Form 16 is the tax credit statement issued yearly by an employer to an employee. This certificate indicates the amount of tax deducted by the employer from the amount of salary credited to the employee.

When any deductor deducts tax from the payments made by him to the deductee, he has to deposit it to the income tax department. Once the department receives the amount, the Form 26AS - Tax credit form is updated with the amount credited to the deductee and tax deducted thereon. The amount paid and tax deducted should match in the Form 26AS and Form 16.

One should keep track of any changes in the Form 26AS during the year. You can check the tax deducted amount every month from your pay slip and verify the same with Form 26AS. The amount of tax deducted in Form 26AS and pay slip should be the same. Once the financial year is over, the employer submits a tax statement (Form 24Q) to the department and provides Form 16 to his employees.

There are instances when the information in Form 16, Form 26AS and pay slip does not match.

In case of any mismatch in your pay slip and Form 26AS, you should intimate your employer about it and get it rectified. The employer will revise the TDS statements submitted to the department with the correct figures and the same will be reflected in your Form 26AS.

Before proceeding the rectification or revision of the statement, you should compare the details and try to interpret the reason for such mismatch. As a taxpayer, you must be aware of the reasons for such mismatches. Following are some of the popular reasons for the mismatch in the forms discussed above.

1. Employer failed to deposit TDS with the government

2. Incorrect quoting of the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of the employee in the TDS statement

3. Omission of employee details in the TDS statement

4. TDS statements of employer not processed due to errors, for example incorrect challans.

5. Non-filing of TDS statements or delay in filing of TDS statements by the employer

In case there is any mismatch in Form 16 received by you for the FY 2018-19,you can try and analyse the mistake yourself. Once the mistake is identified, you should ask your employer to rectify the mistake and provide you with the correct Form 16. The tax filing due date is around the corner and in case the mismatch is not rectified sooner, you will end up missing the deadline for filing income tax returns.

Even if you are unable to identify the reason for the mismatch, you should discuss it with your employer. The employer will examine the reasons for such mismatch and revise his TDS statement accordingly. Once the statement is revised, he can provide you with a rectified Form 16 and you can proceed with your income tax return filing for this year.

The author is the CEO and Founder, ClearTax.com