Form 16 Explained (2026): Download, Parts, Due Date & ITR

If you are a salaried employee and are about to file your return, then you have probably typed in “what is Form 16” on Google at least once this month. Form 16 means simple, it is the TDS certificate your employer gives you every year to prove how much tax has been deducted from your salary and deposited with the government. But the nitty-gritty (Form 16 Part A, Part B, the due date, where to get the Form 16 PDF and how it ties up with your ITR filing) trips up even those who have been filing returns for years. We’ve created this guide after helping hundreds of salaried clients answer these exact questions every tax season, and we’re answering them the same way we would to a client across the desk from us.

What Is Form 16?

Form 16 is a TDS certificate issued by your employer under Section 203 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, certifying the salary you earned and the tax deducted at source (TDS) under Section 192 during the financial year. It's not optional paperwork. Employers are legally required to issue it whenever they deduct TDS on salary, and you'll use it to confirm your income, verify TDS credits, and file an accurate ITR.

Think of Form 16 as your employer's signed statement to the tax department: "We paid this person ₹X, we deducted ₹Y as tax, and we deposited it." That's it. No mystery, no jargon just a record that ties your salary to the tax already paid on your behalf.

Where people get confused is mixing this up with a salary slip. Your monthly payslip is an accounting document from your employer's payroll system. Form 16 is a tax document, issued once a year, and only your employer can issue it. Not your accountant, not your bank, and definitely not some third-party website. You also cannot download Form 16 from the income tax portal directly. Your employer generates Part A from the government's TRACES portal, prepares Part B themselves, and then hands you the combined PDF.

Form 16 Part A and Part B: What's the Difference?

Form 16 has two parts. Part A is generated from the TRACES portal and carries the official TDS record: employer PAN/TAN, employee PAN, and quarter-wise tax deducted. Part B is prepared by the employer and breaks down your gross salary, exemptions, the standard deduction, and total tax computed.

These two halves serve different purposes, and knowing which one to check for saves a lot of back-and-forth with your HR team.

Comparison Table: Form 16 Part A vs Part B

If your Part A certificate number is missing or looks handwritten rather than system-generated, ask your employer to re-issue it - a Part A without the TRACES certificate number won't be accepted as valid proof during scrutiny.

Form 16 Due Date for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27)

The last date for employers to issue Form 16 for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) is June 15, 2026, under Rule 31(3) of the Income Tax Rules, 1962. This follows the May 31, 2026 deadline for filing the Q4 Form 24Q TDS return, after which Part A becomes available on TRACES for employers to download and issue.

Here's the sequence that determines when you actually get your hands on Form 16:

1. By May 31, 2026 :- Employer files Form 24Q (Q4: January–March 2026), the TDS return covering the last quarter of the financial year.

2. Late May 2026 :- Once the return is processed, Part A becomes available for download from TRACES.

3. Early June 2026 :- Employer prepares Part B using your final salary figures and declared deductions.

4. By June 15, 2026 :- The complete, signed Form 16 reaches you.

How to Download Form 16

You cannot download Form 16 directly from the income tax website or any third-party site. It's not a self-service document. Your employer downloads Part A from TRACES and prepares Part B, then shares the combined PDF with you, usually through the company's HR or payroll portal.

That said, here's what the actual process looks like end to end, whether you're an employee waiting for it or curious how your payroll team generates it:

1. Employers log into TRACES using their TAN-based credentials.

2. Employers download Part A for each employee once Q4's Form 24Q is processed.

3. Employer prepares Part B in the prescribed format, pulling in your salary breakup, HRA, LTA, and deductions you've declared (Section 80C, 80D, and so on).

4. Employer signs the certificate, ideally with a digital signature, and combines Part A and Part B into one PDF.

5. Employer shares the final PDF with you via email or an HR self-service portal, typically as a password-protected file (often your PAN plus date of birth).

If you have changed jobs during the year, you will get one Form 16 from each employer for the period you worked there. You need to combine the income from both when you file your return else you will under report your total salary income. Don’t file using just latest employer’s Form 16.

Lost your Form 16 of earlier year? Employers don’t tend to keep re-issuing old certificates forever, so always save the PDF when you get it, somewhere outside of your work email in case you lose access after leaving the company.

What is Inside Form 16

Beyond the two-part split, Form 16 contains a fairly predictable set of fields once you know what to look for:

• Employer and employee details - name, address, PAN, TAN

• Assessment year and period of employment with that employer

• Gross salary broken into basic pay, allowances, and perquisites

• Exemptions claimed under Section 10, such as HRA and LTA

• Standard deduction of ₹75,000 (applicable under both tax regimes for FY 2025-26)

• Deductions under Chapter VI-A - Section 80C, 80D, 80CCD, and others, if you've opted for the old regime

• Total taxable income and the tax computed

• TDS deducted and deposited, quarter by quarter

• Verification section with the employer's signature and designation

 Pro Tip: Cross-check the gross salary figure in Part B against your last payslip of the year (March 2026). Mismatches usually trace back to a missed reimbursement, an unaccounted bonus, or a perquisite that wasn't reported correctly.

Form 16 vs Form 16A vs Form 26AS vs AIS

Form 16 covers TDS on salary only. Form 16A covers TDS on non-salary payments like interest, rent, or professional fees. Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement (AIS) are government-maintained records pulling together TDS from every source, not just your employer.

People often assume these are interchangeable, and that assumption is exactly where filing errors creep in.

Comparison Table: Form 16 vs Related Tax Documents

In our experience, the most common notice triggers come from a mismatch between what Form 16 shows and what AIS reports, usually because someone reported salary income only and skipped a savings account interest entry that AIS had already flagged. Always reconcile Form 16 against your AIS before hitting submit on your return.

Can You File ITR Without Form 16?

Yes. Form 16 is helpful but not mandatory for filing your ITR. You can file using your monthly salary slips, Form 26AS, and AIS to reconstruct your income and TDS details - it just takes more manual cross-checking.

This matters if your employer is delayed, if you switched jobs and one employer is unresponsive, or if your salary was below the TDS threshold and no Form 16 was issued at all. A few scenarios worth knowing:

• No TDS deducted, so no Form 16 issued: Legally, employers only have to issue Form 16 if they deducted tax. If your income stayed under the exemption limit, you may not get one - file using payslips and Form 26AS instead.

• Employer delayed beyond June 15: You can still wait, but if the ITR deadline is approaching, start reconstructing your figures from payslips and AIS so you're not stuck idle.

• Switched employers mid-year: Request Form 16 from your previous employer well before you need to file; many companies take weeks to respond to ex-employees.

If you do end up filing without it, double-check every salary component against your AIS. That's the closest thing to a safety net you'll have without the employer's certificate in hand.

Common Mistakes in Form 16 (And How to Fix Them)

Errors in Form 16 are not as rare as employers like to claim. A few patterns show up again and again:

1. PAN mismatch between Form 16 and your actual PAN - this alone can stop your TDS credit from reflecting correctly in your return.

2. TDS amount in Part A not matching AIS - usually because the employer deposited tax late or made an error in the quarterly TDS return.

3. HRA exemption missing even though you're paying rent - common when you've opted for the new tax regime, where HRA exemption simply isn't available, or when you forgot to submit rent receipts on time.

4. Wrong assessment year mentioned on the certificate, especially during the kind of legislative transition we're seeing this year with the Income Tax Act 2025.

5. Previous employer's salary not combined when Form 16 is issued by a new employer mid-year.

Form 16 and the Income Tax Act 2025: What's Changing

The Income Tax Act, 2025 took effect from April 1, 2026, and renames the salary TDS certificate as Form 130 starting Tax Year 2026-27 onward. For FY 2025-26, employers still issue the familiar Form 16 under the 1961 Act provisions.

So if you're filing for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) right now, nothing changes for you - your certificate is still called Form 16, governed by the old Section 203 framework. The renaming to Form 130 only kicks in for income earned from April 1, 2026 onward, which you'll deal with next filing season. It's worth knowing now so you're not confused when next year's certificate looks different on paper, even though the underlying purpose stays identical.

How to File Your ITR Using Form 16

Filing your ITR using Form 16 mainly involves transferring figures from Part B into the matching sections of your ITR form, then verifying TDS against Form 26AS and AIS before submission.

1. Log in to the income tax e-filing portal and select the correct ITR form (ITR-1 for most salaried individuals with simple income).

2. Pre-fill your return. The portal usually auto-populates salary and TDS data sourced from your employer's TDS return.

3. Cross-check pre-filled figures against your Form 16 Part B line by line, especially gross salary and exemptions.

4. Add other income, such as savings interest, dividends, or capital gains, that Form 16 won't cover at all.

5. Claim deductions under Chapter VI-A if you're on the old regime, matching what's shown in Part B.

6. Reconcile TDS between Form 16, Form 26AS, and AIS. All three figures should match.

7. Compute tax payable or refund, pay any balance tax due, and submit.

8. E-verify your return within 30 days using Aadhaar OTP, net banking, or a similar method.

If your tax situation involves more than a salary, say freelance income, GST-registered business activity, or rental income, it's worth getting a professional to look over the return before submission rather than relying purely on the portal's auto-fill.

Key Takeaways

• Form 16 is your employer's TDS certificate for salary income: Part A from TRACES, Part B prepared manually.

• The Form 16 due date for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) is June 15, 2026.

• You can't download it yourself - only your employer can issue it.

• You can still file ITR without it using payslips, Form 26AS, and AIS.
• ​For FY 2025-26, the certificate stays Form 16; the renaming to Form 130 starts only from FY 2026-27 onward.
  
  
  

  Final Word

  Form 16 looks intimidating the first time you open the PDF, mostly because of how dense Part B can get. Once you know that Part A is just your TDS receipt and Part B is your salary breakup, the rest is filling in the right boxes and checking that the numbers agree with your AIS. If your Form 16 hasn't landed by mid-June, don't panic - start pulling your payslips and AIS together so you're ready to file the moment it arrives, or sooner if you decide not to wait. And if anything on the certificate looks off, get it corrected before you submit your return rather than after a notice shows up.

   

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