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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 16, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Central Board of Direct Taxes has enabled the display of information on foreign assets and income received under the Automatic Exchange of Information framework in the Annual Information Statement of eligible taxpayers on the Income Tax e-Filing portal. This is a step towards promoting voluntary tax compliance, and not to investigate undisclosed income, government sources said Thursday. 

 

"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," sources said. The income tax department has sent SMSs and e-mails to taxpayers to inform them about the availability of this feature and remind them to appropriately report foreign assets and foreign income, wherever applicable, while filing their Income-tax Returns for Assessment Year 2026-27, sources added.

 

This initiative is also part of India's larger drive to nudge taxpayers to voluntarily disclose foreign assets. "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," according to sources.

 

India receives financial information of its tax residents from over 100 partner jurisdictions under the various international agreements and mechanisms for the exchange of financial account information that India has entered into. Under the Automatic Exchange of Information framework, India receives information about the preceding calendar year from September onwards. Such information includes details on 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.

 

Currently, India has received information about 2022, 2023 and 2024, and that has been displayed in the Annual Information Statement. Information for 2025 will be displayed in the Annual Information Statement once it is received in September or October 2026, sources said. 

 

Information on foreign assets and income displayed in the Annual Information Statement represents only the information that has been received by the Income Tax Department from partner jurisdictions, 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," sources said.   End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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