Form 26AS is the tax credit statement on your PAN. It lists the TDS and TCS deducted from your income, the advance tax and self-assessment tax you paid, and refunds issued, all as reported by the deductors. If the tax shown in your Form 16 is not in Form 26AS, the department will not give you credit for it, however much was cut from your payslip.

What it shows and where it comes from

Form 26AS is built from data other people file, not from your own return. For salaried employees the key part is the one listing TDS: employer name, TAN, amount paid or credited, and tax deducted and deposited. That information comes from the employer’s quarterly Form 24Q. Other parts cover TCS, taxes you paid yourself, refunds and certain high-value transactions. You can view it on the e-filing portal or through TRACES.

What is in force now

Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, the annual tax statement is renumbered Form 168 (Section 510, Rule 245 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026), applicable from tax year 2026-27. For FY 2025-26, the year whose returns are being filed now, Form 26AS is still the statement you reconcile against. Portal guidance describes Form 168 as auto-generated with no filing by the taxpayer, and some summaries describe it as the same statement under a new number, so check the label your portal login shows.

Matching it with the payroll side

Before filing, compare three things: tax deducted in Form 16 Part B, the TDS lines in Form 26AS, and your own payslips. They should agree for each employer. Typical causes of a difference are a wrong PAN in the employer’s return, a challan that was paid but not linked, a Q4 return filed late, or a job change where the old employer’s credit is missing. The fix always sits at the employer’s end: a correction statement to the TDS return, after which 26AS updates.

Frequently asked questions

Does TDS show in Form 26AS immediately?

No. It appears only after the deductor files the quarterly return and the department processes it. For a Q4 salary entry that means after the 31 May deadline, so a late return delays everyone’s credit.

What if my employer deducted tax but 26AS shows nothing?

Ask payroll to check the PAN in the TDS return and the challan details. Do not claim the credit in your return until it appears, or you may get a mismatch notice.

Is Form 26AS the same as AIS?

No. 26AS focuses on tax credits, while the Annual Information Statement lists a much wider set of reported transactions.

Employers can avoid most of these queries by running payroll reconciliation against the filed return before the quarter closes.