Suresh files his own ITR every year. June 2026, he logs in, downloads his AIS for FY 25-26. Scrolls through: salary TDS ✓, ICICI FD interest ₹68,400 ✓, dividend ₹4,200 ✓, two MF redemptions ✓. Then: "Interest from deposit — HDFC Bank — Account No: xxxxxx4327 — ₹3,12,400".
He has never had an HDFC account. The portal allows him to expand the entry and shows the bank's submission. The account number ends 4327. He calls HDFC customer care, account number not in their system under his name. The reporting bank somewhere mapped this interest to his PAN.
If he files the ITR including this ₹3.12L: he over-pays tax on income he never received. If he files without it: AIS shows more than his return, system flags it, notice follows. What does he actually do?
- AIS = Annual Information Statement, aggregates every PAN-linked transaction reported by banks, brokers, MFs, employers, registrars. TIS = Tax Information Summary, the summarised version that pre-fills your ITR.
- If something in AIS is wrong (wrong PAN, duplicate, wrong year, wrong amount), submit feedback via the AIS portal. The system records your version and the TIS updates to reflect it.
- Seven feedback categories cover every realistic mismatch. Most cases: "Information is not fully correct", "Income/receipt relates to other PAN/Year", or "Information is duplicate".
- Do this BEFORE filing your ITR. A reconciled TIS pre-fills correctly. An un-reconciled AIS creates a mismatch with whatever you file → 143(1) adjustment or worse.
- Department doesn't auto-accept your feedback — it's recorded, AO eventually reviews. But the contemporaneous record is your primary defence if the entry is later treated as undisclosed income.
AIS vs TIS vs Form 26AS — three documents, one story
AIS
Raw, detailed
Every reported transaction linked to your PAN. Salary, interest, dividend, MF redemption, property purchase, credit card spend, UPI aggregate. Each entry shows reporting source, account ID, and value. This is what you reconcile.
TIS
Summarised, used for pre-fill
A consolidated view derived from AIS. Two columns: "Reported value" and "Modified value (after feedback)". The TIS modified value is what the system uses to pre-fill your ITR. Submitting AIS feedback updates the TIS modified value.
Form 26AS
TDS / TCS focused
Pre-AIS document, still maintained. Shows TDS, TCS, advance tax challans, self-assessment challans, refunds. Narrower than AIS. Useful for cross-checking the tax-credit side of your return.
The seven feedback options
On the AIS portal, every entry has a "Submit Feedback" button. Clicking it gives you seven categories:
- 1. Information is correct — accept as-is. Default for everything you recognise.
- 2. Information is not fully correct — partial fix. You correct specific fields (e.g., "amount should be ₹65k not ₹85k"). Use when the source partly wrong.
- 3. Information related to other PAN/Year — wrong assessee or wrong FY. Suresh's case fits here — the bank attached someone else's interest to his PAN.
- 4. Information is duplicate / included in another information — same transaction reported twice (e.g., MF redemption picked up by both AMC and depository).
- 5. Information is denied — you fully reject. "I never had this transaction, never opened this account."
- 6. Customised feedback — free text up to 1000 chars for situations that don't fit categories 1-5.
- 7. Information is partially denied — accept part, deny rest. E.g., a credit-card spend of ₹6L reported, you confirm ₹4L but ₹2L looks wrong.
Suresh's HDFC entry: category 3 (or 5, depending on whether he wants to argue "wrong PAN" or "didn't happen at all"). Either route flags the entry as disputed and reduces it from his TIS modified value.
The 30-minute pre-filing routine
Pick the relevant FY. Download AIS JSON and PDF. Also download TIS — they're side-by-side downloads.
Each section: Salary, Interest, Dividend, Capital Gains (MF, Equity, Property), SFT (high-value), TDS Other Sections, Refund, Demand. Mark each row: ✓ (yours, correct), ✗ (not yours), ? (yours but amount looks wrong).
Click the entry → Submit Feedback → pick category → fill detail → submit. Each takes about 60-90 seconds. Save the confirmation reference numbers.
The TIS recalculates after feedback. Pull TIS again, confirm "Modified value" reflects your corrections.
The pre-fill draws from the modified TIS, so your return matches your reality (not the bank's typo). If the system still pre-fills the wrong value, manually override and keep your feedback acknowledgement as supporting documentation.
After submitting feedback, the portal shows a confirmation page with a reference number. Screenshot it. If a 143(2) notice later questions the entry, this is your contemporaneous proof that you raised the discrepancy before filing — much stronger than a post-hoc explanation. Keep a folder per FY.
What the department actually does with your feedback
The system doesn't immediately accept your feedback as truth. It records two values in TIS:
- "Reported value" — what the bank / broker / AMC submitted. Unchanged.
- "Modified value" — your version after feedback. Used for pre-fill.
For 99% of cases, this is the end of it — you file based on modified value, AO doesn't dispute. For the 1% where it's escalated, the AO may issue a 143(1)(a) adjustment proposing to add the reported value back to your income. You then have 30 days to respond with documentary support (bank statement showing no such account, etc.).
The system also notifies the reporting institution that the entry has been disputed. The bank / broker is supposed to investigate and either confirm or withdraw. In practice this is slow — the dispute may persist for years on the "reported value" column even after the AO has accepted your modified value.
Three case studies
Suresh — wrong PAN
Category 3 or 5
HDFC reported ₹3.12L interest, account ending 4327, attached to Suresh's PAN. Suresh has never had an HDFC account. Submit feedback "Information related to other PAN" + customised note pointing to mismatch. Optional: complain to HDFC's grievance officer for the underlying typo fix.
MF redemption — duplicate
Category 4
An equity MF redemption of ₹1.6L appears twice in AIS — once from the AMC, once from the demat depository. Both are real but it's the same transaction. Submit feedback "Information is duplicate" on the second entry. TIS reduces to single value.
Gift from father
Category 6
₹8L transferred from father's account shows as "credit" in your AIS SFT section. Not income — it's a gift from a relative, exempt under Sec 56(2)(x). Submit customised feedback: "Amount represents gift from parent — Sec 56(2)(x) exempt — relationship documented".
Common AIS reconciliation gotchas
- Stock-trade turnover vs profit confusion. AIS shows sale-side gross sale value (not net profit). Don't include the gross as income — match against your broker P&L for actual gain.
- Multiple bank accounts cross-summing. If you have 4 savings accounts, AIS aggregates interest. Reconcile bank-by-bank against actual TDS certificates.
- Foreign income via LRS. Bank reports your LRS outward remittance as "Foreign remittance". Not income to you — but reportable in Schedule FA.
- Year-bridging transactions. Bonus credited in March 2026 but FD interest accrued mostly Apr 2025–Mar 2026 may straddle FYs. Check the FY column of each AIS line.
- Joint accounts. Bank may report 100% of interest to one PAN even if joint. If splitting is needed, submit feedback "Information is not fully correct" and specify your share.
The funny historical wrinkle
Before AIS launched in November 2021, Form 26AS was the only consolidated taxpayer view — and it only covered TDS/TCS, not broader transactions. The shift to AIS is the single biggest visibility change in Indian income tax in a decade. Suddenly the department sees not just your TDS but every interest credit, every MF redemption, every credit-card spend over thresholds, every UPI receipt above limits.
The feedback mechanism is the department's concession that the data won't always be right — banks make typos, demats double-report, KYC links get mismatched. Without feedback, every error would propagate into automated 143(1) adjustments and create endless dispute. The mechanism puts the taxpayer in the loop early, before the dispute matures into a notice.
Quick answers
Unlikely — the dispute lives on the tax department's side. If the bank discovers its own typo, they may submit a correction in the next reporting cycle. Your AIS will then update automatically. Sometimes worth a written complaint to the bank's grievance officer to push the fix.
Yes — AIS feedback is independent of return filing. But ideally do it before filing, so your ITR matches your reconciled TIS. Late feedback is recorded but doesn't retroactively change your filed return.
Yes — always report all income in your ITR, even if AIS missed it. AIS is a system aid, not an income definition. Under-reporting because "AIS didn't show it" is still under-reporting under Sec 270A.
Typically 24-72 hours. Sometimes a week if the entry is in a complex category. Check TIS after submitting; if not reflected after 7 days, re-submit or contact e-filing helpdesk.
Yes — AIS is available for the last 6 FYs on the portal. Reviewing past AIS for missed corrections is part of the ITR-U exercise. See our ITR-U guide.
When you might want help
Two situations: (1) You see entries in AIS that you genuinely don't understand — bank reporting codes can be cryptic. (2) You've filed without reconciling and received a 143(1)(a) proposed adjustment based on AIS-ITR mismatch. We respond with feedback + supporting docs.
Lost in your AIS?
Line-by-line reconciliation, feedback submission, TIS verification, ITR pre-fill validation. 1-hour fixed-fee engagement for individuals.
"Suresh" and the AIS entries shown are composite illustrations. Real PAN-cross-reporting is common — the feedback mechanism is the official channel for fixing it.