ITR Filing 2026: Why taxpayers should check AIS before filing tax returns; how to correct errors?

Income Tax Return: As the Income Tax Return (ITR) filing season is underway, many taxpayers are busy gathering bank interest, dividends, and other high-value transactions for their income tax return filing. Keeping track of multiple income sources can be challenging, and missing even a small detail may result in errors in your ITR or invite unnecessary scrutiny from the tax department. Thus, it is important to check your AIS before filing your Income Tax Return (ITR) for AY 2026–27. AIS (Annual Information Statement) gives you a complete financial snapshot. Let's learn about it, why it is significant for taxpayers and what you should do if there is an error in your AIS. Here's how to get it corrected.

What is AIS (Annual Information Statement)?

In the context of taxation in India, AIS stands for Annual Information Statement. It is a comprehensive financial report provided by the Income Tax Department that consolidates all your taxable transactions, investments, and tax deductions (TDS/TCS) for a specific financial year, which helps ensure accurate Income Tax Return (ITR) filing.

Income Tax Return: Why should taxpayers check AIS before filing ITR?

The Income Tax Department shared a post regarding AIS, and they also shared a short video explaining why taxpayers should begin the filing process by reviewing their AIS. Here's why taxpayers should check the Annual Information Statement before income tax return filing.

AIS is a detailed record of a taxpayer's financial transactions available on the Income Tax portal.

Unlike Form 26AS, which mainly reflects tax deducted at source (TDS), tax collected at source (TCS) and certain tax payments, AIS provides much wider information on your financial activity.

It includes details such as interest income, dividend income and various high-value financial transactions reported to the tax department.

Because of this, the Annual Information Statement act as an additional check before filing an ITR and helps taxpayers identify any income that may have been left out.

According to Income Tax Department data, over 5 crore taxpayers have already accessed their Annual Information Statement.

What should you do if there is an error in your AIS? Here's how to get it corrected

If you find an error in your Annual Information Statement (AIS), log in to the Income Tax e-Filing Portal and navigate to Services - Annual Information Statement (AIS). Locate the incorrect transaction, click "Optional" under the feedback column, select the exact error type, and submit.

Income Tax Return: How to view and use your AIS?