Form 16 Explained: Part A, Part B and ITR Filing

What is Form 16 and why do you need it?

Form 16 connects the salary you earned with the income tax your employer deducted. It is not your income tax return, a refund approval or proof that every income source has been taxed correctly. Think of it as an annual payroll statement with a tax certificate attached. Employees use it to check taxable salary, understand exemptions and deductions, and claim the salary TDS credit that belongs to their PAN.

This guide uses the Income-tax Act, 1961 framework for FY 2025-26, corresponding to AY 2026-27. The Income-tax Act, 2025 is scheduled to take effect from 1 April 2026, so check current section numbers and filing instructions on the official portal. Do not apply a later year’s payroll rules to an earlier return simply because you are downloading the certificate or filing your return after that transition date.

What does Form 16 Part A show?

Part A identifies the employer and employee, including the employer’s TAN and the employee’s PAN. It also records the relevant assessment year, employment period and quarterly details of salary payments and tax deduction. The certificate includes information about tax deposited with the government. Check your PAN particularly carefully: an incorrect PAN can prevent the credit from appearing correctly even when the payslip shows a tax deduction.

Suppose your employer deducted ₹8,000 each month for twelve months. You would expect annual salary TDS of ₹96,000, subject to any payroll adjustments. Compare that expectation with Part A, your payslips and Form 26AS rather than checking only the final total. If one quarter is missing or the amount differs, ask payroll to investigate its TDS statement and deposit records. A corrected certificate may require a correction to the underlying statement.

Need help with this? Read our guide to Income Tax Return Filing (ITR Filing) Online.

What does Form 16 Part B show?

Part B explains how payroll arrived at taxable salary and tax liability. It ordinarily contains gross salary, taxable perquisites, eligible exemptions, deductions from salary, Chapter VI-A deductions where available, and the resulting tax calculation. It may also reflect other income or earlier employment details you supplied to the employer. Read the labels carefully because gross salary, income chargeable under salaries and total taxable income are different figures.

For example, gross salary of ₹10,00,000 does not automatically mean taxable income of ₹10,00,000. As of FY 2025-26, an eligible salaried person generally receives a standard deduction of ₹75,000 under the new regime or ₹50,000 under the old regime. Other adjustments depend on the regime and actual eligibility. Verify these limits on the official portal, and do not subtract a deduction again if the salary figure already includes it.

How do you download Form 16?

Start with your employer’s payroll portal, HR system or finance team. Employers obtain the relevant certificate through TRACES and provide it to employees, commonly as a digitally signed PDF. There is no general employee facility on the income tax e-filing portal that creates a missing employer-issued Form 16. Downloading AIS, Form 26AS or a prefilled return is useful, but none of these documents is a substitute for the employer’s certificate.

If a PDF is password protected, use the password instructions supplied by payroll rather than guessing or uploading the document to an unknown unlocking website. Save the original file and any correction separately, with the financial year clearly identified. Before sharing it with a lender, adviser or service provider, remember that it contains sensitive information about salary, PAN and employment. Use a secure channel and share only what the recipient genuinely needs.

When must your employer issue Form 16?

Under the FY 2025-26 framework, an employer that deducted salary tax is generally required to issue Form 16 by 15 June following the financial year, subject to an officially notified extension. For salary earned during FY 2025-26, that ordinarily means 15 June 2026. Check the official portal for any applicable extension. Where no salary tax was deducted, the employer is not generally required to issue this TDS certificate merely because someone was employed.

If the certificate has not arrived, write to payroll with your employee number, PAN and financial year. Ask whether the annual TDS reporting and certificate generation are complete. Keep a record of the request, particularly when deducted tax is also absent from Form 26AS. An employer’s delay does not automatically extend your return filing deadline. You may need to prepare the return from reliable records while separately pursuing the missing certificate and credit correction.

How do you match Form 16 with Form 26AS and AIS?

Use Form 26AS to check the tax credits reported against your PAN and AIS to review a broader picture of reported financial information. Compare employer identity, salary TDS and the relevant year. AIS can also reveal bank interest, dividends or transactions that payroll never considered. A difference does not always mean tax evasion or a demand: it may reflect duplicate reporting, timing, an incorrect PAN or a genuine reporting error.

Suppose Form 16 shows ₹70,000 of TDS but Form 26AS shows ₹55,000. Do not simply change your salary to force the figures to agree. Ask the employer to identify and correct the missing ₹15,000 credit, and retain payslips, the certificate and correspondence. Where AIS information is incorrect, submit appropriate feedback through the portal. Feedback does not by itself correct the employer’s TDS statement, so the two processes may both be necessary.

How do you use Form 16 while filing your ITR?

First select the return form that fits your complete income profile, not merely the fact that you receive a salary. Then compare the prefilled salary information with Part B and your own records. Report salary, eligible exemptions and deductions in their proper fields. Add bank interest, rental income, capital gains and any other taxable income separately. Finally, verify the TDS schedule against Form 26AS and check the bank account intended for a refund.

Consider an employee with taxable salary of ₹9,25,000 and savings interest of ₹12,000. The return cannot stop at the salary number merely because Form 16 looks complete. The interest must also be considered, with any deduction depending on regime and eligibility. Check the final computation before paying self-assessment tax or submitting the return. Submission alone is not completion: finish verification within the permitted period and preserve the acknowledgement with your supporting calculation.

What if you changed jobs or selected a different regime?

Collect a certificate from every employer that deducted tax during the year. Add salary from all employments, including taxable bonuses and final settlements, while avoiding duplication where the later employer already considered earlier salary. You cannot claim a separate annual standard deduction for each job. Multiple employers may each calculate TDS using incomplete information, leaving a balance payable even when every payslip shows that tax was deducted during the year.

Your employer’s regime selection for TDS does not always determine the regime you must use in the return. A person without business or professional income can generally choose annually, subject to the applicable return rules and filing deadline. Business-income cases have additional option requirements and switching restrictions. If you change regimes, recalculate the entire return rather than copying Part B mechanically. Keep evidence for any old-regime claim that payroll did not allow.

What should you do if Form 16 is wrong or unavailable?

Ask for correction when the certificate shows an incorrect PAN, missing employment period, wrong salary or an unsupported deduction. Explain the discrepancy with documents rather than a broad request to reduce tax. Payroll may need to correct its TDS statement before issuing an updated certificate. Keep both versions and identify which one supports the filed return. Never edit the PDF yourself to create the appearance of an employer-certified correction.

If the employer has closed or refuses to help, reconstruct salary from payslips, bank credits, appointment terms, reimbursement records and the tax information available online. Filing without Form 16 is possible when the return is accurate and supported. A missing certificate does not make salary tax free, and a certificate does not excuse an incorrect return. For a disputed TDS credit or department notice, seek advice using the actual records and relevant portal communication.