New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) In a significant step towards enhancing taxpayer services and promoting voluntary tax compliance, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has enabled display of information relating to foreign assets and income, received under the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) framework, in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) of eligible taxpayers on the Income Tax e-Filing portal.

This taxpayer-centric initiative has been undertaken to facilitate, and not to investigate, taxpayers in meeting their compliance obligations, a senior official said on Thursday.

India receives financial information relating to its tax residents from more than 100 partner jurisdictions under the various international agreements and mechanisms for exchange of financial account information that India has entered into.

“Every year, AEOI information pertaining to the preceding Calendar Year (CY) begins to be received starting from September of the current year. Such information may include details relating to foreign bank accounts, custodial accounts, certain financial investments, interest, dividends and other specified financial income, as reported by the partner jurisdictions under internationally accepted standards of information exchange,” the official noted.

As of now, information, as received, pertaining to CY 2022, CY 2023 and CY 2024 has been displayed in the AIS.

Information for CY 2025 would be displayed in the AIS once it is received in the month of September or October 2026.

“The foreign assets and income information reflected in AIS represents only such information as has been received by the Income-tax Department from partner jurisdictions under the aforesaid arrangements, and does not constitute a complete or exhaustive record of a taxpayer’s foreign assets and income. Taxpayers are, therefore, required to correctly and completely report all foreign assets and foreign source income in Schedule FA and Schedule FSI of their Income-tax Return, irrespective of whether such assets or income are reflected in AIS,” the official said.

As part of this taxpayer facilitation initiative, and with a firmly taxpayer-centric approach, taxpayers can conveniently view the information relating to their foreign assets and income by logging into their own e-Filing account and accessing their AIS.

This will facilitate correct reporting of foreign assets and foreign source income in the appropriate schedules of the Income-tax Return, namely Schedule FA and Schedule FSI, wherever applicable.

The information displayed in the AIS is exclusively accessible to the concerned taxpayer through his or her secure login credentials on the e-Filing portal.

The taxpayers may view the foreign assets information pertaining to them, by following the steps below:

Visit https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/login

Log in and navigate to “AIS”. The user will be directed to the ‘Compliance Portal’

On ‘Compliance Portal’, click on “Reports”

Click on “Foreign Assets Information” to view data reported against the logged-in PAN user.

Select year from the drop-down and then click “Download PDF” to view the information pertaining to the selected calendar year.

Screen-shots of the above steps, for reference basis, are placed below.

The initiative has been designed solely to facilitate taxpayers by providing them access to information available with the Department under international exchange mechanisms, thereby enabling informed and accurate tax compliance — and not as a tool for scrutiny or investigation.

As part of this initiative, SMSes and e-mails are being issued to taxpayers informing them about the availability of this feature and reminding them to appropriately report foreign assets and foreign income, wherever applicable, while filing their Income-tax Returns for Assessment Year 2026-27.

Taxpayers may also use ‘Kar Saathi’, the AI-powered virtual assistant on the e-Filing portal, for guidance on selecting the appropriate return form, reporting foreign assets and income, and addressing other tax-related queries.

“By providing taxpayers with timely access to information available with the Department, CBDT aims to minimise inadvertent reporting errors, improve the accuracy of Income-tax Returns and make tax compliance simpler, more convenient and more transparent,” the official added.

–IANS

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