Tips for Rectify Mismatched in Form 26AS & TDS Statement

TDS or Tax Deducted at Source is the amount deducted by the payer (deductor) before making payments to the receiver (deductee). Deductor is then liable to duly submit the amount to the government as TDS along with filing TDS returns.

Major details that need to be mentioned in the TDS return statement are deductee’s basic information, nature of payment made to him and the amount of TDS deducted from his payment. Following the TDS statement filed, the deductor needs to generate either Form 16 (for TDS on salary) or Form 16A (for TDS on income other than salary) and extend it to the receiver (deductee) certifying that the TDS is deducted from his/her income.

Significance of Form 26AS Related to TDS

As soon as the deductor pays TDS to the government the amount gets reflected on deductee’s Form 26AS.

TDS is deposited in banks which in turn uploads the details into the Tax Information Network (TIN) central system. On the other hand, deductors making payments to the government are also bound to upload the details of TDS online payment on the TIN central system. The TIN central system then matches both the details for authenticity and finally shows it in Form 26AS.

The contents of TDS Form 26AS includes information of total income earned by the deductee and details of TDS and TCS deducted and paid to the IT department. Along with such deductions, one may require to pay a certain amount under Advance Tax and Self Assessment Tax the details of which can also be viewed in Form 26AS.

Possibilities of Mismatch between TDS statement and Form 26AS

There are instances where the information provided in the Online TDS statement does not match the information eventually achieved in Form 26AS. There could be various reasons for the same. Some of the reasons are mentioned below for reference:

• Delay in depositing TDS from the deductor’s side.
  
• Incorrect figures are mentioned in TDS returns
  
• PAN entered in TDS returns is incorrect.
  
• Errors in CIN (Challan identification number)
  
• Incorrect information about the deductor’s PAN/TAN.
  
• A wrong assessment year entered.
  
• Omissions in the TDS return.
  
• Incomplete information of assessee entered in TDS return.
  
• The amount of TDS quoted does not match the actual amount of TDS deducted.
  

Amendments in TDS Returns

From the above section, it is clear that the major reason for the mismatch is the wrongly entered data in TDS returns. One must pay attention to the detailings to avoid further inconveniences. Being a deductee if you encounter certain mistakes your prime role is to inform about it to your employer/deductor so that he can file the revised TDS return Via Gen TDS software.

Following the release of notice by the IT department the assessee is allotted the chance to rectify the errors along with mentioning the reason for the mismatch. The assessee can answer the notice via the IT Department’s online portal.

Outcomes of the mismatch

The fully electronic mechanism behind ITR processing is the reason why matching the information in Form 26AS and TDS statement is easier. There is yet another attributable feature which allows access of Form 26AS to the taxpayer so that he can cross-check the details in TDS Statement and Form 26AS and sort out the mistakes (if any) before filing the return.

Its the prime responsibility of the taxpayer to check both the documents and accordingly proceed further otherwise there could be penalties for the cause.

• Thanks to the pre-fill functionality quoted on the website due to which the data in Form 26AS automatically gets loaded in the income tax return. Any error will cause the pre-filled ITR value to get mismatched with actual computations.
  
• Even the single entry getting skipped by the deductor will lead to wrong credits getting deducted which in turn will result in a tax payable situation.
  
• Delay in processing the ITR as the process is elongated because of errors in TDS filing.
  
• Delay in receiving the refund attributed to excess tax paid.