Follow your tax credit to avoid shocks later

It’s been quite some time since we filed our income-tax returns. Now, it is time to hear from the Income-Tax Department on them.

It is important to prepare for the same by taking a few steps which can ensure you do not receive any shock from the I-T department in the form of income-tax demand for non-credit of taxes.

A majority of us normally get our tax deducted at source (TDS) from the salaries paid by our employer, or on the interest paid to us by the bank on our fixed deposit, whereas some of us having other incomes pay advance tax or self-assessment tax.

The existing procedure does not allow attachment of any document with the tax return.

The credit for taxes paid is given by the I-T department on the basis of amounts reflecting as credit to your account in the records maintained by the department.

The department sends you the details of such credits during the year in the form of Form 26AS by email if your email id is registered with them.

Form 26AS is an all-inclusive statement of credits of all the taxes paid on your behalf either by yourself or deducted while paying income to you. This form is dynamic and changes every time any tax is paid on your behalf and relevant documents are filed by the deductor with the income-tax department.

As the department will primarily give you the credit for your taxes as per the records available with them, it is important that you verify the credits of tax deducted or paid from the TDS certificates available with you with those getting reflected in the Form 26AS.

The department, through NSDL, provides you online access to your tax credits statement. So how can you gain access to your Form 26AS?

You can access this form online by visiting the link to the NSDL site: http://www.tin-nsdl.com/panregistration.asp. Once there, you will have to follow a three-step process:

Online registration.
As a PAN holder, you can register on the NSDL site by filling up the registration form. Fill up all the mandatory fields like your PAN number, name, address, email ID and your landline or mobile number.

This registration on the above website is one time activity.
Once you have submitted all the requisite details on the site, you get an acknowledgement generated by the site, which you need to save and take a print.

Verification by TIN-FC
The second step is verification by the authorised centres called TIN-FCs. There are two options with respect to verification — either you can visit any of the TIN-FC yourself or can choose to request any representative of TIN-FC visit your place for such verification.
This option has to be exercised while filling up the registration form online. You get a choice to select from a list of TIN-FC in your area.

While registering for online viewing of tax credit, you will be asked to create your user ID and password.

In case you have decided to visit the TIN-FC, it is necessary for you
to personally visit the centre with a printout of the above acknowledgement for registration and original and photocopy of your PAN card for verification.

In case you have requested any representative of TIN-FC to visit your place for verification, TIN-FC will call you and fix an appointment for the visit.

The representative is supposed to carry his own identity and an authority letter with him when he visits you for verification. The representative is supposed to visit your place within five days, failing which, you can contact the number/ email id provided on the site.

The fee payable for visiting the TIN-FC is Rs 17. However, if you want the representative to visit your place for verification, the fee payable is Rs 110.

View tax credit
Three days from the registration and authorisation process, you can visit the website and view the tax credit in your account. In case you find that entries in respect of some of the TDS or advance tax are not reflected, it may be due to either non-payment or non-filing of the TDS return by the deductor.

This may also happen due to some errors while filing the TDS returns of while filling up the challan for payment of tax.
In such case, you need to take up the matter with the deductor/ bank and request him to take remedial actions.

Even entries which are reflected may have some defects — in case the letter “U” is indicated against any entry, this denotes unverified entry and here also, you need to take up the matter with the deductor or the bank.

In case you do not receive a satisfactory reply or the issue is not resolved, you can contact the TIN Call Centre through the following: Telephone: (020) 27218080 / Fax: (020) 2721 8081 / Email: tininfo@nsdl.co.in

Resetting registration
In case you are not able to gain access to your account later on, you can always re-register by following the same process and after payment of the requisite fees.

So to avoid such a situation, log on to NSDL site and register yourself for tax credit.

The writer is CFO, ApnaPaisa.com, a price comparison engine for loans, insurance and investments. He can be reached at balwant.jain@apnapaisa.com