Read Your AIS Before Filing: How the Annual Information Statement Pre-Fills and Cross-Checks Your ITR

For the assessment year 2026-27, the income tax e-filing portal will hand you a pre-filled return built from data that banks, employers, mutual funds and registrars have already reported about you. That data lives in your Annual Information Statement (AIS), and reading it before you file on or before 31 July 2026 is the single cheapest way to avoid a mismatch notice. The AIS is not a courtesy summary; it is the same dataset the Income Tax Department uses to cross-check the numbers you enter.

The Annual Information Statement was rolled out on the compliance portal from 1 November 2021 and has since expanded what the older Form 26AS used to show. Per the Income Tax Department portal, the AIS is a comprehensive view of a taxpayer's information shown before filing the return, and it enables both prefilling and voluntary compliance. This article walks through what the enabling provision says, a worked reconciliation on a salary of Rs 14,00,000, and the mistakes that surface most often during ITR scrutiny.

What the Section Says

The AIS is enabled by Section 285BB of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which was inserted by the Finance Act 2020 with effect from 1 June 2020. In plain English, the section empowers the prescribed income-tax authority to upload, into the registered account of every taxpayer, an annual information statement containing the financial information prescribed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. You can read the bare provision on the Government of India statute portal at indiacode.nic.in. Section 285BB replaced the narrower framework that powered the old Form 26AS, which is why the AIS now carries far more than just tax deducted at source.

Structurally, the AIS is split into two parts. Part A holds your general information such as PAN, masked Aadhaar number, name, date of birth and contact details. Part B carries the financial information grouped into categories including salary, interest from savings accounts and deposits, dividend, sale and purchase of securities and units, mutual fund transactions, foreign remittances and reported tax payments. Each category is built from statements filed by reporting entities under the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) and TDS or TCS returns, so every line traces back to a third party who already named your PAN.

Alongside the AIS sits the Taxpayer Information Statement (TIS), a category-wise aggregated summary that the portal derives from the AIS. The TIS shows two numbers for each category: a processed value and a derived value. The derived value is the figure that flows into your pre-filled ITR. According to the Income Tax Department portal, taxpayers can submit feedback on any line item by selecting the Optional button in the Feedback column, choosing a feedback option, entering details and clicking Submit; the modified value then appears alongside the reported value, an activity-history record is created, and email and SMS confirmations are sent.

How AIS, TIS and Form 26AS Differ

Many taxpayers assume these three documents are interchangeable. They are not, and confusing them is a common reason a return gets flagged. The table below sets out what each one does as of AY 2026-27.

The practical rule is simple: reconcile your own records against the TIS derived value, then drill into the AIS line items wherever the totals disagree. Form 26AS remains useful for confirming that the tax already deducted on your behalf, which you will offset against your final liability, has actually reached the department against your PAN. You can estimate that deducted amount with the Oquilia TDS calculator before you cross-check it.

Worked Example

Consider Meera, a salaried professional in Bengaluru, filing for AY 2026-27 under the new tax regime. When she opens her AIS in June 2026, the portal shows the following reported figures, each sourced from a third party.

Three of the four lines match her records, but the interest figure is overstated by Rs 18,000. On checking, Meera finds the bank reported a fixed deposit that was actually opened by her father using a joint mandate where she is only the second holder. She selects the Optional button against that line, chooses the option that the information relates to another person, enters the details and clicks Submit. The modified value of Rs 23,000 now displays beside the reported Rs 41,000, and she receives an email and SMS confirmation the same day.

For the tax itself, Meera works in the new regime for FY 2025-26. After the standard deduction of Rs 75,000, her salary income is Rs 13,25,000. Adding the correct interest of Rs 23,000 and dividend of Rs 9,500 gives a normal-rate income of Rs 13,57,500, taxed under the slabs of 5 per cent from Rs 4,00,000 to Rs 8,00,000, 10 per cent from Rs 8,00,000 to Rs 12,00,000, and 15 per cent above Rs 12,00,000. Because her total income exceeds Rs 12,00,000, the Section 87A rebate of up to Rs 60,000 does not apply. Her long-term capital gain of Rs 1,60,000 on listed equity is taxed separately at 12.5 per cent after the annual exemption of Rs 1,25,000, so only Rs 35,000 is taxable, adding Rs 4,375 before the 4 per cent health and education cess. You can reproduce this split with the Oquilia income tax calculator and value the equity gain using the capital gains calculator.

Had Meera filed without reconciling, the department's system would have seen Rs 41,000 of interest against a return declaring Rs 23,000, a Rs 18,000 gap that routinely triggers an automated query. The AIS feedback she filed in June 2026 is her contemporaneous record that the difference was never her income. For readers weighing which regime to lock in, the old versus new regime calculator shows whether her deductions would have changed the answer.

Common Mistakes

The errors below recur in ITR scrutiny year after year, and almost all of them are avoidable in the ten minutes it takes to read your AIS.

Treating prefilled numbers as final. The pre-filled ITR pulls the TIS derived value, which itself rests on third-party reports that can be wrong. Verifying each category against your bank, broker and Form 16 before submission is your responsibility, not the portal's. Our note on capital gains holding periods in ITR-2 shows how a single misclassified trade changes the tax rate.

Ignoring the savings interest line. Under the new regime there is no Section 80TTA deduction, so the full savings and deposit interest is taxable. Many taxpayers leave interest below Rs 10,000 out of the return entirely, but if the bank has reported it under SFT-016 the omission shows up as a mismatch within weeks.

Confusing duplicate entries with extra income. A single transaction is sometimes reported by two entities, inflating a category. Rather than paying tax twice, use the feedback option that flags the information as duplicate or already included elsewhere, so the derived value corrects to the true figure.

Forgetting that feedback is not a return. Submitting AIS feedback updates the displayed value and creates an activity-history entry, but it does not file or amend your ITR. You must still report the correct income yourself. Our explainer on ITR-1 Sahaj eligibility and the Rs 50 lakh cap covers which form to use once your figures are settled.

Missing foreign and securities lines. Sale of securities, mutual fund redemptions and foreign remittances each have their own AIS category. A redemption reported by the registrar but absent from your return is one of the most frequent triggers for a notice in AY 2026-27.

FAQ

How do I download and open my AIS?

Log in at incometax.gov.in, open the AIS under the e-file or services menu, and download it in PDF, JSON or CSV format. The PDF is password protected; the password is your PAN in lower case followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format, for example aaaaa1234a21011990.

What feedback options does the AIS offer?

The Feedback column lets you mark a line with options such as information is correct, information is not fully correct, income is not taxable, the information relates to another PAN or year, the information is a duplicate, or the information is denied. After you Submit, the modified value appears beside the reported value and a confirmation is emailed and texted to you.

How long should I keep my AIS records?

Keep the downloaded AIS, the TIS and any feedback acknowledgements for at least the period during which your return can be reopened. For AY 2026-27 the prudent baseline is to retain them until at least 31 March 2030, since reassessment timelines run several years from the end of the relevant assessment year.

Does AIS feedback delay my refund?

No. Feedback filed before you submit your ITR simply ensures the pre-filled figures are right, which makes processing under Section 143(1) smoother. A clean reconciliation is more likely to speed up a refund than slow it down for AY 2026-27.

What if the reporting entity refuses to correct its data?

Your AIS feedback stands as your recorded position even if the bank or registrar does not revise its filing. Report the correct figure in your ITR, retain documentary proof, and if a notice arrives, your June 2026 feedback timestamp supports your case.

Can I rely only on Form 26AS and skip the AIS?

No. Since the AIS was enabled by Section 285BB and rolled out on 1 November 2021, it carries categories Form 26AS never showed, including dividend, interest and securities transactions. Checking only Form 26AS leaves those lines unverified and exposes you to a mismatch.

This article is for general information and reflects provisions applicable to FY 2025-26 and AY 2026-27. Verify your own figures against the AIS on incometax.gov.in and consult a qualified professional before filing.