Key idea
The single most important tax document your employer gives you: a certificate of the tax deducted from your salary, and the basis for your return.
Form 16 is the certificate your employer issues each year showing how much salary you were paid and how much tax was deducted and deposited on your behalf. It arrives after the financial year ends and is the foundation for filing your return.
Its two parts
Part A
- Employer and your PAN / TAN
- Quarterly TDS deducted
- Tax deposited with the government
- Generated from the TDS system
Part B
- Full salary breakup
- Exemptions and deductions claimed
- Taxable income and tax computed
- The detailed working
Why you should check it
Form 16 is what you carry into your ITR, so errors here follow you. Match the tax in Part A against your own Form 26AS or AIS (the tax department's record of tax credited to your PAN). If your employer deducted tax but it does not show as deposited, that is a problem to raise early.
If you changed jobs in a year, you get a Form 16 from each employer. Filing then means combining both, a common source of confusion covered in the job-switch lessons.
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