Why have TCS employees received tax demand notices, and what to do if you get one

Employees of India’s largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), have received income tax notices about discrepancies in their tax deduction at source (TDS).

Several employees received income tax notices due to discrepancies between the TDS credit in their Form 26AS, Annual Information Statement (AIS) and the amount they claimed while filing their income tax return (ITR), according to a report by The Economic Times (ET).

TCS informed employees that the tax department would reprocess their ITRs to resolve the issue, the report added.

What is Form 26AS?

Form 26AS is a statement of all tax-related information associated with the taxpayer’s Permanent Account Number (PAN). It includes details of tax deducted at source, tax collected at source, advance tax paid, self-assessment tax paid, or any refunds issued.

What is Annual Information Statement?

The Annual Information Statement (AIS) summarises a taxpayer's information mentioned in Form 26AS. Additionally, it shows data on shows interest, dividends, stock market transactions, mutual fund transactions etc.

What is Form 16?

Form 16 is the TDS certificate issued by the employer to certify the amount of tax deducted from the taxpayer’s salary.

What to do if there is a mismatch between Form 26 AS, AIS, and Form 16?

According to the ET report, if the TDS amount in Form 26 AS and AIS does not match with Part A of Form 16, the TDS amount must be corrected in Form 26AS and AIS. Taxpayers can only claim the TDS amount mentioned in Form 26AS.

If the TDS amount is less than what is mentioned in Part A of Form 16, the taxpayer should contact the tax deductor to rectify the TDS return filed by the deductor to correct Form 26AS, the report added.

The income tax department only credits the TDS amount shown in Form 26AS.