Income Tax Portal, AIS and Form 26AS: Reading Your India Tax Records

Before you file anything in India, look at what the tax department already knows about you. Two records matter: the Annual Information Statement (AIS) with its summary, the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), and the older Form 26AS, a statement of tax credits. Reading AIS and Form 26AS side by side tells an NRI which TDS to claim, which income the department has seen and which entries are wrong. This page explains how to register on the income tax portal, what each statement contains, how the 2025 Act changes the name of the statement from tax year 2026-27, and how to reconcile everything before you submit a return.

How do you register on the income tax portal?

Register as an individual with your PAN, confirm the mobile number and email that the portal will use for one-time passwords, and set a password. Then add and pre-validate the Indian bank account where refunds should arrive. A pre-validated account is also what lets you e-verify a return through a bank-generated code, which matters if you have no Aadhaar-linked mobile number in India.

Next, check your profile for the correct status (resident or non-resident), date of birth and address. Wrong status settings can lead to the wrong ITR form being offered. For related choices, see NRI ITR filing step by step.

What does AIS show?

The portal's FAQ describes the Annual Information Statement as a comprehensive view of information held for a taxpayer, shown before you file, with a facility to give online feedback. It has two parts:

• Part A: general information such as PAN, masked Aadhaar, name, date of birth, mobile number, email and address.
• Part B: TDS and TCS information; statement of financial transaction (SFT) information reported by banks, registrars and similar entities; payments of taxes such as advance tax and self-assessment tax; demand and refund details; and "other information", which includes salary details, interest on refund and outward foreign remittance or purchase of foreign currency.

AIS shows both a reported value and a modified value, which is the figure after your feedback or the source's confirmation. The FAQ states plainly that AIS includes only the information the department presently holds. You are expected to check other transactions and report complete and accurate information in the return.

What is the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS)?

TIS is a category-wise summary of AIS, for example salary, interest and dividend. For each category it shows the value reported by the source, the value processed by the system after deduplication, and the value accepted by you or confirmed by the source. The figure accepted in TIS is what the department uses to pre-fill a return where pre-filling applies. If the same interest appears once as a TDS entry and again as an SFT entry, TIS should count it only once.

What is Form 26AS, and how is it different?

Form 26AS is the Annual Tax Statement on the TRACES system. According to the portal, it displays only TDS and TCS data. Through the e-filing portal the route is e-File, then Income Tax Return, then View Form 26AS. It is still the cleanest list of tax credits, with the deductor's TAN, the amount paid and the amount deducted. AIS adds everything else.

How the Income-tax Act, 2025 changes the statements

CBDT's transition FAQs say the AIS will continue for tax periods governed by the 1961 Act, up to AY 2026-27, and that from tax year 2026-27 it is replaced by Form No. 168 as the evolved Annual Information Statement. The CBDT form table maps Form 168 to the old Form 26AS. The two statements are generated separately for each year: the AIS for AY 2026-27 reflects FY 2025-26, and Form 168 reflects FY 2026-27. Both are available on the portal. TDS credits are sorted automatically by the deductor's return: tax deducted up to March 31, 2026 goes to AY 2026-27, and tax deducted from April 1, 2026 goes to tax year 2026-27. The change is explained in Income-tax Act 2025 transition.

How to reconcile AIS and Form 26AS before filing

1. Download. Log in, open AIS from the e-File menu and save the AIS and TIS for the year, plus Form 26AS.
2. Collect your own papers. Gather bank interest certificates (Form 16A), rent receipts, broker and mutual fund capital gains statements, and the NRO account statement.
3. Match line by line. Compare interest, dividends, rent, capital gains and TDS amounts against your papers. Tick off each AIS entry.
4. Raise feedback on any AIS entry that is wrong, duplicated or belongs to someone else, giving the portal's reason for each.
5. Chase the deductor when TDS shows in your records but not in Form 26AS. The deductor must file a corrected TDS return; the portal FAQ notes that mismatches during the 2026 transition may arise when the wrong section or assessment year is quoted.
6. Add missing income. Anything real but absent from AIS, such as rent paid without TDS, still goes into the return.
7. File and keep proof. Save the AIS download with your return file for the record.

Documents and information to keep

• PAN card and portal login recovery details
• Form 16A certificates and bank interest certificates
• Broker contract notes and annual capital gains reports
• Property sale agreement and registration documents, and the buyer's TDS evidence
• AIS, TIS and Form 26AS for each year, saved as PDF

A worked example

Nisha lives in Naperville and grew up in Ahmedabad. For FY 2025-26 her AIS shows NRO fixed deposit interest of ₹5,00,000 under TDS and again under SFT, but TIS lists it once. Her tenant in Ahmedabad paid ₹3,60,000 of rent with no TDS, so AIS shows nothing for rent. Form 26AS shows ₹1,56,000 of tax deducted on the interest (31.2 percent). Nisha reports interest and rent in her ITR-2, claims the ₹1,56,000, and keeps a note that the rent was missing from AIS but is still taxable. Because the tenant did not deduct tax, Nisha may owe tax on that rent when she files.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating AIS as the full list of income. It is a cross-check, not the legal definition of taxable income.
• Claiming TDS that is not in Form 26AS or AIS; the credit may be denied or delayed.
• Ignoring entries for a PAN you no longer recognise. Raise feedback instead.
• Filing before the deductor corrects the TDS return, then having to revise.

U.S. side

Use your Indian figures to prepare the Form 1040 income lines, foreign tax credit and the account-reporting forms. The Indian numbers are in rupees, so keep a record of the exchange rate method you use and apply it consistently. AIS entries are not an FBAR or Form 8938 substitute; those forms use your balances, not tax statements. See U.S. taxpayers with India income and assets, FBAR and Form 8938.

How we can help

From our Aurora, Illinois office we compare your Indian statements with the U.S. return so the same income is reported in both countries and credits are consistent. We do not log in to your Indian portal account or file Indian returns; your CA or you do that. See foreign account and asset reporting and cross-border tax for India, Canada and USA. The India hub links the other guides in this series.

Frequently asked questions

General information only. It is not tax, legal, accounting or immigration advice for your situation, and rules change; confirm the current rules with the official source or a licensed professional in the relevant country.