The CBDT has directed that foreign financial account information be included in your Annual Information Statement (AIS) through Form 168. Data received under India's international information-sharing agreements will now appear in your tax profile, including foreign bank accounts, dividends, and investment income. What this means for you depends on whether you're an NRI, RNOR, or resident taxpayer.
What changed: foreign account data in AIS Form 168
On 8 July 2026, CBDT issued Order No. 225/73/2025-ITA-II. It authorises the Director General of Income-tax (Systems), Delhi, to upload information India receives from foreign tax authorities into each taxpayer's AIS, now called Form 168 under the Income-tax Act, 2025. Before this, AIS mainly showed domestic transactions: salary, TDS, bank interest, mutual fund trades, and property deals. Foreign account information sat with the department but rarely reached the taxpayer's own AIS screen.
That foreign information arrives through AEOI, Automatic Exchange of Information. Most countries share this data under the OECD's Common Reporting Standard (CRS). The United States does not take part in CRS. Instead, India and the US exchange account data under a separate bilateral FATCA agreement signed in 2015. So if you bank in the US, the information the IRS already shares with India under FATCA is what is now likely to show up in your AIS, not CRS data.
Once uploaded, your AIS may start reflecting foreign bank accounts, interest or dividend income earned abroad, foreign shares and securities, and in some cases RSU or ESPP holdings tied to a foreign employer.
The government's own FAQ on Form 168 confirms the form replaced the earlier Form 26AS, with the corresponding section moving from 285BB under the old Income-tax Act to section 510 under the Income-tax Act, 2025.
The order also sets a clock. Information must be uploaded to AIS within 90 days from the end of the month in which the department receives it.
To clear the backlog, CBDT is uploading AEOI data for calendar years 2022, 2023, and 2024 within 90 days of the order itself, which puts it on track for around early October 2026. Data from 2025 onward follows the standard 90-day rule going forward.
| Residency status | Must disclose foreign assets in Schedule FA? | Affected by this AEOI upload? | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-resident (NR) | No | Not directly; foreign accounts stay outside Indian disclosure | Confirm your NR status is correctly recorded each year |
| RNOR (returning NRI, transition window) | Generally no, with limited exceptions | Indirectly; useful to reconcile before you become ROR | Track old accounts now before your RNOR window ends; see RNOR eligibility rules |
| Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) | Yes | Directly | Match AIS against Schedule FA every year |
How this affects NRIs
If you're a current NRI who stays non-resident
If you live and work abroad and qualify as a non-resident under Indian tax rules, this order does not create a new disclosure duty for you. Schedule FA, the section of the ITR where foreign assets get reported, applies only to Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) filers. Your US bank account, brokerage account, or 401(k) stays outside Indian tax disclosure as long as your NR status holds.
That does not mean your account is invisible everywhere. Your bank already reports it to the IRS under FATCA reporting, and the IRS can share that with India. What changes now is that this data may become visible inside India's AIS too, even though, as an NR, you are not required to act on it in your Indian return. Rahul, who has worked in New Jersey for six years and files as an NR in India, does not need to add his US brokerage account to any Indian tax form because of this update. He should still keep filing his US obligations correctly, but that is a US-side matter, not an India-side one.
If you're in your RNOR window or already ROR
The picture changes once you return to India and your residency status shifts. During your RNOR (Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident) window, foreign asset disclosure is still mostly relaxed, but the moment you become a full ROR, Schedule FA, Schedule FSI, and Schedule TR apply in full.
Priya moved back to Bengaluru from Seattle in 2024. She still holds RSUs from her old US employer, worth close to $45,000, along with a savings account she never closed. In FY 2026-27 she becomes ROR. Once that happens, both accounts belong in her ITR, and her AIS is likely to start showing the same balances and income the IRS and her US brokerage already reported to India under AEOI. If her AIS entry does not match what she actually holds, she needs to reconcile it before filing, not after receiving a notice.
For someone in Priya's position, the practical move is to line up a foreign asset disclosure checklist against what shows up in AIS, and to make sure those numbers flow correctly into her Schedule FA entries. This article stays focused on the AEOI upload itself. The residency mechanics behind RNOR and ROR status, including how the Income-tax Act, 2025 changed the transition rules, are covered in more depth elsewhere on the site.
Under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, failing to disclose a foreign asset can attract a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh. CBDT has clarified that this penalty does not apply if the aggregate value of foreign assets, other than immovable property, stays under Rs 20 lakh at any point in the year. That relief threshold does not remove the requirement to disclose. It only limits the penalty exposure for smaller holdings.
What you should do now
- Log in to the e-filing portal and open your AIS under Form No. 168. Check whether any foreign account, income, or investment entry has appeared that you were not expecting.
- If you are ROR, match every foreign entry against your Schedule FA, Schedule FSI, and Schedule TR filings from the past two years.
- If an entry looks wrong, duplicated, or does not belong to you, use the AIS feedback option to flag it rather than ignoring it.
- Do not wait for the CY2022-2024 backlog to land before checking older accounts. Pull your own foreign bank and brokerage statements now so you are not reconciling three years of data at once in October.
- If your residency status changed in the last two years, or you are unsure whether you count as NR, RNOR, or ROR this year, get that confirmed before ITR filing season opens. It decides whether any of this applies to you at all.
For the exact scope of what AIS and Form 168 show, the Income Tax Department's own FAQ on Form 168 is the most current official reference.
Conclusion
CBDT's 8 July 2026 order means foreign account data in AIS Form 168 is no longer theoretical. It is landing in taxpayer accounts now, with a backlog covering 2022 through 2024 due within 90 days. If you are ROR, check your AIS against Schedule FA before ITR season, not after a notice arrives. If you are NR, confirm your status is correct and move on. Either way, the single best action is to open your AIS today.
Frequently asked questions
Does this new AIS update apply to me if I currently live in the US as an NRI?
Only partly. If you qualify as a non-resident under Indian tax rules, you are not required to disclose foreign assets in Schedule FA, so this update does not create a new filing duty for you. Your account data may still appear in AIS because of AEOI, but that visibility alone does not change your Indian tax obligations while you remain NR.
What happens if I have more than $100,000 in a foreign account?
That threshold is a US filing trigger, not an Indian one. If you are a US person, an aggregate of more than $10,000 across foreign accounts already requires an FBAR filing with FinCEN, and balances over $100,000 can also trigger Form 8938 reporting to the IRS. This CBDT order is about what shows up in your Indian AIS, which is separate from your US reporting.
What if the AIS shows incorrect or duplicate foreign account information?
Log in to the AIS section of the e-filing portal, select the transaction, and use the feedback option to mark it as incorrect, duplicate, or not related to you. The department updates the Taxpayer Information Summary once your feedback is processed. Do not ignore a wrong entry, since it can otherwise sit unresolved in your tax profile.
What happens if I don't declare a foreign bank account in my return?
Non-disclosure by an ROR taxpayer can attract a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh under the Black Money Act, though CBDT has clarified this penalty does not apply if your total foreign assets, excluding immovable property, stay under Rs 20 lakh for the year. Large or repeated non-disclosure can also invite closer scrutiny now that AEOI data sits directly in your AIS.
Is it mandatory to disclose foreign assets in my ITR?
Yes, if you qualify as Resident and Ordinarily Resident (ROR) for that financial year. NR and, in most cases, RNOR filers are not required to complete Schedule FA. Your residency status for the year decides this, not how long you have held the asset.