What is AIS (Annual Information Statement): Importance, Features & Benefits

The Indian Government aims at maintaining details of all the taxpayers for a particular year with an Annual Information Statement (AIS). It contains all the data regarding taxpayers’ incomes, their financial transactions, income-tax proceedings, tax details, etc. It is to maintain both reported value and modified value for each type of information.

Are you concerned about your AIS status and data? Then, read till the end of this article to learn its role, features and ways to check your database.

The Income Tax Department launched a new feature of AIS, which stands for Annual Information Statement, in November 2021. It comprises the data of TDS and some specified financial transactions carried out by a taxpayer in a financial year (FY). AIS is an extended version of Form 26 AS.  AIS is a comprehensive statement comprising financial transactions, including income, investment and expenditure. The Government introduced AIS with the following objectives.

• It will display complete information to a taxpayer while capturing online feedback.
• The Government expects it to promote voluntary compliance and advance prefilling of return.
• It shall identify non-compliance from the taxpayers and deter it. 

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AIS mainly focuses on Form No. 26AS for covering this information. The types of information include an individual’s financial transactions during a financial year. It might relate to some of the following types of information.

• TDS and TCS: Information code of the TDS/TCS, Information value and Information description is included.
• Specified Financial Transactions (SFT): The reporting entities under SFT, including SFT code, Information value and Information description can be found here.
• Tax Payment: Tax payment data, such as self-assessment tax and advance tax, are made available in AIS.
• Refund and Demand: It contains information regarding refund initiated (AY and amount) and demand raised and during a financial year.
• Other Information: These mainly include data about interest on refund, purchase of foreign currency, foreign remittance, Annexure-II salary, etc. 

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While learning all about this new addition from the Income Tax Department, you must be curious to find out more about the features of AIS. You can refer to the following section to find out these salient features and responsibilities of AIS.

• It includes detailed information regarding interest, dividend, mutual fund transactions, securities transactions, foreign remittance information and others.
• Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) summarises this data under AIS to simplify the ITR filing process.
• It enables a taxpayer to download information from this website in PDF, JSON, and CSV file formats before filing ITR.
• They can provide online feedback on the information of AIS.
• Furthermore, AIS Utility enables taxpayers to download their data. 

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Now that you understand the purpose and features of creating AIS, you must be wondering about the advantages of AIS from a taxpayer’s perspective. If you are a taxpayer citizen of India, you know the struggles of filing Income Tax Returns (ITR) every year. The Income Tax department makes it more straightforward by incorporating AIS. While assessing the advance tax requirements and filing tax returns, AIS is a significant help. 

Unnecessary hassles of filling income and investment details are made easier with AIS, as it is a readymade reminder for the taxpayer against these. Thus, you will now face a lesser challenge while collecting all the information regarding income and taxation while filing your annual ITR. 

Moreover, AIS reports income details irrespective of whether or not the taxes are withheld. Previously, taxpayers often missed reporting interest income since there were no options of conveying this in 26AS. However, now they will be able to report this with a visibility of all income earned in a financial year.

Now that you know all about AIS features and benefits, you must ponder on the procedures to check your data on this platform. You can go through the following steps for checking your AIS data.

• Step 1: Visit and log in to your income tax e-filing portal. You will be redirected to your profile. 
• Step 2: Click on the Annual Information Statement (AIS) button on the top.
• Step 3: You will see a pop-up redirecting you to AIS Homepage. Click on the ‘Proceed’ button.
• Step 4: Once redirected to the compliance portal, you will find Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) and Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the home page. 
• Step 5: You need to select the financial year in this step. Once you find the data, you can download it in PDF or JSON formats by clicking on the respective tiles.

Thus, as you can see, AIS is a valuable addition under the Income Tax Act, 1961. It enables both the Government and the taxpayers to keep track of their financial activities and transactions in a financial year. In addition, it can be of significant help while filing your annual ITR, laying out all the information in advance. 

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The information is displayed in two parts, Part A and B.

Part A includes general information

• Name

• Date of birth/incorporation/formation

• PAN

• Masked Aadhaar number

• Taxpayer’s contact details

Part B includes the following

• TDS/TCS information

• SFT information

• Payment of Taxes

• Demand and Refund

• Other information like Interest on refund, outward foreign remittance, purchase of foreign currency, etc.

Thus, as you can see, AIS is a valuable addition under the Income Tax Act, 1961. It enables both the Government and the taxpayers to keep track of their financial activities and transactions in a financial year. In addition, it can be of significant help while filing your annual ITR, laying out all the information in advance. 

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