What is Annual Information statement (AIS)?

The govt. keeps on making active efforts to improve the reporting of Income details of the citizens of the country. In this regard, the govt. has brought in certain mechanisms like Tax Deducted at source (TDS) & Tax Collected at source (TCS), Statement of Financial transactions (SFT) etc. The details gathered from all these sources are displayed in the Annual Information Statement (AIS). It is a comprehensive view of information for a taxpayer.

The information shown on AIS is divided in two parts:

PART A- General Information

Part - A displays general information pertaining to you, including PAN, Masked Aadhar Number, Name of the Taxpayer, Date of Birth/ Incorporation/ Formation, mobile number, e-mail address and address of Taxpayer.

PART- B

• TDS/TCS Information: - Information related to tax deducted/collected at source is displayed here. The information code of the TDS/TCS, Information description and Information value is shown.
• SFT Information: - Under this head, information received from reporting entities under Statement of Financial transaction (SFT) is displayed. The SFT code, Information description and Information value is made available.
• Payment of Taxes: - Information relating to payment of taxes under different heads, such as Advance Tax and Self-Assessment Tax, is shown.
• Demand and Refund: -You will be able to view the details of the demand raised and refund initiated (AY and amount) during a financial year.
• Other Information: - Details of the information received from the other sources, such as data pertaining to Annexure II salary, Interest on refund, Outward Foreign Remittance/Purchase of Foreign Currency etc., is displayed here.

Now, out of the above information, you would know how the govt. will come to know about your salary details, since TDS was withheld from it, this is known to govt.

But, if you look carefully in your AIS, there are so many different transactions reported like your Income from Savings Bank interest, Sale of Shares / Mutual funds etc. how does this data reach the govt.?

So, this happens because of SFT reporting, SFT reporting is basically means that the govt. has mandated certain entities to report certain data in a certain format which can be used by the govt.

So, next question which pops up your mind is who does this reporting and which transactions get reported?

So, if you have done any of the above transactions, it is reported to the govt. and the same will be appearing in your AIS.

Hope, you are enjoying this tax series!