AIS and TIS — what the department already knows about you
The Annual Information Statement is a far wider document than Form 26AS. It reports what banks, brokers, registrars, mutual funds and others have told the department about your financial year — interest credited, securities bought and sold, property transactions, large cash deposits, foreign remittances. The Taxpayer Information Summary is its condensed version. Between them they are the single biggest source of filing notices.
At a glance
- AIS
- Full statement of reported financial transactions
- TIS
- Summarised version, category by category
- Where
- incometax.gov.in, under Services → Annual Information Statement
- Feedback
- You can mark an entry incorrect, duplicate or not yours
- Main risk
- Income in AIS that your return does not mention
What AIS reports that people forget to declare
Savings account interest, which almost nobody adds up. Interest credited on a fixed deposit that has not matured — taxable on accrual, not on receipt. Dividends, taxable in full since the abolition of dividend distribution tax. Small mutual fund redemptions. Interest paid on a previous year's income tax refund, which is itself taxable income.
None of these are large individually. Collectively they are the reason a return that felt complete produces a demand.
The feedback facility, and its limits
Where AIS reports something wrongly, you can submit feedback marking it incorrect, duplicated, relating to another person, or already disclosed. This is useful and worth doing. It is not, however, a substitute for reporting income correctly — feedback records your position, it does not decide the matter.
Joint accounts are the usual source of legitimate feedback: interest on a joint deposit often appears in full against both holders, and only one of them should be taxed on it.
Fixed deposit interest is taxable as it accrues, not when the deposit matures
A five-year fixed deposit pays nothing until it matures, but interest accrues to you every year and the bank reports it every year in AIS. People wait for the money and declare it all in the maturity year, which produces four years of AIS mismatches followed by a demand, and then a bunched-up spike in the fifth. The correct treatment is to declare the accrued interest annually, which also spreads it across years and often costs less tax overall. This is the single most common cause of the section 143(1) notices we are asked to look at.
Questions we get asked
AIS shows income that is not mine.
Submit feedback marking it as not relating to you, and keep the acknowledgement. Then file correctly. Do not simply ignore it — an unexplained entry stays open.
Must my return match AIS exactly?
No, and it often legitimately will not. AIS reports gross figures and can double-count joint holdings. What matters is that any difference is explainable.
Do I have to declare savings interest if it is small?
Yes, it is taxable income. Under the old regime section 80TTA may then relieve some of it, and 80TTB for senior citizens, but the interest is declared either way.
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