Income tax department alert! Taxpayers to get full details of transactions in Form 26AS

In a bid to prevent suppression of information by taxpayers, the income tax department will provide full details of their financial transactions such as sale and purchase of stocks, real estate transactions, payment details of credit card bills in the form of statement in the new Form 26AS.

The taxpayers tax passbook or the form 26AS contains details of taxpayer and compliance details along with other financial transactions. From this year, it's format has been changed to include specified financial transactions of taxpayers that will be presented on the form of Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs).

These will include buying and selling of shares, real estate etc, making cash payments for purchase of bank drafts, pre-paid instruments by the Reserve Bank of India (such as mobile wallets), cash deposits in a financial year, payment of credit card bills (both cash or and other modes). Taxpayers' other details such as Aadhaar number, date of birth, mobile number, email ID and address will also be present in the new form.

A finance ministry statement said that the new Form 26AS is the faceless hand-holding of the taxpayers to e-file their income tax returns quickly and correctly.

"...the information being received by the Income Tax Department from the filers of these specified SFTs is now being shown in Part E of Form 26AS to facilitate voluntary compliance, tax accountability and ease of e-filing of returns so that the same can be used by the taxpayer to file her or his income tax return (ITR) by calculating the correct tax liability in a feel-good environment. This would also bring in further transparency and accountability in the tax administration," the statement read.

The earlier Form 26AS used to give information regarding tax deducted at source and tax collected at source relating to a PAN, besides certain additional information including details of other taxes paid, refunds and TDS defaults. But now, it will have SFTs to help the taxpayers recall all their major financial transactions so that they have a ready reckoner to enable them while filing the ITR.

The income tax department used to receive information like cash deposit/withdrawal from saving bank accounts, sale/purchase of immovable property, time deposits, credit card payments, purchase of shares, debentures, foreign currency, mutual funds, buy back of shares, cash payment for goods and services, etc under Section 285BA of Income-tax Act, 1961 from "specified persons" like banks, mutual funds, institutions issuing bonds and registrars or sub-registrars etc, with regard to individuals having high-value financial transactions since the Financial Year 2016 onwards. Now, all such information under different SFTs will be shown in the new Form 26AS.

The new Form 26AS would also have information of transactions which used to be received up to Financial Year 2015-16 in the Annual Information Returns (AIR).

However, financial transactions will be shown in 26AS only if taxpayers cross the specified limit in a financial year. For instance, if the aggregate credit card bill paid via electronic modes (not including the cash payment) exceeds Rs 10 lakh, then payment of credit card bill will be reflected in Form 26AS. Similarly, if the mutual fund investments in a financial year exceeds Rs 10 lakh, only then such transactions will be reflected in the Form 26AS.