New Form 26AS is faceless hand-holding of taxpayers to e-file returns: CBDT

The new Form 26AS is the faceless hand-holding of the taxpayers to e-file their income tax returns quickly and correctly, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Saturday.

From this assessment year, taxpayers will see an improved Form 26AS carrying some additional details on taxpayers' financial transactions as specified in the statement of financial transactions (SFTs) in various categories.

The information being received by the Income Tax Department from filers of these specified SFTs is now being shown in Part E of Form 26AS to facilitate voluntary compliance, tax accountability and ease of e-filing of returns.

"This will enable taxpayers to file income tax return (ITR) by calculating the correct tax liability in a feel-good environment. This will also bring in further transparency and accountability in the tax administration," said CBDT spokesperson Surabhi Ahluwalia.

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, it will have SFTs to help the taxpayers recall all their major financial transactions so that they have a ready reckoner to enable them while filing the ITR.

The I-T Department used to receive information like cash deposit or withdrawal from saving bank accounts, sale or purchase of immovable property, time deposits, credit card payments, purchase of shares, debentures, foreign currency, mutual funds, buyback of shares, and cash payment for goods and services under Section 285BA of Income Tax Act 1961 from 'specified persons' like banks, mutual funds, institutions issuing bonds and registrars or sub-registrars with regard to individuals having high-value financial transactions since the financial year 2016 onwards.

Now, all such information under different SFTs will be shown in the new Form 26AS.

Form 26AS for any taxpayer from now onwards will display in part E of the form, different fields like a type of transaction, name of SFT filer, date of transaction, single or joint party transaction, number of parties, amount, mode of payment and remarks.

"This will help honest taxpayers with updated financial transactions while filing their returns. It will desist those taxpayers who inadvertently conceal financial transactions in their returns," said Ahluwalia.

The new Form 26AS will also have information of transactions which used to be received up to the financial year 2015-16 in annual information returns.

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