Filing ITR Early in 2026? Avoid These 3 Mistakes

Filing your income tax return for AY 2026-27 too early — before Form 26AS, AIS, and TIS are fully updated — can lead to mismatches, notices, and penalties. Waiting a few weeks can save you a lot of trouble.

Here's what happened: The Income Tax Department pre-fills returns using data from employers, banks, brokers, and mutual funds — this data takes weeks to fully populate after April 1.. If you file before your Form 26AS or Annual Information Statement (AIS) is updated, you may miss income entries or TDS credits, triggering an IT notice.. A revised return filed after receiving a notice can attract scrutiny, and a belated return filed after December 31 carries a penalty of up to ₹5,000..

What you should do: Wait until mid-June 2026 before filing — log into the IT portal and cross-check your AIS, Form 26AS, and TIS to ensure all income and TDS data is fully reflected.. Download your Form 16 from your employer (mandatory by June 15) and match every figure — salary, HRA exemption, deductions — against what appears in your pre-filled ITR.. If you have income from multiple sources — freelance, FD interest, capital gains, dividends — verify each entry in AIS and raise a correction request for any wrong entries before filing..

Raise an AIS feedback correction online before filing if any entry looks wrong — a filed return with incorrect data is harder and riskier to fix than waiting 2 extra weeks.