Pre-filled ITR: 3 Errors That Cost You ₹46,800

Pre-filled ITRs look ready to submit but often have missing income, wrong deductions, or outdated employer data. Filing without checking can mean a tax notice, delayed refund, or a higher tax bill than you actually owe.

Here's what happened: The Income Tax Department auto-populates ITR forms using data from employers, banks, and mutual funds — but this data is often incomplete or mismatched.. Form 26AS, AIS (Annual Information Statement), and TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary) may each show different figures, and all three need to match your ITR.. Common errors include missing interest income from FDs or savings accounts, incorrect HRA deductions, and unreported capital gains from mutual fund redemptions..

What you should do: Download your Form 26AS, AIS, and TIS from the income tax portal (incometax.gov.in) and cross-check every entry against your actual bank statements and employer Form 16.. Manually add any income not pre-filled — especially savings account interest above ₹10,000, FD interest, freelance payments, or rental income that may be missing.. If you spot a mismatch between AIS data and your actual transactions, use the 'Feedback' option on the portal to flag incorrect entries before filing your ITR..

Even a ₹5,000 FD interest entry missed in your ITR can trigger an automated tax notice under Section 143(1) — the IT system matches your filing against bank-reported data automatically.

For readers weighing their credit and loan options, our personal loan guide and CIBIL score resources put this update in context.