Annual Information Statement (AIS) & Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS): Everything an Assessee Must Know

The Income Tax Department under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has rolled out two powerful tools — the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) — to bring greater transparency and accuracy to the tax filing ecosystem in India. For any assessee looking to understand their financial footprint as seen by the tax authorities, these tools are indispensable.

What Are AIS and TIS?

Annual Information Statement (AIS)

AIS is a consolidated financial information repository pertaining to an assessee, populated using data received from a wide range of reporting sources. It aggregates details of transactions such as interest earned, dividend received, securities dealings, mutual fund transactions, foreign remittances, and much more — all in a single, accessible interface.

Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS)

TIS, on the other hand, presents category-wise aggregated data drawn from AIS. It provides a distilled, structured overview of the assessee's financial activity after factoring in any feedback submitted by the assessee or any response received from the information source.

Key Distinction: While AIS is granular and transaction-specific, TIS is a higher-level summary used primarily for pre-filling of Income Tax Returns (ITRs).

Core Features of AIS

The AIS framework has been designed with multiple assessee-friendly features:

  • Multi-source data aggregation: Information flows in from banks, depositories, mutual fund houses, reporting entities, deductors, and other financial institutions.
  • Wide transaction coverage: Categories include interest income, dividends, securities transactions, mutual fund transactions, foreign remittance details, and several others.
  • Feedback mechanism: Assessees can submit online feedback at the transaction level directly through the AIS portal.
  • Multiple download formats: AIS data can be downloaded in PDF, JSON, and CSV formats for offline review and record-keeping.
  • Pre-filling integration: Processed AIS/TIS data, after quality checks and feedback consideration, is shared with the Centralised Processing Centre for ITR pre-filling (CPC-ITR).

Functional Capabilities of the AIS Ecosystem

Access Channels

The AIS system is accessible through three distinct modes:

  1. Online via the AIS portal — A dedicated compliance portal for assessees.
  2. AIS Offline Utility — Useful for bulk data review and feedback capture without an active internet connection.
  3. "AIS for Taxpayer" Mobile Application — Available on both Android (Google Play Store) and iOS (Apple App Store).

Live Coverage

AIS is currently live with 59 information categories, with data available from Financial Year 2020-21 onwards.

Feedback Loop with Information Sources

When an assessee submits feedback on specific categories of information, that feedback is communicated to the respective reporting entity (such as a bank, mutual fund house, or depository) for their confirmation or response. The assessee can track this communication and view the source's response directly on the AIS portal.

Key Components of the AIS Portal

The AIS portal is structured around several functional tabs, each serving a distinct purpose: