Brief About Form 26AS
Any person whoever files Income Tax Return must have encountered with Form 26AS. It is a Tax Credit Statement showing the amount of Tax deducted at source (TDS), Tax Collected at Source (TCS) during the year as well Tax Deducted from the Sale of Immovable Property. At time of Filing Income Tax Return, this form 26AS play an important role as through this statement assessee comes to know about his Tax Credit available and the balance amount of Tax Payable or Refundable.
Amendment in Form 26AS
On 28th May 2020, CBDT has notified a new version of Form 26AS by inserting a new Rule 114-I to the Income Tax Rules and now this Form 26AS become Annual Information Statement and not merely stand as Tax Credit Statement.
From FY 2020-21 new form 26AS shall include the Following information:
| Sr. No | Nature of Information |
| 1. | Details of Tax Deducted or Collected- TDS/TCS |
| 2. | Details of Specified Transactions.
Some Illustration of Specified Transactions: i. Cash deposit in one or more Current Accounts of Rs. 50 Lac or more annually ii. Cash Deposit in One or more Saving Accounts of Rs. 10 Lac or more annually iii. Fixed Deposit of Rs. 10 Lac or more annually iv. Credit card bill payment in cash Rs. 1 Lac or more annually v. Purchase of Immovable Property for Rs. 30 Lac or more |
| 3. | Details of Payment of Taxes (Advance Tax/Self-Assessment Tax) |
| 4. | Details of Demands/Refunds |
| 5. | Details of Pending Proceedings under Income Tax |
| 6. | Details of Completed Proceedings under Income Tax |
Till now, details regarding any proceedings under the Income Tax Act are showing on the website of Income Tax under a different column and same is the case with details of Outstanding Demands and Specified Transactions.
Now, department has bring all these information under the one roof. From the AY 2021-21 assesses will be able to know most of the information that is needed for the filing of Income Tax Returns more easily on a single statement.
Implications of Amendment
A major implication of this amendment will be derived through the inclusion of Specified Transactions. Till now all these specified information was available in scattered manner and assessee has to do a tedious job of collecting all these transaction detail as required for filing of Income Tax Return and then File his return of income and in such scenario there were many instances in which some of the important information which needs to be disclosed in ITR, left out from discloser and as a consequence Information with the Income Tax Deptt and the information as contained in the ITR do not match and deptt used to send notices to the assessee.
Now, as the information regarding the Specified Transactions are going to be readily available in the single Form 26AS, it will be more relaxing for the assessee to file his ITR with great alertness regarding his transactions.
Other amendments like inclusion of Details of Demand & Refund and Details of Pending as well as Completed Proceedings are going to be useful for the assessee.
Concluding Remarks
This amendment is in line with the Budget 2020 announcements and it precisely going to be a quality improvement of Income Tax Return Filing pattern. By holding the major transactions in only one hand, assessee will be able to fill the relevant information with due care. This will also be beneficial for Income Tax Department too in the way of improvement in compliance monitoring activities.
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