Form 26AS, Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) are related income-tax records, but they are not interchangeable. For return preparation, the safest approach is to understand what each one contains, reconcile them with the taxpayer's own books and documents, and never assume that a prefilled or reported figure is automatically the correct taxable amount.
The Income Tax Department's official AIS FAQ describes AIS as a comprehensive view of information available with the Department and explains how it differs from Form 26AS and TIS. The same guidance also makes an important point: AIS may not contain every transaction relating to a taxpayer, so the taxpayer remains responsible for reporting complete and accurate information in the return.
What is Form 26AS?
Form 26AS is the annual tax statement available through the TRACES ecosystem. The Department's current AIS FAQ states that from AY 2023-24 onwards, Form 26AS displays only TDS and TCS-related data, while other taxpayer information is available through AIS.
In practical return preparation, Form 26AS is therefore especially useful for checking tax deducted or collected at source against the taxpayer's records. If a payer says tax was deducted but the corresponding credit is missing or incorrect, the mismatch should be investigated rather than ignored.
What is AIS?
AIS is broader than Form 26AS. According to the Department, it includes TDS/TCS information as well as Statement of Financial Transaction information, tax payments, refund information and other information received from various sources. The portal may also show items such as salary-related information, interest on refund, outward foreign remittance or purchase of foreign currency, depending on the data available for the taxpayer.
AIS also allows the taxpayer to give feedback on reported information. It displays the value reported by the source and, where applicable, a modified value after taxpayer feedback or source confirmation. This feedback mechanism is one of the major practical differences between AIS and Form 26AS.
What is TIS?
Taxpayer Information Summary is the category-wise aggregated summary within the AIS framework. The Department explains that TIS shows a value processed by the system after its processing or deduplication rules and a value accepted by the taxpayer or confirmed by the source after considering feedback.
TIS is designed to make the large volume of AIS information easier to use for return preparation. Where applicable, the accepted or source-confirmed value in TIS can be used for prefilling the return. That does not convert TIS into a substitute for the taxpayer's underlying records.
Form 26AS vs AIS vs TIS: practical difference
- Form 26AS: focus on TDS/TCS tax-credit information under the current portal framework.
- AIS: detailed information statement containing TDS/TCS, SFT and other information available with the Department, with a feedback facility.
- TIS: category-wise aggregated summary of AIS information, including processed and accepted or source-confirmed values used for easier return preparation and prefilling where applicable.
Why all three should be reconciled with your own records
The Department expressly says that AIS contains information presently available with it and that other taxpayer transactions may not appear there. This means the correct return is not simply a copy of AIS or TIS.
For an individual, the independent records may include Form 16, Form 16A, bank interest certificates, broker capital-gain statements, rent records, dividend statements, property documents and foreign-asset or foreign-income information. For a business or professional, the reconciliation may also involve books of account, GST data, invoices and tax-payment challans.
Example: bank interest differs from AIS
Assume a taxpayer's bank interest certificate shows ₹72,000 of taxable interest, while AIS shows ₹90,000 because one entry appears duplicated. The wrong approach is to mechanically report ₹90,000 only because AIS contains that number. The taxpayer should first identify the source entries, compare them with bank records and use the AIS feedback facility where the reported information is incorrect or duplicated.
Conversely, if AIS shows ₹72,000 but the taxpayer's complete bank records show ₹90,000, the taxpayer should not suppress the additional ₹18,000 merely because it is absent from AIS. The Department's own FAQ states that taxpayers must report complete and accurate information even where a transaction is not presently displayed in AIS.
Example: TDS credit is missing
Suppose professional fees have been correctly recorded as income and the client claims to have deducted TDS, but the expected credit does not appear in Form 26AS. The income and the tax-credit question should be handled separately. The taxpayer should reconcile the invoice, payment, TDS certificate and statement data and ask the deductor to correct the reporting where necessary rather than claiming an unsupported credit.
How to use AIS feedback
The official AIS FAQ states that feedback can be submitted on active information under TDS/TCS, SFT and Other Information. After feedback is submitted, the AIS can display the modified value alongside the reported value, and the activity history is updated. The taxpayer can also download an acknowledgement receipt.
The Department currently allows previously submitted feedback to be modified without a stated numerical limit. This is useful where better evidence becomes available or the source later confirms or corrects the information.
A practical return-preparation workflow
- Collect primary records first: gather salary, interest, investment, property, business and tax-payment records relevant to the taxpayer.
- Download Form 26AS: reconcile TDS and TCS credits with certificates, ledgers and payer records.
- Review AIS at transaction level: inspect SFT and other reported information rather than looking only at totals.
- Review TIS: compare processed and accepted values with the return working.
- Investigate differences: classify each mismatch as timing, duplication, wrong ownership, wrong amount, missing information or another identifiable cause.
- Submit AIS feedback where appropriate: preserve the acknowledgement and supporting evidence.
- Prepare the return from the correct tax position: use books and evidence together with information statements; do not treat any one portal statement as the sole source of truth.
- Recheck before filing: confirm that income, deductions, taxes paid and tax credits reconcile to the final computation.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Assuming Form 26AS and AIS contain the same information.
- Using TIS totals without checking the detailed AIS transactions behind them.
- Reporting an incorrect AIS figure merely because it is prefilled or reported by a source.
- Ignoring income because it does not appear in AIS.
- Claiming TDS solely from an invoice or email when the tax credit has not been properly reported.
- Submitting AIS feedback without keeping evidence supporting the correction.
Practical takeaway
Use Form 26AS primarily to verify TDS/TCS credits, AIS to review the wider information reported to the Income Tax Department, and TIS to understand the category-wise processed summary. Then reconcile all three with the taxpayer's own records. The final return should reflect the correct taxable position supported by evidence, not simply whichever number appears on a portal screen.
