What is Form 26AS?

Also called: Annual Tax Statement

Form 26AS is the consolidated tax statement showing every rupee of tax deducted, collected or paid against your PAN in a financial year.

It is generated from the TDS returns your deductors file, so it only shows tax that has actually been deposited and reported. A deduction that appears on your payslip but not in 26AS usually means the employer deducted the tax but has not filed the return.

The statement is available on the income tax portal under "e-File → Income Tax Returns → View Form 26AS".

Why it matters

You can only claim credit for tax that appears in Form 26AS. Tax deducted but never deposited is not creditable, however clearly your payslip shows it.

The statutory position

Each figure with the provision it comes from, so it can be checked.
What	Position	Source
Where it is found	The income tax e-filing portal, under 'e-File → Income Tax Returns → View Form 26AS'	Income Tax Department e-filing portal
What it now contains	TDS, TCS, advance tax, self-assessment tax, refunds and demands	Rule 114-I, as amended in 2020
Update cycle	Populated as deductors file their quarterly TDS returns	Rule 31A, Income-tax Rules 1962

Not to be confused with

These get used interchangeably, including by tools that should know better. They are different things.

AIS

26AS is tax credit — what was deducted and deposited against your PAN. The AIS is much broader: interest, dividends, securities transactions, property deals. Checking one is not checking the other.

Form 16

Form 16 is one employer's certificate. 26AS aggregates every deductor. A deduction shown on Form 16 but missing from 26AS means the employer deducted and did not report it.

Questions people ask

TDS was deducted but is not showing. What do I do?

The deductor has not filed the quarterly return, or filed it against a wrong PAN. Only they can fix it, by filing or revising that return, and it is worth chasing before you file — claiming credit that is not in 26AS produces a demand.

Should I file if 26AS and my records disagree?

Resolve it first where you can. Filing against a 26AS you know to be wrong means either losing credit you are owed or claiming credit the system cannot see, and both end in correspondence.

What usually goes wrong

Filing in April before deductors have filed their fourth-quarter returns, so 26AS is incomplete
Claiming TDS credit that appears nowhere in 26AS
Checking 26AS but not the AIS, and missing income the department already knows about