Gap one
An asset with no reported income
An asset on the client's list that produced no reported income on the statement.
Net Worth & Solvency Glossary · Documents
Form 26AS: The Reconciliation Before Income Is Certified
noun · also searched as "26AS certificate" and "Form 26AS in income tax" · one statement for one PAN, one year
Definition
Form 26AS is the annual tax statement the Income Tax Department makes available against a taxpayer's PAN. It shows the tax deducted and collected at source by others on the taxpayer's behalf, the advance tax and self-assessment tax paid, and refunds issued.
It is a record of tax credits, not a list of the taxpayer's assets.
What the statement carries
What Form 26AS typically shows against a PAN
- Tax deducted at source (TDS)by each deductor who reported against the PAN, such as an employer, bank or tenant
- Tax collected at source (TCS)
- Advance tax and self-assessment tax paid
- Refunds issued
- Tax deducted on the sale of immovable property
- Demands and proceedingswhere recorded
Not everything is still here. Much of the reporting of financial transactions has moved to the Annual Information Statement (AIS).
Meaning
01What Form 26AS carries after its rewrite as an annual tax statement
Form 26AS began as a tax credit statement and was later widened into an annual tax statement. When people search for the "26AS certificate" or "Form 26AS in income tax", they mean this statement. What it typically shows is listed in the card above: tax deducted and collected at source, advance and self-assessment tax, refunds, tax deducted on a property sale, and demands and proceedings where recorded.
Much of the reporting of financial transactions has since moved to the Annual Information Statement (AIS). A reader working from an older checklist can therefore think an entry is missing from 26AS when it has simply moved.
Then
A tax credit statement
The form began as a record of the tax credited against the PAN, which is still the heart of it.
Later
An annual tax statement
The form was widened to carry more than credits: refunds, property-sale deductions, and demands and proceedings where recorded.
Since
Transactions moved to the AIS
Much of the reporting of financial transactions now sits in the Annual Information Statement, not in 26AS.
From 1 April 2026. The Income-tax Act, 2025 applies from 1 April 2026, for tax year 2026-27 onwards. Under the 2025 Act, the statement is the annual information statement of section 510, issued as Form No. 168 under rule 245 of the Income-tax Rules 2026. It carries tax deducted or collected at source, specified financial transactions, taxes paid, demands and refunds, and pending and completed proceedings; the 2026 Rules prescribe no form called 26AS.
On a certificate
02Which 26AS entries a CA ties back to declared income and assets
For a CA certifying income or net worth, the useful entries are the ones that link income to an asset or a transaction.
Entry on the statement, and what it confirms
Four entries a CA reads against the client's own list
- Interest with TDS from a banka deductor reporting against the PANConfirms that a deposit exists and gives a sense of its size.
- TDS on a property saletax deducted on the sale of immovable propertyConfirms the sale and its value.
- TDS by an employersalary reported against the PANSupports the salary figure.
- TDS on renta tenant reporting against the PANPoints to a let property.
Gap two
Income from a source not mentioned
Income reported from a source the client did not mention.
The statement does not prove ownership, but it is very good at showing what someone forgot to mention. This is part of the work behind an income certificate from a CA and a net worth certificate signed by a CA.
Tying the entries back is a reconciliation, not a lookup. A credit can be genuine and still fall in a different year from the one being tested. Where it does, the difference is explained, not adjusted away.
In practice
03TDS credits, high-value transaction entries and TRACES downloads in Indian practice
The e-filing portal, linked to TRACES
Form 26AS is viewed and downloaded through the income tax e-filing portal, which links to the TRACES system.
How to download it is covered by our tax services, not here.It updates as deductors file
The statement updates as deductors file their quarterly TDS returns. Tax deducted in the last quarter of a year may not appear until well after the year has ended, so a statement pulled early looks incomplete.
The most common confusion.The deductor, not the taxpayer
A credit that is missing or wrong is usually the deductor's reporting error. It is corrected by the deductor revising its TDS return, which the taxpayer can ask for but cannot do itself.
It runs on someone else's timetable.An open item, named. Because that correction runs on someone else's timetable, a certificate that depends on it carries an open item, and it is better to name that than to let a date slip.
Written by Subham Jhunjhunwala · Reviewed by CA Sundram Gupta
Sources: Income Tax Department, the Income-tax Act 2025 in force from 1 April 2026 (incometaxindia.gov.in). This entry describes Indian practice in general terms.
Need help with a certificate that uses Form 26AS? See our Income Certificate by CA.Income certified after the statement has been tied back to what was declared.