AIS Mismatch? Your ITR Refund Gets Blocked

Before filing your ITR, check your Annual Information Statement on the Income Tax portal. It shows every financial transaction linked to your PAN — from salary to FD interest to mutual fund sales. A mismatch between AIS and your ITR can trigger a tax notice or delay your refund.

Here's what happened: The AIS is a detailed statement on the Income Tax portal listing all financial transactions linked to your PAN for a given financial year.. It pulls data from banks, mutual funds, employers, registrars, and other sources — covering salary, interest, dividends, property sales, and more.. AIS is updated dynamically throughout the year as reporting entities submit data, so figures can change even after you first check them..

What you should do: Log in to incometax.gov.in, go to 'Services' → 'AIS', and download your full statement before starting ITR filing.. Cross-check every entry — salary, FD interest, mutual fund redemptions, dividends — against your own Form 16, passbooks, and broker statements.. If you spot a wrong entry in AIS, use the 'Feedback' option on the portal to raise a correction request before submitting your ITR..

Even small FD interest from a minor account or joint account shows up in your AIS — ignoring it and filing a lower income figure is the #1 reason salaried taxpayers get notices.