My employer or tenant deducted TDS but it is not in my 26AS: what you can do

Short answer: the credit for tax deducted at source is given on the basis of what the deductor (the person who cut the tax) reports to the tax department, and only for tax that was paid to the Central Government. If your pay slip or rent receipt shows a cut but your tax statement does not, the gap is almost always on the deductor's side: the tax was not deposited, the quarterly statement was not filed, or it was filed with a wrong PAN or wrong period. The person who can fix it is the deductor, not you. What you can do is collect proof, push the deductor to file a correction, and file your own return carefully in the meantime.

The situation

You open your tax statement before filing. Your salary slip says tax was deducted every month. Or your tenant told you they cut tax on rent. Or a company paid you a fee and sent a certificate. But the statement shows nothing, or shows less.

This is common. Before you decide what to do, see how the credit actually reaches your account.

How the credit reaches you

Three steps decide whether a TDS credit appears in your statement.

Step 1: the deductor cuts the tax and pays it to the Government. The Income-tax Act, 2025 says the person responsible for deducting tax shall pay the amount so deducted to the credit of the Central Government, in such time as may be prescribed (s.397(3)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025).

Step 2: the deductor files a statement. After paying the tax, the deductor must deliver to the prescribed income-tax authority a statement for the period, in the prescribed form, giving the prescribed particulars (s.397(3)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025). This statement is what carries your name, your PAN, the amount and the section into the department's records.

Step 3: the department gives you credit on that information. Under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, credit for tax deducted at source "shall be given, on the basis of information relating to deduction or collection of tax furnished by the deductor" to the tax authority, to the person to whom payment was made or whose account was credited (rule 203(1)(a), Income-tax Rules, 2026). The same rule says credit is granted on the basis of that information and the information in the return in respect of the claim, "subject to verification in accordance with the risk management strategy formulated by the Board" (rule 203(8), Income-tax Rules, 2026).

Tax deducted and paid to the Central Government "shall be treated as payment of tax" on behalf of the person from whose income it was deducted (s.390(5), Income-tax Act, 2025).

For earlier years the same scheme sits in the Income-tax Act, 1961: credit for tax deducted is s.199, the certificate is s.203 and the deductor's duty to pay is s.200. The official mapping table pairs them with s.390, s.395 and s.397 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Put together: no deposit, or no statement, or a statement with wrong details, and nothing reaches your account. The certificate in your hand does not by itself create the entry.

Which Act applies to your case

• Tax cut during FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27): the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended by the Finance Act 2026 governs. Your return for that year is the one most readers are filing now.
• Tax cut from 1 April 2026 (tax year 2026-27): the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026 apply.

This article quotes the 2025 Act and the 2026 Rules where the text was checked. For a 1961 Act year, read the current text of s.199 and of the related Income-tax Rules, 1962 on the Income Tax Department website before relying on exact wording; the forms and time limits below are those of the 2026 Rules, and the 1961-Act year forms (such as Form 16 and Form 16A) may differ.

What the certificate is, and what it proves

The person deducting tax must give you a certificate showing the tax deducted, the rate and other prescribed particulars (s.203(1), Income-tax Act, 1961; s.395(4)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025). An employer who pays tax to the Central Government on the employee's behalf must also certify the amount paid (s.203(2), Income-tax Act, 1961; s.395(4)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025).

For tax year 2026-27 onward, the Income-tax Rules, 2026 set the forms and the time limits (rule 215, Income-tax Rules, 2026):

• Salary: Form 130, by 15 June of the financial year following the year in which the income was paid and tax deducted.
• Many non-salary payments: Form 131, within fifteen days from the due date for furnishing the deductor's TDS statement.
• Rent covered by serial 2(i) of the TDS table in s.393(1): Form 132, within fifteen days from the due date for furnishing the challan-cum-statement in Form 141.

The certificate is generated and downloaded from the department's portal (rule 215(1), Income-tax Rules, 2026), so a deductor who never filed the statement usually cannot produce a genuine one. A certificate the portal cannot match is a signal to ask questions, not proof of credit.

Why the entry may be missing

These are the usual reasons. Each has a different fix.

• Tax cut but not deposited. The deductor kept the money. This is a default by the deductor. The Act provides that where a person required to deduct tax does not deduct it, or after deducting fails to pay it, and the assessee has also failed to pay that tax directly, that person is, apart from any other consequences, deemed an assessee in default (s.391(3), Income-tax Act, 2025). Note the last condition: the provision is aimed at the deductor, and it does not by itself put the credit in your account.
• Deposited but statement not filed, or filed late. The statement under s.397(3)(b), Income-tax Act, 2025 is the document that puts the entry in your account.
• Statement filed with the wrong PAN. If your PAN was missing or wrong, the entry may sit under another person or under no one. The law requires the person receiving the payment to furnish a valid PAN to the deductor (s.397(2)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025).
• Statement not yet processed. A recent quarter may not have been filed yet. Check the date of each quarter's statement before assuming default.
• Entry in another year or another person's name. Credit is given for the tax year for which the income is assessable (rule 203(5), Income-tax Rules, 2026). If a declaration says the income is assessable in another person's hands, credit goes to that person (rule 203(2), Income-tax Rules, 2026).
• A deductor who has never filed. A tenant or small payer may not have filed any TDS statement. Ask whether anything was filed against your PAN.

What to do, step by step

1. Pull your own records. Download the tax credit statement from your e-filing account. For tax year 2026-27 and later, the Annual Information Statement in Form 168 carries information on tax deducted or collected at source (rule 245(1)(a), Income-tax Rules, 2026). Compare it with your salary slips, bank credits and rent receipts.

2. Identify the shortfall by deductor and by quarter. A missing quarter points to a statement not yet filed. A missing year points to default or a wrong PAN.

3. Write to the deductor with a specific request. Ask in writing for (a) the challan details (BSR code, date, serial number) of each deposit, (b) the date and token or acknowledgment of the TDS statement for each quarter, and (c) a correction statement if your PAN or amount was wrong. The Act lets the deductor correct a discrepancy or update information in a statement already delivered by delivering a correction statement in the prescribed form, within two years from the end of the tax year in which the statement was required to be delivered (s.397(3)(f), Income-tax Act, 2025).

4. Keep the papers: salary slips or rent receipts, bank statements, any certificate, and your correspondence.

5. Use the department's route if the deductor will not act. The Rules provide an application regarding credit of tax deduction at source, made in Form 102, which is furnished to the Director General of Income-tax (Systems) and forwarded to the Assessing Officer (rule 178, Income-tax Rules, 2026). Read the rule and form fully before using them. They sit in the 2026 Rules, so they speak to tax year 2026-27 and later; for an earlier year, check which route applies.

6. File your return on facts, not hope. The return asks you to list the TDS you claim, with the deductor details. A claim for tax that does not appear in your credit statement is a mismatch the system can flag. Under rule 203(8), Income-tax Rules, 2026 the claim is verified against the information in the department's hands. If the deductor correction will not come before you file, discuss with a Chartered Accountant whether to claim only the tax visible in the statement or to claim the full amount with documents, because the two choices have different consequences.

The deadline clock

• You can file a return after the original due date, any time before three months prior to the end of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier (s.139(4), Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended). For assessment year 2026-27 the end of the year is 31 March 2027, so three months before is 31 December 2026.
• A return already filed can be revised at any time before the end of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier, subject to the fee provision of s.234-I (s.139(5), Income-tax Act, 1961, as substituted by Act 4 of 2026).
• CBDT Circular 07/2026 (28 September 2026) extended the due date from 31 October 2026 to 21 November 2026 only for the persons listed at serial 2 of its table, and no other group. Check whether you belong to that group.

This matters here because a revised return lets you add the credit later, once the deductor's correction makes the entry appear. Filing on time and revising later is often cleaner than waiting.

What not to do

• Do not claim credit for tax that appears nowhere just because your pay slip says so. The rule gives credit on the information the deductor furnished (rule 203(1), Income-tax Rules, 2026).
• Do not rely on a certificate alone. A genuine certificate comes from the portal (rule 215(1), Income-tax Rules, 2026). If the portal has no record behind it, the entry will not appear.
• Do not assume the money is lost. Tax actually deposited by the deductor is treated as paid on your behalf (s.390(5), Income-tax Act, 2025). The task is to get it recorded against your PAN.

What to do now

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

FAQs

My employer says tax was deducted and gave me Form 16, but 26AS does not show it. Can I still claim it?
The credit follows the information the deductor furnished and the verification of your claim (rule 203(1), (8), Income-tax Rules, 2026). A certificate without a matching entry is a gap to be closed by the deductor, not a safe claim. Ask the employer for the deposit challan and the statement acknowledgment.

Who must pay if the deductor never deposited the tax?
The Act deems the deductor an assessee in default where tax is deducted but not paid and the assessee has also failed to pay it directly, apart from other consequences (s.391(3), Income-tax Act, 2025). Tax actually paid to the Central Government is treated as paid on your behalf (s.390(5), Income-tax Act, 2025), but whether your own credit is protected where nothing was paid depends on the facts and on the law for your year, which a CA should check.

My tenant is an individual and does not know what a TDS statement is. What now?
Ask for the challan details and whether a statement was filed against your PAN. Without one, no entry will show.

Can I fix this by myself?
You can raise the matter with the deductor, gather proof and, for the years the 2026 Rules cover, consider the Form 102 application route. You cannot create the entry yourself. Only the deductor's statement or a correction statement does that (s.397(3)(b), (f), Income-tax Act, 2025).

Is Form 26AS still the document to check?
For tax year 2026-27 and later, the Rules give the Annual Information Statement in Form 168, which includes information on tax deducted or collected at source (rule 245(1)(a), Income-tax Rules, 2026).

What if I have already filed and the credit was denied?
Revise within the window in s.139(5), Income-tax Act, 1961 once the entry appears, and keep the correspondence. A CA can tell you whether a response to the intimation is the better step.

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