PAN number, name, and date of birth and choose a password. Once your registration is complete, you can log in to your account with your user ID and password. Your permanent account number will be your user ID.

Step 2

Go to “My Account” and click on “View Form 26AS (Tax Credit)” in the drop-down menu.

Step 3

Click on “Confirm” button so that you will be redirected to the TDS-CPC (TRACES) website to view Form 26AS (Tax Credit Statement)

Step 4

Now you are on TDS-CPC (TRACES) website. Select the small box to agree to the usage and acceptance of Form 16 / 16A generated from TRACES. Click on “Proceed” button.

Step 5

Now click on the View Tax Credit link at the bottom of the page to view your Form 26AS.

Step 6

Choose the year for which you want to view/download your Form 26AS under the “Assessment Year” drop-down menu. Choose the file format in which you want to view your Form 26AS under the “View As” drop-down menu. If you want to see it online, choose the file format as HTML. If you want to download it, choose PDF. After choosing the file format, enter the “Verification Code” and click on “View / Download”.

Step 7

To open the downloaded document you will require a password. The password for this is your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format.

View Form 26AS through Net Banking of your bank account

You can also view your Tax Credit Statement through Net Banking facility. However, you can view this form using this facility if your PAN number is linked to your bank account. This facility is available free of cost but only select banks are authorized to provide it.

List of banks authorized to provide this facility are as below

1. Allahabad Bank

2. Andhra Bank

3. Axis Bank Limited

4. Bank of Baroda

5. Bank of India

6. Bank of Maharashtra

7. Canara Bank

8. Central Bank of India

9. Citibank N.A.

10. City Union Bank Limited

11. Corporation Bank

12. Dena Bank

13. HDFC Bank Limited

14. ICICI Bank Limited

15. IDBI Bank Limited

16. Indian Bank

17. Indian Overseas Bank

18. IndusInd Bank

19. Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd

20. Karnataka Bank Limited

21. Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

22. Oriental Bank of Commerce

23. Punjab & Sind Bank

24. Punjab National Bank

25. State Bank of India

26. Syndicate Bank

27. The Federal Bank Limited

28. The Karur Vysya Bank Limited

29. The Saraswat Co-operative Bank Limited

30. UCO Bank

31. Union Bank of India

32. United Bank of India

33. Vijaya Bank

34. Yes Bank Limited

Hope now you will be able to view and download Form 26AS online easily before filing your income tax return. Ideally, you should check it regularly after every few months. This way you will get enough time to get it corrected with the tax deductors if there are any errors.

You may also like to read: How to file income tax return online? 

You may also like to read: Documents needed while filing income tax return in India

You may also like to read: Most common mistakes people make while filing income tax return 

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