It is expected that everyone might have filed the ITR (Income Tax Returns) and if not file it as soon as possible because the due date of filing it is nearing. The ITR must be filed before 31st July and it might also be changed by the government as per the situation. Form 16 has to be filed and apart from this, the individual must also check other documents too.
The Form 16 will contain all the TDS (Tax deducted at source) details of the employers but they must also cross check with the Form 26AS which contains TDS details from different other deductors. It is very important to cross check the Form 26AS to check the errors.
Given below are the steps to correct the errors in the ITR smoothly:-
What is a TDS certificate?
The person whose TDS is deducted gets a certificate that contains all the details like the amount deducted and many more. The amount that is in the TDS certificates must be the same as shown in Form 26AS. If the figures do not match, then the deductee has to face many consequences as the IT department can investigate it. So it is very important to check the figures for Form 26AS with the TDS certificates.
Errors in the Form 26AS
To check the Form 26AS before filing the ITR is somewhere helping the individual as he will get to know about the errors if any. Neha Malhotra, Executive Director, Nangia Advisors LLP informs “This could be due to various reasons such as, non-filing of TDS return by the deductor or non-payment of TDS by the deductor, quoting wrong assessment year or wrong PAN, providing incorrect challan details in the TDS returns submitted by the deducted, not depositing TDS to the Income Tax Department, deducting TDS but not depositing it in favor of the co-owner in case of joint ownership, etc.”. This type of error causes over or underreporting of income or taxes in the Form 26AS which will result in the investigation by the IT department.
How can errors of PAN be corrected?
If in any case the PAN has been written incorrectly, then one can correct it. Mr. Gupta informs “This error could come up if either the PAN has been wrongly quoted in the tax payment challan or the bank has made an error in entering the PAN while digitizing the challan data or the bank has not uploaded the digitized information to TIN (Tax Information Network). To address this, one can use the challan status inquiry facility provided at TIN website to verify whether the challan bearing Challan Identification Number (CIN) given in the counterfoil available with you has been uploaded to TIN. In case you observe that the PAN available in the uploaded data is not your PAN, you may approach your Assessing Officer in this regard”.
What happens if there is a mismatch between the Form 26AS and TDS certificates?
Many times, it happens that the figures of TDS certificates does not match with Form 26AS. The salaried person must check the TDS certificate that has been given by the employer as the Form 16. Malhotra said “There are several reasons for mismatch between Form 26AS and the TDS certificates (Form 16/ 16A), some of them are non-filing of TDS Return by the person deducting TDS as a result of which TDS does not properly reflect in Form 26AS, quoting of the wrong TAN of deductor or wrong PAN of the deducted, non-provision of challan details, furnishing incorrect amount of TDS, etc.”.
How can one get the errors corrected?
If an individual file the entry incorrect such as the PAN or the amount will delay the ITR filing. So to avoid the delay, one must get the errors corrected before filing. Malhotra said “Practically, the remedy for rectifying the mismatch lies in requesting the deductor to reconcile the same. You will have to request the deductor to revise the TDS return. The deductee has no power under the Act, to enforce the deductor to the revision of the returns so wrongly filed”.
If there is a difference in the TDS certificate which has been issued by the bank that has your fixed deposit then ask the banker to correct it. He also added, “TDS certificates should be accurate as they may be required to be shown as proof of TDS claimed, in case your return gets picked up for scrutiny”.
Check the Authenticity of Form 26AS
Before taking the Form 26AS from the banker or other tax deductors, check the authenticity of the form. Malhotra said “As directed by the Circulars of Central Board of Direct Taxes, it is mandatory for all deductors including a banking company to issue TDS certificates after generating and downloading the same from TRACES Portal. Certificates issued in any other form or manner will not comply with the requirements referred in the Income-tax Act 1961 read with relevant Rules and Circulars issued in this behalf and will thus be invalid. Only the TDS certificates (Form 16/16A) downloaded from TRACES are valid. These certificates, downloaded from TRACES, are in a specific format.”
Filing with revised form 26AS
After the revision of the TDS, upload it and the correct figures will be seen in the Form 26AS and after this only, the ITR can be filed. Malhotra said “Note that it does take some time for the person who has deducted your TDS to file revised TDS return. Even after uploading the Revised TDS Return, Form 26AS to does not instantly get updated”.
What you should do
Before filing the tax, match the figures of Form 26AS with Form 16 and Form 16A. Gupta said ‘TDS certificates in Form 16 and Form 16A are equally crucial and it is essential to compare the entries in Form 26AS with those in your TDS certificates to make sure you are claiming the right credits and also offering all your income appearing in Form 26AS to tax’.
