Form 26AS

Form 26AS is a consolidated annual tax statement linked to a taxpayer's PAN that records the taxes deposited against that PAN during a financial year. Maintained by the Income Tax Department, it can be viewed or downloaded free from the e-filing portal (incometax.gov.in) or through TRACES, and it is the document taxpayers use to reconcile their tax credits before filing an income tax return.

Legal basis

Form 26AS is prescribed under Section 285BB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (inserted by the Finance Act, 2020, effective 1 June 2020), read with Rule 114-I of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. This replaced the earlier Rule 31AB regime and gave the statement a wider annual-information character.

What it now contains

• TDS deducted by employers, banks and other deductors, and TCS collected by sellers
• Advance tax, self-assessment tax and tax paid on regular assessment
• TDS on sale of immovable property (Section 194-IA), rent (Section 194-IB) and virtual digital assets (Section 194S)
• Refunds issued during the year, and any tax demand or default

Form 26AS versus AIS

Since AY 2023-24 the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) and high-value data that once appeared here — large bank deposits, share and mutual-fund purchases and similar third-party reporting — has been shifted to the Annual Information Statement (AIS). Form 26AS now focuses mainly on tax credits, while the AIS carries the fuller transaction picture.

Renamed Form 168

Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, this statement is renumbered Form 168 from Tax Year 2026-27 (AY 2027-28). The change is largely administrative — the form does the same job under a new number, and returns for AY 2026-27 still reference Form 26AS.