Overview of Tax Information Network of Income Tax Department

Income Tax Department has set up a Tax Information Network (TIN) as a repository of important tax related information. National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) hosts TIN. TIN receives on behalf of the tax administration, all returns of tax deduction at source (TDS) & other information for digitization into a central database. TIN receives online information on collection of taxes from the banks through “Online Tax Accounting System” (OLTAS), which also flows into the central database.
TIN matches TDS returns from the deductors with the collection details from the banks (through OLTAS). On the basis of this matched data a PAN wise electronic ledger account is prepared with the details of tax credits. This PAN ledger (called Form 26 AS) is made available to the taxpayers so that they can verify whether the deductors have deposited the tax in a timely fashion. The taxpayers also have the facility of accessing the TIN system to ascertain tax payments made by them or deducted on their behalf through Form 26AS. The digitized information is downloaded to the National Computer Center of the Income Tax Department for further processing.
Details on Challan Correction Mechanism available in pdf format at Income Tax Website ChallanCorrectionMechanism(pdf)