To check advance tax paid, you have four places to look: the Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the income tax e-filing portal, the Form 26AS tax credit statement, the Payment History tab under e-Pay Tax on the same portal, and the OLTAS challan status inquiry on the Protean TIN-NSDL website. Each pulls from slightly different data, so if a deposit seems missing, cross-checking two sources usually tells you whether the payment is truly absent or just slow to reflect.
What to Have Ready Before You Log In
Your Permanent Account Number is the key to every record. It is the ten-digit alphanumeric code the Income Tax Department uses to link every payment, TDS credit, and return to you.1Income Tax Department – Mumbai Region. About PAN
Know the correct Assessment Year for what you’re checking. Income earned in Financial Year 2025–26 (April 2025 through March 2026) belongs to Assessment Year 2026–27. Picking the wrong year is one of the most common reasons a payment looks missing when it actually posted to a different period.
For the e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in, you need a registered account. New users can register with their PAN and a one-time password sent to the linked mobile number or email. The TIN-NSDL challan inquiry needs no login, but it does need the details from your challan receipt: the BSR code of the bank branch, the date of deposit, and the challan serial number.
Checking Through the Annual Information Statement
The AIS is the widest view of your tax data. It consolidates income, financial transactions, TDS credits, and tax payments reported by banks, employers, and other institutions for a given financial year.2Income Tax Department. Annual Information Statement
Log in at incometax.gov.in, open the Services tab, and click “Annual Information Statement (AIS).” Select the relevant financial year and the portal loads your statement.3Income Tax Department. FAQs on AIS (Annual Information Statement) Inside AIS, look at the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS), a category-wise aggregation that includes tax payments. TIS shows a system-processed value next to a taxpayer-accepted value; the accepted values feed the pre-filled return, so confirming them here saves trouble later.
Click into the tax payment category to see each advance tax installment with its date, amount, and reporting status. If something looks wrong, AIS lets you submit feedback on the transaction directly.
Checking Through Form 26AS
Form 26AS is your official tax credit statement, a consolidated ledger of every tax amount credited to your PAN: TDS deducted by employers and banks, TCS collected, and taxes you paid directly, including advance tax and self-assessment tax.4Income Tax Department. View Tax Credit Mismatch FAQs During assessment, the department treats Form 26AS as the definitive record of what you have already paid.
To view it, log in to the e-filing portal, go to e-File, then Income Tax Returns, and click “View Form 26AS.” The portal redirects you to the TDS-CPC site.5Income Tax Department. View Tax Credit Statement (Form 26AS) Agree to the terms, then select the Assessment Year and a format (HTML to view, PDF to save).
Advance tax and self-assessment tax entries appear in Part C. Each row shows the BSR code of the collecting bank branch, the challan serial number, the deposit date, and the amount. If a payment you made isn’t listed, the bank may not have uploaded it yet, or the challan may carry a data entry error.
Viewing Payment History on the e-Filing Portal
If you paid online through the portal’s own e-Pay Tax gateway, this is the fastest confirmation. Log in, open e-Pay Tax, and click the Payment History tab.6Income Tax Department. Tax Payment Modes under e-Pay Tax You’ll see a chronological list of every tax deposit attempted through the portal with its current status.
A confirmed status means the treasury received the funds, and you can download the challan receipt right from this screen. This tool is especially useful immediately after a payment, since Form 26AS and AIS can take a few days to catch up. A failed or pending status means the payment did not go through and you’ll need to retry or ask your bank.
Checking Challan Status on the TIN-NSDL Portal
The Protean TIN-NSDL site offers an independent verification tool that does not need an e-filing account. Use it if you paid at a bank counter or want to confirm the bank properly reported your deposit to the tax department’s central database.7Tax Information Network. OLTAS
Go to the OLTAS challan status inquiry page and choose “CIN Based View.” Enter the BSR code of the bank branch, the deposit date, and the challan serial number from your receipt.8Tax Information Network. OLTAS-Challan Status Inquiry The BSR code is a seven-digit number the Reserve Bank of India assigns to each branch, printed on the challan acknowledgment. If the inquiry returns a match, the bank has uploaded the payment and it should reach Form 26AS shortly.
When Installments Were Due
Cross-checking payments against the statutory schedule helps you notice missing deposits. Under Section 211 of the Income Tax Act, companies pay in four installments (15% by June 15, 45% cumulative by September 15, 75% by December 15, and 100% by March 15). Individuals, HUFs, and other non-company taxpayers pay in three: 30% by September 15, 60% cumulative by December 15, and 100% by March 15. Anything paid on or before March 31 still counts as advance tax for that year.9Income Tax Department. Income-tax Act, 1961 – Section 211
If a Payment Doesn’t Show Up
Deposits usually appear in Form 26AS and AIS within a few business days of the bank uploading the data. If a payment is still missing after a week or two, run the TIN-NSDL challan inquiry first. If OLTAS also can’t find it, contact the bank branch where you paid and ask them to confirm the challan was uploaded to the OLTAS system.
If the payment posted but with wrong details, such as the wrong PAN, assessment year, or tax type, submit a challan correction request through the e-filing portal. Corrections are available for challans from Assessment Year 2020–21 onward, and only one correction is allowed per challan.10Income Tax Department. Challan Correction Request User Manual The windows are tight: 30 days from the deposit date to change the major or minor head, and only 7 days to change the assessment year. Miss those, or need a second correction, and you’ll have to approach your Jurisdictional Assessing Officer in person.
Keep every challan receipt, physical or digital, until the assessment for that year is complete. It’s your proof if the department’s records disagree with yours.
Why This Verification Matters
Underpayment penalties are automatic. Under Section 234B, if your advance tax paid during the year is less than 90% of your assessed liability, simple interest at 1% per month runs on the shortfall from April 1 of the assessment year until you pay the balance or the assessment is completed.11Income Tax Department. Interest and Fees
Section 234C adds a separate layer for missing individual installment deadlines: 1% per month on the shortfall for three months, or one month for the final installment. The return processing system computes these charges from the same Form 26AS and AIS records described above. Fixing a missing or misallocated payment before you file is far easier than contesting an interest charge after assessment.
One boundary worth noting: resident senior citizens aged 60 or above who have no income from a business or profession are exempt from advance tax under Section 207, so there may be nothing to verify in the first place.12Income Tax Department. Senior Citizens and Super Senior Citizens for AY 2026-2027