NEW DELHI: This income tax filing season brings with it a heartening trend. One in every six tax payers is now checking online if the tax deducted by their employers every month has reached Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's coffers or not.
This month, by July 18, 5.3 million taxpayers had logged on to the Internet to verify tax deductions from their income. To put that in context, 34 million income tax returns were filed in 2009-10, while India has issued about 96 million PAN cards.
Over half of gross tax paid by individual taxpayers is through tax deducted at source (TDS). Getting accurate credits for the TDS from income, be it a salary or interest income on savings like fixed deposits, is the key challenge for individual taxpayers filing returns.
"The number of distinct PAN card holders that have logged on to view their Form 26AS, where TDS credits are compiled, has gone up from around 2.9 million in January this year to over 5.3 million this month," said Bhushan Maideo, senior vice president at National Securities Depository. NSDL administers the Tax Information Network (TIN) initiative of the IT department, which tracks direct taxes collection.
Form 26AS is a consolidated tax statement, generated for each PAN card holder since 2005-06, that includes all the tax deducted at source from your income, all the tax collected on your behalf by sellers, and any self-assessed tax payments made directly by you to the government.
Viewing the form enables individual tax payers to cross-check if deductions made by employers (in your Form 16) or banks (in Form 16A) have been accurately credited to the government and take corrective action, if not.
In the future, you will be able to use this consolidated tax statement (Form 26AS) as the only proof of tax payments along with your income tax return.
"Deductees are no longer required to provide copies of supporting documents like Form 16A and tax payment challan copies, while filing their income tax returns," pointed out Maideo. "The TDS statements previously filed by deductors in physical form are now filed electronically -- eliminating more paperwork," he added.
This month, by July 18, 5.3 million taxpayers had logged on to the Internet to verify tax deductions from their income. To put that in context, 34 million income tax returns were filed in 2009-10, while India has issued about 96 million PAN cards.
Over half of gross tax paid by individual taxpayers is through tax deducted at source (TDS). Getting accurate credits for the TDS from income, be it a salary or interest income on savings like fixed deposits, is the key challenge for individual taxpayers filing returns.
"The number of distinct PAN card holders that have logged on to view their Form 26AS, where TDS credits are compiled, has gone up from around 2.9 million in January this year to over 5.3 million this month," said Bhushan Maideo, senior vice president at National Securities Depository. NSDL administers the Tax Information Network (TIN) initiative of the IT department, which tracks direct taxes collection.
Form 26AS is a consolidated tax statement, generated for each PAN card holder since 2005-06, that includes all the tax deducted at source from your income, all the tax collected on your behalf by sellers, and any self-assessed tax payments made directly by you to the government.
Viewing the form enables individual tax payers to cross-check if deductions made by employers (in your Form 16) or banks (in Form 16A) have been accurately credited to the government and take corrective action, if not.
In the future, you will be able to use this consolidated tax statement (Form 26AS) as the only proof of tax payments along with your income tax return.
"Deductees are no longer required to provide copies of supporting documents like Form 16A and tax payment challan copies, while filing their income tax returns," pointed out Maideo. "The TDS statements previously filed by deductors in physical form are now filed electronically -- eliminating more paperwork," he added.
Source: The Economic Times
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