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Form 26AS shows a TDS entry against a deductor name and TAN the business does not recognise.
Trace the TAN and amount to a bank or platform credit, match it to booked income, and only then claim it; otherwise ask the deductor to correct the PAN.
A deductor master listing every customer, agent, bank and platform TAN, with their trading and legal names.
Each unknown entry tagged as matched income, wrong-PAN entry to report, or under investigation.
An entry from a company you have never heard of in your TDS credit statement (Form 26AS, or Form 168 from tax year 2026-27) is usually not a mystery. It is most often a payment agent paying on behalf of your customer, a bank or platform deducting on interest or payouts, a customer trading under a different name, or another deductor who typed your PAN by mistake. Do not claim it until you can tie it to income in your books.
What usually causes an unknown deductor entry?
| Cause | How to recognise it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Customer’s group company or payment agent paid you | Amount matches one of your invoices less TDS; date close to a bank credit | Match it to the invoice and claim it |
| Payment aggregator or marketplace deducting on payouts | Small amounts, often 0.1% of gross under Section 194O | Match to platform payout statements |
| Bank deducting on FD or savings interest | Deductor name is a bank branch; 10% of interest under Section 194A | Match to the interest certificate |
| Customer’s legal name differs from its brand | Name unfamiliar, but amount and dates fit a known customer | Update your deductor master |
| Wrong PAN quoted by another deductor | No invoice, no bank credit, nothing fits | Do not claim; tell the deductor |
How do I find out who the deductor is?
Work through these steps in order.
- Read the TAN. A TAN has ten characters, for example MUMA12345B. The first four letters show the jurisdiction and the fifth is the first letter of the deductor’s name.
- Search the name shown in Form 26AS. Check whether it is a parent, subsidiary or agent of a customer.
- Look at the amount. Divide it by common rates: 1%, 2%, 10% or 0.1%. If the gross works out to one of your invoices, you have your answer.
- Check the date against bank credits and platform payout reports for that month.
- Ask your sales team whether any customer pays through a third party.
If it is a wrong-PAN entry, can I simply ignore it?
Do not claim it. A TDS credit belongs only against income you have reported. But do not stay silent either. If the department sees a receipt against your PAN with no matching income, it may raise a query. Email the deductor (their contact is often findable from the name), state that you have no transaction with them, and ask them to correct the PAN in a revised return. Keep the email on file.
Worked example: a ₹6,500 entry from an unfamiliar TAN
A home-decor seller saw a ₹6,500 entry in Form 26AS for the quarter ending 31 December 2025, from a name it did not know. Here is how the accountant traced it.
- The deductor name was the legal entity behind a marketplace the seller used.
- ₹6,500 ÷ 0.1% = ₹65,00,000. That is the gross sales figure.
- The marketplace payout reports for October to December showed gross sales of ₹65,00,000 across 41 payouts.
- The seller’s books recorded the same ₹65,00,000 as sales.
So the entry was real. The seller recorded TDS receivable of ₹6,500 and updated the deductor master with the legal name and TAN, so next quarter’s entry would be matched straight away.
A second entry of ₹3,000 from a consultancy firm fitted nothing: ₹3,000 ÷ 10% = ₹30,000 and no invoice or credit matched. The accountant left it unclaimed and emailed the firm about a possible PAN error.
What to read next
- To match many deductors at once, read TDS multi-deductor reconciliation.
- When the total is short rather than extra, see the Form 168 shortfall investigation.
- For the reverse problem, read why your credit is missing when a customer quotes a wrong PAN.
For businesses with dozens of deductors, TransactIG reconciles every Form 26AS line to your TDS receivable ledger and flags unknown entries in an exception queue.