AIS or Form 26AS Mismatch? Fix Property Sale, FD Interest and Salary TDS

Who this guide is for

This guide is for individual taxpayers who have discovered — before or after filing their ITR — that their AIS, Form 26AS or TIS shows one or more of the following:

• A property sale appearing at an inflated value, or TDS on the sale (Form 26QB filed by the buyer) recorded against a wrong PAN or wrong amount.
• FD or savings account interest TDS deducted by a bank but missing or incorrect in Form 26AS.
• Salary TDS deducted by an employer but not appearing, partly appearing, or appearing under the wrong TAN in Form 26AS or AIS.
• An AIS entry for income that belongs to someone else, is duplicated, or was from a different financial year.
• A Section 143(1) intimation from the income tax department reducing a refund or raising a demand because of a tax credit mismatch.

It is equally useful if you are simply doing a pre-filing check and want to understand the difference between AIS, Form 26AS and TIS before you reconcile them with your Form 16, Form 16A and bank interest certificates.

What you can do this weekend

Friday evening

Set up your workspace. Log in to incometax.gov.in and download three things: your AIS (Services > AIS, download the PDF or JSON), your Form 26AS (from the same portal or from TRACES), and your TIS summary. Keep these open alongside your Form 16 (salary TDS certificate from your employer), Form 16A certificates from your bank for FD interest TDS, and if you sold property, the challan and acknowledgement number from the Form 26QB your buyer should have filed. Print or export them so you can compare line by line. Note each discrepancy: who the deductor is, what the wrong figure is, and what the correct figure should be.

Saturday

Take the two actions in parallel.

Action 1 — AIS feedback. In the AIS portal, click each wrong entry and submit feedback using the correct category (see the step-by-step section for the exact options). This does not delete the entry but marks it as disputed and updates your TIS. You will get an email and SMS confirmation. Download the AIS Consolidated Feedback (ACF) PDF for your records.

Action 2 — Write to the deductor. Send a written request (email plus hard copy if possible) to your employer's HR or accounts department, your bank's branch manager and TDS nodal officer, or the property buyer, depending on who made the error. State the exact error, the relevant TAN, the affected quarter and the correct figures. Ask them to file a corrected TDS return on TRACES and share the 15-digit correction token with you. Keep a copy of everything you send.

Sunday

Follow up and prepare for the filing decision. If the correction is already reflected in Form 26AS (some straightforward corrections process quickly), reconcile and proceed to file your ITR. If the correction is still pending, assess the risk: if the mismatch is small and you have strong documentary proof, you may choose to file the return claiming the correct credit and keep your TDS certificates ready to respond to any 143(1) intimation. If the mismatch is large, it is worth waiting one or two weeks for the TRACES correction to propagate before filing. Draft a grievance in case the deductor does not respond within the next week.

Documents and evidence checklist

Step-by-step action plan

Step 1 — Understand the three statements and where the error sits

Form 26AS is your tax credit statement. It records TDS deducted and deposited by every employer, bank and other party against your PAN, plus advance tax and self-assessment tax you have paid. The CPC uses exactly this figure when processing your ITR. If TDS is missing here, you cannot claim it as a credit in your return without risking a demand.

AIS is a broader financial information statement. It pulls data from banks, mutual funds, registrars, employers, the property registration system and other reporting entities. It shows interest earned (not just TDS deducted), dividend income, property sale proceeds, share transactions and more. An entry can appear in AIS even if it is wrong — it reflects what was reported to the tax department, not necessarily what is true.

TIS is a summarised version of AIS. After you submit feedback on any AIS entry, TIS recalculates the net figure for that income category and shows both the reported value and your modified value. ITR pre-fill draws from TIS.

Identify which document has the error and which deductor or reporting entity caused it. This determines your path:

• Salary TDS missing or wrong in Form 26AS — your employer has not filed or has misfiled their quarterly TDS return (Form 24Q). The employer must correct it on TRACES.
• FD interest TDS missing or wrong in Form 26AS — your bank filed the TDS return with a wrong PAN or wrong amount. The bank must correct its quarterly TDS return (Form 26Q) on TRACES.
• Property sale figure wrong in AIS — the registrar or the buyer reported a different figure. Submit AIS feedback and, if the buyer filed Form 26QB with errors, the buyer must correct it on TRACES.
• Entry in AIS that belongs to someone else — the reporting entity (bank, broker, etc.) quoted your PAN by mistake. Submit AIS feedback marking it as "relates to other PAN" and contact the entity to correct their SFT or TDS filing.

Step 2 — Submit feedback in the AIS portal

Log in to incometax.gov.in. Go to Services > AIS. The AIS opens in two tabs: Part A (personal and general information) and Part B (transaction information including TDS, SFT and other information). Scroll to the transaction that looks wrong.

Click on the transaction to expand it. In the Feedback column, select the "Optional" button. A dropdown appears with these options:

• Information is correct — use this if it turns out the entry is right after all.
• Information is not fully correct — use this when the category is right but the amount or dates are wrong. Enter the correct figure in the box that appears.
• Information relates to other PAN/year — use this when the transaction does not belong to you at all or belongs to a different financial year.
• Information is duplicate/included in other information — use this when the same income is counted twice.
• Income is not taxable — available for certain income-type entries when the income genuinely falls outside your taxable range (for example, interest on a Public Provident Fund).

Submit your feedback. You will receive an email and SMS confirmation. TIS updates immediately to display both the originally reported value and your modified value side by side. You can revise your feedback as many times as needed — there is no cap. Download the AIS Consolidated Feedback (ACF) PDF from the feedback section to keep as a record.

Important: Submitting AIS feedback alone does not change Form 26AS. It flags the discrepancy to the tax department and updates TIS, but the underlying TDS credit in Form 26AS changes only when the deductor files a corrected TDS return on TRACES.

Step 3 — Get the deductor to correct the TDS return

This is the step that actually fixes Form 26AS. The process differs slightly by type of deductor.

For salary TDS (employer):

Write to your employer's HR or accounts team specifying: the financial year, the quarter(s) affected, the TAN under which TDS was deducted, the total TDS deducted from your salary, and the discrepancy you found. Ask them to:

1. Verify their filed Form 24Q return on TRACES.
2. File a correction statement for the relevant quarter.
3. Share the 15-digit correction token number with you so you can track progress.

After the correction is processed on TRACES (typically 7 to 10 working days), the updated figure appears in your Form 26AS. Ask the employer to re-download and reissue your Form 16 Part A from TRACES after the correction is processed — the new Form 16A must match Form 26AS.

For FD interest TDS (bank):

First verify your PAN is correctly recorded at the bank — log into net banking and check the profile, or visit the branch. A mismatched or missing PAN is the most common cause of TDS credits not appearing in Form 26AS. Once PAN is confirmed correct, write formally to the branch manager and the bank's TDS nodal officer (details usually available on the bank's website) asking them to:

1. Check the TDS return (Form 26Q) filed for the relevant quarter and financial year.
2. File a correction statement on TRACES reflecting the correct PAN and TDS amount.
3. Issue or reissue your Form 16A after the correction.

Collect the interest certificate from the bank for each FD, showing interest accrued during the year. This is your baseline to confirm what the correct TDS amount should be. PSU banks (State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, etc.) are generally more responsive to written complaints and have internal TDS grievance cells. Private banks also have TDS helpdesks — check the bank's website or call their customer care to identify the correct contact.

For property sale TDS (Form 26QB — buyer correction):

Only the buyer (the deductor) can initiate a correction to Form 26QB. The buyer must log in to TRACES (tdscpc.gov.in) as a taxpayer. The correction path is: Statements and Forms > Request for Correction > Form 26QB. The buyer selects the relevant 26QB using the 9-digit acknowledgement number, makes the corrections, and validates the request. Validation can be done using:

• A registered Digital Signature Certificate (DSC).
• Net banking e-verification (if the buyer's bank supports it).
• Aadhaar OTP.
• Assessing Officer approval (where the other options are not available).

Contact the buyer immediately in writing. Provide them with the 9-digit acknowledgement number, the exact field that needs correction (your PAN, the sale amount, the TDS amount), and the documentary evidence (your PAN card copy, the sale deed). Once the correction is submitted on TRACES, track its status under Statements and Forms > Track Correction Status. Statuses to watch: Submitted for ITD, Processed. After processing, check your Form 26AS and AIS for the corrected entry.

Step 4 — Track using Tax Credit Mismatch on the portal

After giving the deductor about 7 to 10 working days, log back into incometax.gov.in and go to Services > Tax Credit Mismatch. Select the assessment year. The portal shows whether the tax credit you intend to claim matches what is now in Form 26AS. If the mismatch is resolved, you will see a confirmation. If there are still gaps, download the mismatch report (available in PDF or XLS if there are more than 10 records) to use as a reference when filing your ITR or responding to any notice.

Step 5 — File your ITR and handle any Section 143(1) intimation

If you have resolved the mismatch before filing, claim the correct TDS credit in your ITR with confidence. If the deductor's correction is still in progress, you have two choices: wait for the correction to appear in Form 26AS before filing, or file claiming the correct credit and keep all your documentary proof ready. The second approach carries the risk of a 143(1) intimation disallowing the credit, which you will need to counter through a rectification request.

If you receive a Section 143(1) intimation that has disallowed a TDS credit due to mismatch, respond through e-File > Rectification on the portal. Select the relevant assessment year, choose the correction type (tax credit mismatch), and upload your evidence: Form 16, Form 16A, or bank TDS certificate. Clearly explain that the deductor has since corrected their TDS return and attach the corrected Form 26AS if available. See our related guide on income tax refund notices and e-Nivaran for detailed escalation steps after an intimation.

Escalation ladder

Copy-paste complaint template

Replace the text in square brackets with your own details before sending. This template is for a written request to a bank's TDS nodal officer; adjust for an employer or a property buyer as needed.

When RTI can help

The Income Tax Department is a public authority under the Right to Information Act, 2005. You can file an RTI application to the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the relevant Income Tax office through the Central RTI Online Portal (rtionline.gov.in) under the Ministry of Finance > Department of Revenue > Income Tax Department. The application fee is Rs 10, and the PIO must reply within 30 days.

RTI can help you obtain:

• The status of TDS returns filed under a specific TAN against your PAN — useful to confirm whether your employer or a government deductor actually filed the return they claim to have filed.
• The processing status of your ITR or rectification request if the portal is not giving you clear updates.
• The name and contact of the Assessing Officer handling your case, so you can approach them directly.
• Confirmation of whether an intimation or demand was issued and when.

PSU banks (nationalised banks and SBI) are also public authorities under the RTI Act. If a PSU bank is not responding to your written request to correct a TDS return, you can file an RTI application to the bank's Central PIO asking for details of the TDS return filed under their TAN for the relevant financial year and quarter. This often prompts the bank's TDS team to act. Note that the RTI response itself will not change Form 26AS — only a TRACES correction does — but the RTI notice tends to accelerate the bank's compliance. For a step-by-step guide on using CPGRAMS alongside RTI, see our CPGRAMS and RTI guide.

For a practical walkthrough of filing an RTI online, see how to file RTI online in India. If your first RTI response is evasive or incomplete, you have the right to file a first appeal under Section 19.

When RTI will not help

Private sector employers are not public authorities under the RTI Act. If a private company has not deposited your TDS, RTI cannot be used against them. Your remedy is to approach the income tax portal grievance system, write to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer pointing out the non-deposit by the employer, or seek guidance from the e-Nivaran system. In cases of serious non-deposit, the employer is liable under income tax law and the CIT can take action.

Private banks (HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak, Yes Bank and others) are not public authorities under the RTI Act and cannot be compelled under RTI. For private bank TDS errors, your route is: written complaint to the branch and escalating to the bank's nodal officer or the RBI's Banking Ombudsman if the bank does not fix the TRACES error within a reasonable time.

Property buyers who are private individuals cannot be compelled under RTI. If a private buyer filed an incorrect Form 26QB, only persuasion and — if needed — a complaint to the Assessing Officer about the incorrect filing will work. The income tax department can take action against the buyer for filing incorrect information.

In all these private-sector cases, the better escalation paths are the income tax portal grievance, CPGRAMS (for complaints about how the department is handling your case), and ultimately the CIT/Appellate path if a formal demand is raised.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming AIS feedback fixes Form 26AS. AIS feedback updates TIS and flags the issue to the department, but it does not change the TDS credit entry in Form 26AS. You must separately get the deductor to file a TRACES correction for Form 26AS to change. Many taxpayers submit feedback, see TIS update, and assume Form 26AS will automatically follow — it will not.
• Filing the ITR with a wrong figure without keeping proof. If you claim a TDS credit that is not yet in Form 26AS, keep every piece of evidence (salary slips, Form 16A, bank TDS certificates, your written request to the deductor). You will need these to respond to the 143(1) intimation. Filing without documentation leaves you exposed.
• Waiting too long to contact the deductor. TRACES corrections by the deductor take time to process and then propagate into Form 26AS. Start the process as early as possible — ideally well before the ITR filing deadline. Do not leave this for the last week before the due date.
• Not verifying your PAN at the bank before assuming the TDS return is wrong. If your PAN in the bank's records is incorrect or different from your actual PAN, no amount of TDS return correction will put the credit in your Form 26AS. Fix the KYC / PAN linkage at the bank first.
• Ignoring a 143(1) intimation. An intimation under Section 143(1) is a time-bound communication — it specifies a deadline to respond or pay the demand. Ignoring it results in the demand becoming final. Respond promptly via rectification, even if the correction is still in progress at the deductor end.
• Contacting only the relationship manager at the bank. For TDS corrections, the relevant person is the bank's TDS nodal officer or the compliance / operations team, not your personal relationship manager. The relationship manager often has no authority or knowledge about TDS return filings on TRACES. Ask the branch manager to connect you with the right person.
• Not downloading the AIS Consolidated Feedback PDF. The ACF PDF is a timestamped record of all your feedback submissions. Download it after each session and save it. It is useful evidence if you are ever asked when you raised the dispute.
• Confusing Form 26QB correction process. For property sale TDS, it is the buyer who must initiate the correction on TRACES — not the seller. The seller has no direct ability to correct a Form 26QB filed by the buyer. Contact the buyer promptly and clearly, provide the specific errors and supporting documents, and make the correction as easy as possible for them to file.