There is a huge requirement and importance of checking thoroughly of Form 26AS before filing of ITR, as it is an Annual tax statement which provide the details of tax paid, tax deducted at source or tax collected at source as the case may be of the respected assesse. Assesse should disclose the corresponding income essentially in his/her income tax return which is reflecting in the Form 26AS against which TDS/TCS has been made. It works as a statement which provides many details as given below;
1). Assesse’s TDS/TCS Details: Form 26AS shows the tax deduction deatils by any person or which is deductor in Part A under different sections like 194A, 194C etc. or tax collected at source under section 206C series in Part B.
2). Details of large amount of transactions in Part E like if any assesse has been engaged in any transaction which involved a big amount like purchase or sale of immovable property above the transaction amount of INR 30 lacs.
3). In part C the details of Tax paid by the assesse: Advance tax or self-assessment tax paid by the assesse during the relevant financial year. Also if any tax paid by the assesse for reasons other mentioned above like tax on regular assessment under section 143 or in pursuance of demand notice issued under section 156.
4). In Part D, Income tax Refund: If any amount which is refundable by the dept. is reflected in the Form 26AS, it is mandatory to note that if any refund which is provided by the income tax department, then interest will be also be a part of that refund which is interest on income tax refund which is separately reflected in the row which should be taken into account while filing income tax return otherwise it will be cause of intimation under section 143(1) for correction later on, as such interest is taxable under the head “IFOS” i.e. Income from Other Sources.
Form 26AS can also be referred as annual tax credit statement which reflects how much tax credit is collected during the FY which can be used to pay taxes at the time of income tax return filling.
Apart from the above mentioned part, an individual always check whether the income reflecting in the form is correct and best to the knowledge of assesse, as it can create problems latter on if assesse fails to show the income which is reflecting in the Form 26AS and denies the same that income does not belong to him/her, sometimes it happen that TDS has been made wrongly due to wrong furnishing of PAN details, so one should look after that Form 26AS reflects true and correct info about income and tax details.
Conclusion: In final sentence, we would like to conclude that Form 26AS is the mandatory statement while filing an income tax return, an individual should always match the details with it for avoiding any notices and intimations from the income tax department.