Every taxpayer should verify and validate the TDS certificate before claiming any tax deduction.

Once you have received a TDS certificate it is important to ensure its validity. Apart from validating the digital signatures on the TDS certificates received by you, there is another way to verify the document.

In a financial year, an individual can receive four types of TDS certificates:
Form 16 - from his/her employer for tax deducted on the salary income
Form 16A - from a bank for tax deducted on interest income on fixed deposits.
Form 16B - Issued by the buyer of a property to the seller for tax deducted at source (TDS) on the payment made for the property to the seller.
Form 16C - Issued by a tenant to the landlord for tax deducted at source on monthly rental exceeding Rs 50,000.

Once you have received a TDS certificate, check that it has the TRACES logo. TRACES stands for TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System of the income tax department. Apart from downloading Form 26AS, the TRACES website also helps verify the validity of the TDS certificate received by you.

The digital signature on your TDS certificate should also be verified. If you have doubts about the TDS certificate received by you, then you can check the validity of the same on the TRACES website.

Chartered Accountant Naveen Wadhwa, DGM, Taxmann.com says, "Every person (i.e., deductor) required to deduct tax as per Income-tax Act has to file TDS return to the Income-tax department providing details of the payee (i.e., deductee) & the amount of tax deducted by him. Consequently, he shall be required to issue TDS certificate in Form 16 Part A and Part B (in respect of salary income) or Form 16A (in respect of income other than salary) to the deductee. The TDS certificate is required to be issued by the deductor by downloading it from the TRACES website. Recently, the department has made mandatory for employers to issue even Part-B of Form 16 by downloading it from TRACES. Hence, deductor cannot use any third party software for issuance of TDS certificate."

To check the fake TDS certificates issued by deductor, the department has provided a functionality to validate the TDS certificates. Wadhwa explains that a taxpayer can validate the TDS certificate issued by his deductor while downloading Form 26AS through the TRACES website by providing the following information:-
a) TAN of deductor

b) Assessment Year
c) TDS amount deducted as per certificate
d) TDS certificate number
e) Source of income (salary or non-salary)

"Hence, every taxpayer should use this functionality and validate the TDS certificate before claiming tax credit on basis thereof," Wadhwa added.

Follow the steps below to verify the TDS certificate's validity.

Step 1: Visit www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
Step 2: Login to your account. User ID is your PAN
Step 3: Under the 'My Account' tab, click on 'View Form 26AS (Tax Credit)'. You will be redirected to the TRACES website.

Step 4: On the TRACES website, click on 'Verify TDS certificate' under the 'View/Verify Tax Credit' tab.

Step 5: Enter the details: TAN of the Deductor, Assessment year, TDS amount deducted per certificate, TDS certificate number, Source of Income. All these details are available in your TDS certificate except for source of income. It is a drop down menu where you are required to select whether income's source is salary or non-salary.

Step 6: Click on validate.

If the TDS certificate received by you is valid, then the website will show the same result. However, if the website shows, that TDS certificate is not valid, then you must contact the tax deductor and ask for a valid TDS certificate.