Got an Email About a High-Value Transaction in Your AIS? Do You Have to Respond?

You open your inbox and find a message from the Income Tax Department. It says a high-value transaction has been reported against your PAN and asks you to look at your Annual Information Statement (AIS). Your first questions are usually the same. Is this a notice? Must I reply? Have I done something wrong?

This article explains what such a message is built on, what the law actually requires of you, and a calm order of steps. It does not describe the exact wording of any particular email, because the law does not prescribe that wording. Treat the email as a prompt to check your own record, not as a demand.

What the email is pointing at

Certain institutions must report certain transactions of their customers to the tax department. Under the Income-tax Act, 1961, that duty sits in section 285BA. Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which applies from tax year 2026-27, the matching provision is section 508. The mapping table between the two Acts places section 285BA of the 1961 Act against section 508 of the 2025 Act.

In most cases the reporting person is not you. It is the bank, the registrar of properties, the company issuing shares, the mutual fund trustee, and similar bodies. (Section 508(1) also lists an assessee who maintains the relevant records. For example, rule 237 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 and rule 114E of the 1962 Rules make a person liable to tax audit report certain large cash receipts for sales of goods or services.) They file a statement of the transactions they have recorded. In the 1961 Act regime the statement is in Form 61A; in the 2025 Act regime it is Form 165 (rule 114E of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, and rule 237 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026).

The department then shows what it has received in your AIS. Under section 285BB of the 1961 Act, now section 510 of the 2025 Act, the department uploads an annual information statement to the registered account of the taxpayer on the e-filing portal. Rule 245 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 says the statement is in Form 168 and covers, among other things, tax deducted or collected at source, specified financial transactions, payment of taxes, demand and refund, and pending and completed proceedings.

So the chain is simple. A third party reports. The department records it in your AIS. An email or message nudges you to look at it.

Is the email a notice that needs a reply?

The text of section 508 and section 510 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, and of rule 245 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, contains no requirement that you reply to an email about your AIS. Section 508 puts the duty to furnish the statement on the reporting person. Section 510 puts the duty to upload the AIS on the department. Neither provision mentions any response by the taxpayer. This article reads only those provisions; it does not describe the wording of any particular email, so if your email cites a section or sets a date, read it and take advice on that point.

That does not make the matter unimportant. An AIS entry is information in the department's possession about you. If your return later differs from it, the department may write to you under other provisions, with their own notice and deadline. An email that only asks you to review the AIS is not that.

Two practical rules follow.

• If the reported item is correct and is already in your return, or does not form part of your income, you have nothing to file because of the email.
• If the reported item looks wrong, the e-filing portal offers a feedback option on AIS entries. Using it is optional; the Act and Rules cited here do not require it. A wrong entry you do not query simply remains in your record.

If the message does not point to your own e-filing account, or asks you to click a link and enter your login or card details, do not do so. Type the portal address yourself and log in there. Check what the portal shows you, not what the email says it shows.

Which transactions are reported

The thresholds below come from rule 114E of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, which governs statements for financial years under the 1961 Act. They are not the whole table. These are the items most people recognise. Each is counted over a financial year, and the immovable property item is counted per transaction.

• Cash deposits of ten lakh rupees or more in a financial year, in one or more accounts of a person other than a current account and time deposit (bank or Post Master General reporting).
• Time deposits of ten lakh rupees or more in a financial year.
• Payments against credit card bills of one lakh rupees or more in cash, or ten lakh rupees or more by any other mode, in a financial year.
• Receipt of ten lakh rupees or more in a financial year for acquiring units of mutual fund schemes.
• Receipt of ten lakh rupees or more in a financial year for acquiring bonds or debentures, and likewise for acquiring shares, including share application money.
• Purchase or sale of immovable property for an amount of thirty lakh rupees or more, or valued by the stamp valuation authority under section 50C at thirty lakh rupees or more.
• Sale of foreign currency of ten lakh rupees or more in a financial year.

The Income-tax Rules, 2026 (Form 165, under the 2025 Act) have a differently built table. Rule 237 puts the immovable property limit at forty-five lakh rupees, either as the amount or as the stamp duty value, where rule 114E of the 1962 Rules has thirty lakh rupees. Rule 237 also covers a gift or joint development agreement of immovable property, the purchase of stamp paper, and insurance premium receipts, and for several items it sets a lower figure (five lakh rupees) for a person without a PAN. The credit card limits (one lakh rupees in cash, ten lakh rupees by any other mode) match. Before you rely on a figure for a particular year, open the rule for that year. Which Act and which rules apply depends on the financial year in which the transaction took place.

One more point on how the amounts are counted. Under sub-rule (3) of rule 114E (which does not apply to the immovable property and cash-sale items), the reporting person aggregates all accounts and all transactions of the same nature for the same person during the year. A deposit of three lakh rupees made four times in one year is therefore treated as a deposit of twelve lakh rupees for the purpose of the ten lakh rupee limit. Where an account is held jointly, the entire value is attributed to each holder. So a joint account holder can find an entry in the AIS for money that his or her co-holder deposited.

When are such statements filed

Under sub-rule (5) of rule 114E, the statement is furnished on or before the 31st of May following the financial year in which the transaction was registered or recorded. Rule 237(5) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 carries the same 31 May date. This explains why the entries, and the emails that follow them, often arrive in the months after the year ends.

Rule 245(1) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 gives the department ninety days from the end of the month in which it receives information to upload it to the registered account. The AIS can therefore be updated during the year. An entry you did not see in June may be there in August.

Step by step: what to do on receiving the email

• Do not click the link in the email. Open the e-filing portal in your browser by typing the address, and log in. Go to the AIS section.
• Find the entry. Look under the specified financial transaction information in your AIS. Match it by date, amount and the name of the reporting institution.
• Ask whose transaction it is. Is it yours, or a joint holder's, or a family member's whose account carries your PAN by error? Because of the aggregation and joint holder rules above, an entry can be correct in amount and still not be your income.
• Ask what the transaction was. A cash deposit may be your own savings brought back from a locker. A property sale may be a purchase, not a sale. A mutual fund receipt is an investment, not income. The entry reports the event; it does not decide its tax character.
• Check your return. If the item gives rise to income, for example interest, capital gains or a gain on property, check that the return you filed, or are about to file, includes it. If you have already filed and find an omission, section 139(5) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, as substituted by the Finance Act 2026, allows a revised return at any time before the end of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier, subject to section 234-I. Section 234-I (inserted by the same Act) sets a fee of one thousand rupees where total income does not exceed five lakh rupees and five thousand rupees otherwise, where the revised return is furnished beyond nine months but before twelve months from the end of the assessment year. Read the sections for the conditions before you act.
• If the entry is wrong, give feedback. The portal has a feedback option on AIS entries; use it to say what is wrong and why. Keep the acknowledgment and the documents (bank statement, sale deed, mutual fund statement) that show why the entry is wrong.
• Keep a short file. Save the email, a screenshot of the AIS entry, your explanation and the supporting document. If a notice does arrive later, you will have the answer in one place.

What not to do

• Do not ignore an entry that is right and untaxed. If the AIS shows a property sale and you have not reported the gain, the entry will not go away because you did nothing.
• Do not file feedback just to make an entry disappear. Feedback should say what is actually wrong, with proof. An unsupported claim helps nobody.
• Do not assume a high-value entry means tax is due. Reporting is of the transaction. Whether any tax follows depends on the nature of the transaction and your total income.
• Do not pay anyone who offers to "remove" an AIS entry. The entry is the department's record of what a third party reported. The entry records what a third party reported, so a stranger cannot properly change it for you.
• Do not reply to the email address it came from with documents. Use the portal.

What to do now

• Next step: log in to the e-filing portal yourself, open the AIS, and match the reported item with your own records (section 510 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, which provides for the AIS to be uploaded to your registered account; rule 245 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026).
• Deadline: the email itself has no statutory reply date. The date that matters is your return. A return for assessment year 2026-27 (financial year 2025-26) is filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961, with the due dates in section 139 of that Act. A revised return can be filed before the end of the assessment year or the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier, under section 139(5), subject to the fee under section 234-I.
• Consequence of leaving it: an entry that is real and not reflected in your return can lead to questions from the department later, on a notice with its own response period. An entry that is wrong and not corrected stays in your record.

Have a CA review your facts before you act or file.

Frequently asked questions

Is the email the same as a notice under section 143(1) or section 148?
No. The email draws attention to information in your AIS. Section 508 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (section 285BA of the 1961 Act) is about the reporting person furnishing a statement, and section 510 (section 285BB of the 1961 Act) is about the AIS being uploaded to your account. Neither is an assessment step against you.

Must I respond on the portal?
Section 510 of the 2025 Act and rule 245 of the 2026 Rules say nothing that requires a response from the taxpayer. The portal feedback option is there if you want to flag what is wrong. If an entry is correct, there is nothing to submit because of the email.

The AIS shows a transaction I do not recognise. What now?
Check the bank, the date and the amount against your records, and ask whether it belongs to a joint account holder. If it is not yours, mark it as incorrect with a reason. If you suspect misuse of your PAN, keep the evidence and take advice.

Does a cash deposit above ten lakh rupees mean I will be taxed?
The reporting threshold for cash deposits in accounts other than current accounts is ten lakh rupees in a year under rule 114E; rule 237 of the 2026 Rules has ten lakh rupees for a person with a PAN and five lakh rupees for a person without. Reporting is not taxation. What matters is the source of the money and whether it is part of your income.

Which Act applies to my case?
It depends on the year of the transaction and the return you are filing. Returns for assessment year 2026-27 (financial year 2025-26) are under the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended. The Income-tax Act, 2025 applies from tax year 2026-27. The AIS provisions and the reporting provisions exist in both, with the section numbers given above.

Can the AIS be wrong even when the bank reported correctly?
Yes. The same transaction may be reported twice, a joint holder's deposit may be attributed to you in full under the aggregation rule, or the nature of the transaction may be misdescribed. Check it against your own documents.

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