Form-16 or 26AS

Question

Hi,

I have been employed in 2 companies in last FY.

In the first company, I was unable to submit the receipts for HRA and Medical allowance. So these are not exempted from my salary in that company. From your other blog, I understand that there is no special option to claim them in ITR1 and if I claim them it will create a doubt when assessing returns. Now my query is Form-16 (of first company) shows income for all the months but 26AS doesn't include last month's income. In the ITR1 form (sec-22) "Income chargeable under head salaries" can I directly add the Income as per 26AS.

My second company did not deduct the tax for March'12, So again there is a difference between 26AS and Form-16. After combining both companies Income, I need to pay more tax.

As I am not expecting any refunds (but I will pay more tax), can I directly fill my ITR1 as per 26AS or should I need to refer Form-16?? Ultimately I want to pay my tax correctly, not less not more.

Please suggest...

Pankaj Batra · Answer

Form 26AS only shows entries which are uploaded by employer. When there is no TDS deduction, employer upload nothing.

So because of you leaving them, they recomputed your income tax liability in full and final and there was no pending income tax payable, they did not deduct anything in FnF. Hence the last payment to you is not reported in form-26AS.

Income tax department's system cross checks income in Form-26AS and what has been reported in income tax return. If ITR value is less, it raises red flag, else not. So if you put equal or more taxable income as reported in form-26AS, you may not get attention from IT department. But having said that, its not foolproof, they may still call you for scrutiny, in which you would be caught after seeing form-16, bank statements etc.

I would advise you to compute income tax yourself after considering income as per form-16s and pay whatever is pending as taxes. This is safest and honest option.

Form-16 or 26AS

1 Answers