Most investors remember selling shares during the year. What they often miss is that every sale must be reported in the ITR with the exact buy price, sell price, and holding period. The Income Tax Department already has this data. It is pulled directly from CDSL and NSDL and reflected in your Annual Information Statement (AIS). If your ITR does not match your AIS, you will receive a notice.

This article covers what a Demat transaction statement is, why it matters for income tax filing, how to download it from your broker, CDSL, NSDL, and the Income Tax portal, and what to do after you have it. It also covers dividend income, capital loss carry-forward, and how to upload your statement to filing tools like ClearTax.

What Is a Demat Transaction Statement?

A Demat transaction statement is a record of every activity in your Demat account over a selected period. Every share you bought, sold, transferred, or received through a corporate action like a bonus issue or stock split appears in this document.

This is different from a holdings statement, which only shows what you currently own. The transaction statement shows the full history, when you bought, at what price, when you sold, and what you received. That history determines your capital gains calculation and your tax liability.

For income tax purposes, two documents are relevant:

Capital Gains Statement or Tax P&L Report — Generated by your stockbroker. Gains and losses are pre-calculated. This is what you enter directly into your ITR.
Consolidated Account Statement (CAS) — Generated by CDSL or NSDL. Covers all your Demat holdings and transactions across all brokers in one place. Does not calculate tax liability automatically, but it is the right document for verification.

Start with your broker’s capital gains report. Use the CAS to verify that nothing is missing.

Why This Statement Is Required for ITR Filing Capital Gains Tax

When you sell shares, the profit is taxed as a capital gain. The tax rate depends on the holding period.

Short-Term Capital Gain (STCG): Shares held for less than 12 months. Taxed at 20% under Section 111A (revised from 15% effective July 23, 2024).
Long-Term Capital Gain (LTCG): Shares held for 12 months or more. LTCG above Rs. 1.25 lakh taxed at 12.5% under Section 112A (revised from 10% effective July 23, 2024).

Both must be reported under Schedule CG of your ITR, even if the total gain falls below the taxable threshold.

Capital Loss Carry-Forward

If you made a loss on shares this year, report it in your ITR even if your total income is below the taxable limit. Capital losses can be carried forward for up to eight years and offset against future capital gains, which reduces your tax outgo in subsequent years. You lose this benefit permanently if you do not report the loss in the year it occurred.

Dividend Income

Dividends received from Indian companies are fully taxable as income from other sources at your applicable slab rate. If a company pays more than Rs. 5,000 in dividends in a financial year, they deduct 10% TDS before crediting your account. You must report the full gross dividend amount in your ITR, not just the post-TDS figure. Check your AIS and Form 26AS for the complete dividend and TDS picture.

AIS Cross-Check Requirement

The Income Tax Department collects transaction data from CDSL and NSDL and populates it in your AIS. Mismatches between your ITR and AIS trigger notices. For mutual fund investors specifically, the AIS sometimes shows duplicate entries because it pulls data from both the fund house and the registrar. Do not accept AIS figures for mutual fund transactions at face value. Always reconcile against your CAMS or KFintech capital gains statement before filing.

Which ITR Form Applies to You?

Using the wrong ITR form is one of the most common errors among first-time filers. If you have done even one delivery-based trade during the year, you cannot file ITR-1.

Investor Type	ITR Form
Salaried with capital gains, no business income	ITR-2
Active trader with intraday or F&O income	ITR-3
Only salary, no capital gains, no trading	ITR-1
Business owner with capital gains	ITR-3
NRI with capital gains from Indian equities	ITR-2

How to Download Your Demat Transaction Statement

Important: Always set the date range from 1 April to 31 March of the relevant financial year when downloading any statement. Using the calendar year (January to December) is the most common download error.

From Alice Blue

Log in to your Alice Blue account on the web or mobile app
Go to the Reports section from the main menu
Select Tax P&L or Capital Gains Report
Set the date range to 1 April to 31 March of the relevant financial year
Download in PDF or Excel format

From CDSL

Visit cdslindia.com and go to the CAS section
Enter your PAN and 16-digit Demat account number
Enter your date of birth and verify with the OTP sent to your registered mobile number
Select the financial year date range
Download the PDF

You can also request the CAS to be emailed to your registered email address from the CDSL website without logging in.

From NSDL

Visit the NSDL website and go to the CAS section
Enter your 14-digit Demat account number and PAN
Select the financial year period
Download the statement

Via DigiLocker

Log in to digilocker.gov.in
Search for CDSL in the document section
Select Consolidated Account Statement
Enter your 16-digit Demat ID and PAN to retrieve the document

For Mutual Funds Outside the Demat Route

If you invest in mutual funds through a regular plan not held in Demat form, those transactions are not in your Demat statement. Download your mutual fund capital gains statement from camsonline.com (for CAMS-serviced funds) or kfintech.com (for KFintech-serviced funds). These are free to download using your PAN.

How to Download Your AIS from the Income Tax Portal

Log in to incometax.gov.in with your PAN and password
Click on Annual Information Statement under the Services menu
Download the AIS as PDF or JSON
Compare the figures with your broker’s capital gains report line by line

The AIS shows every transaction the department has on record, including equity sales, dividends, mutual fund redemptions, and interest income. Also, check Form 26AS on the same portal. It shows TDS deducted from your income, including the 10% TDS on dividends above Rs. 5,000. Use Form 26AS to ensure you are claiming the correct TDS credit in your ITR.

If your broker statement and AIS show different figures, find the source of the mismatch before you file. Filing with unexplained discrepancies is what leads to scrutiny notices.

How to Upload Your Capital Gains Statement on ClearTax

ClearTax allows you to upload your broker’s Excel file and auto-populate the capital gains schedule instead of entering each transaction manually.

Log in to your ClearTax account
Go to Income from Capital Gains
Select Import from Broker
Choose your broker from the list (Zerodha, Groww, Alice Blue, and others are supported)
Upload the Excel file downloaded from your broker
ClearTax maps the data to the correct ITR fields automatically

Review the imported figures before proceeding. Do not assume the upload has captured everything correctly, particularly if you have transactions from multiple brokers.

A Practical Example

Rajan is a software engineer in Bengaluru who invests in large-cap stocks alongside his salary income.

Scenario 1:

In September 2023, he bought 150 shares at Rs. 480 each (total: Rs. 72,000). In December 2024, he sold all 150 shares at Rs. 680 each (total: Rs. 1,02,000). Holding period: 15 months. This is a Long-Term Capital Gain of Rs. 30,000. Since Rs. 30,000 is below the Rs. 1.25 lakh LTCG exemption limit, he owes no tax on this transaction. He must still report it under Schedule CG in ITR-2.

Scenario 2:

He also bought shares of another company at Rs. 300 each and sold them at Rs. 220 each within 8 months — a Short-Term Capital Loss of Rs. 8,000. He reports this loss in his ITR. He can carry it forward for up to eight years and set it off against any future STCG, reducing his taxable gains in a later year.

He also received Rs. 6,500 in dividends, on which Rs. 650 TDS was deducted. He reports the full Rs. 6,500 as income from other sources and claims the Rs. 650 TDS credit using Form 26AS.

He downloads the Tax P&L report for FY 2024-25 from his broker, cross-checks the figures against his AIS on the Income Tax portal, uploads the Excel to ClearTax, and completes his ITR in one sitting.

Demat Statement vs. Capital Gains Statement

Feature	CAS from CDSL or NSDL	Capital Gains Report from Broker
Source	CDSL or NSDL depository	Your stockbroker’s platform
What it shows	All buy, sell, and transfer activity	Pre-calculated gains and losses
Gain calculation	Not automatic	Done for you
Best used for	Verification and audit trail	Direct ITR entry
Covers all brokers	Yes	No, only that specific broker
Covers mutual funds	Yes, if held in Demat form	Depends on the broker
Format	PDF	PDF and Excel

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Wrong date range. Use 1 April to 31 March, not January to December.
Holdings statement instead of a transaction statement. A holdings statement shows what you currently own. It does not record what you sold. Download the Tax P&L, Capital Gains, or Transaction Statement specifically.
Intraday trades are clubbed with delivery trades. Intraday profits are speculative business income, not capital gains. They belong in a different section of ITR-3. If you have done intraday trading, it will appear separately in your broker’s report. Treat it separately in your ITR.
Not reporting capital losses. Even if you owe no tax, report your losses. You lose the eight-year carry-forward benefit if you skip this.
Not reporting gains below the exemption limit. If your LTCG is Rs. 60,000, you owe no tax but must still declare it under Schedule CG. Skipping it creates an AIS mismatch.
Accepting AIS figures for mutual funds without verification. AIS can show duplicate entries for mutual fund redemptions. Always reconcile against your CAMS or KFintech statement before you enter figures in your ITR.
Forgetting to e-verify after filing. Filing your ITR is not enough. You must e-verify the return within 30 days of filing. You can do this using an Electronic Verification Code (EVC) generated through your Demat account on the Income Tax portal. An unverified ITR is treated as invalid.

Who Needs This Statement

Salaried investors who bought and sold shares at any point during the year cannot file ITR-1. They need ITR-2 and the capital gains statement to fill Schedule CG correctly.
Active traders with dozens of transactions during the year cannot calculate gains manually without errors. The broker’s Tax P&L report is the only practical option.
First-time ITR filers with a Demat account often do not realise that any delivery-based trade changes must be filed with the ITR form. This statement is the starting point.
NRIs with Indian equity holdings must report capital gains from Indian stocks in their Indian ITR and can use the CAS from CDSL or NSDL alongside their broker’s report.

ITR Filing Deadline for FY 2025-26

The deadline to file ITR for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) is:

July 31, 2026, for individuals, HUFs, and non-audit taxpayers filing ITR-1 and ITR-2
August 31, 2026, for non-audit taxpayers filing ITR-3 and ITR-4
December 31, 2026, for belated or revised returns

Late filing attracts a penalty of Rs. 1,000 for income below Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 5,000 for income above Rs. 5 lakh under Section 234F, plus interest on any unpaid tax. Start downloading your statements in May or early June. If there is a mismatch between your broker statement and your AIS, you need time to investigate and correct it before filing.

Conclusion

Download your broker’s capital gains report, cross-check it against your AIS, verify dividend income and TDS in Form 26AS, and confirm your mutual fund figures with CAMS or KFintech. These steps, done before you open the ITR form, remove the guesswork and protect you from notices. The documents are free, available online, and take under 30 minutes to gather. Do not leave this for the last week of July.