The last day to file an Income Tax Return (ITR) for the current assessment year is scheduled for July 31. Under the new income tax laws, a special feature has now been made available. The Income Tax Department, which is responsible for administering and enforcing direct tax laws in India, has launched a new statement for taxpayers named Annual Information Statement (AIS). This is surely going to make the process of filing the income tax return easier.
What Is AIS?
AIS is a comprehensive statement that includes information about financial transactions that you carried out and was reported to the tax department by various entities, mostly financial institutions. Taxpayers can now validate their income tax return using the new Annual Information Statement before submitting it to stop further reminders from the income tax department.
In other words, AIS is a comprehensive statement that lists all of your financial activities for a particular financial year and includes the information mandated by the Income Tax Act of 1961. Information on overseas remittances, interest, dividends, stock trades, mutual fund activity, etc. is included in the AIS.
How is it beneficial?
All financial transactions, including sales and purchases of securities, dividend income, interest from savings and fixed deposits, and salary income, are displayed on AIS. It would be simple for a taxpayer to report accurate information in the income tax return with the aid of all such financial information. The taxpayers can prevent a discrepancy between the information stated on the income tax return and the actual financial transactions.
For this reason, you need AIS to submit an ITR. You should not file an ITR until you have received AIS. Because the figures could be different if an ITR was submitted without AIS. It is said that the updated AIS is likely to be available to taxpayers in the first week of May.
How to download it?
Step 1: Use your PAN and password to access the Income Tax Portal.
Step 2: Select the Annual Information Statement (AIS) option under the “Service” tab in the menu.
Step 3. Here a pop-up window will open in front of you, in which you have to click on Proceed.
Step 4. Now your AIS homepage will open.
Step 5: Go through every instruction on the AIS homepage.
Step 6: Click the AIS tab, which is located between the Activity History and Instructions sections.
Read More: ITR FORMS AND THEIR AVAILABILITY FOR INCOME TAX RETURN FILING FOR FY 2022-23
Step 7. Now you will have two options for download. First, Taxpayer Information System (TIS) and second AIS.
Step 8: Choose PDF Download under the AIS tab. When you first access the PDF, you will be asked for the password. Your password will be your PAN card number and your birthdate.