Hiring & Verification

Salary Slip Verification: Which Income Proof Is Hardest to Fake?

How to verify a salary slip: payslips, bank statements, Form 16, Form 26AS and AIS ranked by how easily they can be altered, with the checks that catch an edited copy.

myutils.me15 Sept 20268 min read

Three documents on a podium, the strongest on top, with the words “Income proof: Hardest to fake”

A payslip is the easiest income proof to fake and AIS the hardest to fake at source, but the copy you receive matters more than the document's name. Any PDF the candidate downloads and forwards can be edited on the way. What makes a document hard to fake is a digital signature you can check, a second record you can match it against, or figures that reach you without passing through anyone's hands.

Here is how the common income proofs compare, and the checks that expose an altered copy.

The ranking at a glance

Proof	Who creates the data	How easily the copy can be altered	The check that helps most
Payslip	Employer's payroll, in any format	Very easily; templates are everywhere	Match each month's net pay to the bank credit
Bank statement PDF	The bank	Easily, once downloaded	Credit narration naming the employer; a statement sent by the bank
Form 16 without a digital signature	Employer (Part A through TRACES)	Easily	Match Part A's TDS to Form 26AS
Form 16 with a valid digital signature	Employer, signed by its authorised signatory	Any edit breaks the signature	A signature check on the original PDF
Form 26AS or AIS PDF	The Income Tax Department, from employers' TDS returns	The data is hard to fake; a downloaded copy can be edited	Compare with Form 16 and the payslips
Figures viewed in the candidate's own portal account	The Income Tax Department	Very hard, because no file changes hands	Screen share, or a consent-based share from the portal

Payslips: easy to make, useful only with a second record

Payslips have no standard format, and a convincing one takes minutes in a spreadsheet. On their own they prove little. They become useful when you check them against something the candidate didn't make.

Checks that catch most edited payslips:

The arithmetic. Net pay should equal gross pay minus PF, professional tax (in states that levy it), TDS and other deductions.
The PF figure. The employee's PF is usually 12% of basic pay, or 12% of a capped wage. A PF deduction that fits neither is a flag.
The bank credit. The net pay should appear in the salary account in the same month, usually with the employer's name in the narration.
The annual total. Twelve months of gross pay should be close to the gross salary in Form 16 and the salary in AIS for that employer.

A worked example. A payslip shows gross pay of ₹1,50,000 a month, basic ₹60,000, PF ₹7,200, professional tax ₹200 and TDS ₹24,150, with net pay of ₹1,18,450.

Arithmetic: ₹1,50,000 − ₹7,200 − ₹200 − ₹24,150 = ₹1,18,450. It adds up.
PF: 12% of ₹60,000 is ₹7,200. Consistent.
Bank: look for a credit of ₹1,18,450 that month from the employer.
Annual: twelve such months make ₹18,00,000. If the candidate's AIS shows ₹12,00,000 of salary from that employer for a full year, the payslips and the tax record disagree, and you should ask why before deciding anything.

Form 16: harder to fake when it is digitally signed

Form 16 is the salary TDS certificate. Part A, with the employer's TAN and the tax deducted each quarter, is generated through TRACES, the TDS system of the Income Tax Department. Part B, the salary breakup and tax computation, is prepared by the employer.

Many employers sign Form 16 with a digital signature certificate. If the PDF you receive carries a valid signature, any change made after signing breaks it, and a PDF reader shows the document as modified or the signature as invalid. You can check this in Adobe Acrobat Reader or with our free PDF signature checker. The PDF stays on your device and is checked against India's CCA root certificates. Our post on how digital signatures work in India explains what a valid result proves.

What a valid signature doesn't tell you:

It shows the file is unchanged since it was signed, and who signed it. It doesn't prove the figures were right when signed.
A printed and scanned Form 16, or a PDF "printed to PDF" again, loses the signature. Ask for the original file.

An unsigned Form 16 is only as reliable as a payslip. Check Part A's TDS against Form 26AS. Our guide to checking whether a Form 16 is genuine walks through both checks.

The Form 16 for FY 2025-26, issued by June 2026, falls under the Income-tax Act, 1961. Salary paid from April 2026 is under the Income-tax Act, 2025, and its certificate is Form 130 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. See what changes for Form 16.

Form 26AS and AIS: the data is hard to fake, the PDF isn't

Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement (AIS) are compiled by the Income Tax Department from what deductors and reporting entities file against the candidate's PAN. Salary appears there because the employer reported it in its TDS returns. A candidate can't change those figures; only the employer can, by filing a correction. Our explainer on AIS, TIS and Form 26AS covers what each one contains.

Once downloaded, though, AIS and Form 26AS are PDFs like any other. If the copy you receive carries no digital signature you can check, it is only as trustworthy as whoever forwarded it.

Limits to keep in mind:

AIS shows what employers reported. An employer that filed late or wrongly can make a genuine figure look low.
The current year fills in quarter by quarter, so the latest year is incomplete until the TDS returns are filed.
AIS shows the salary each employer reported, not the payslip breakup into basic pay, allowances and deductions.

The hardest to fake: figures that never pass through a file

The figures are hardest to alter when the candidate shows them from their own portal account, for example on a screen share, or shares them directly from it. Then no file passes through anyone's hands. A screen share works for a single check, but gives you nothing to keep.

With Greenflag by myutils.me, the employer sends a request and the candidate signs in with the invited email. They sync their own PAN, preview the figures and choose what to share. The employer gets a read-only view of the candidate's own AIS, TIS and ITR figures for the categories shared. These are the candidate's tax records shared with consent, so the AIS limits above still apply. Discuss any gap with the candidate. The employer guide shows the steps, and how employers verify past salary covers what candidates can reasonably decline.

FAQ

Which is more reliable, Form 16 or AIS?

AIS comes from the Income Tax Department's records, while Form 16 Part B is prepared by the employer. A Form 16 with a valid digital signature is hard to alter. A downloaded AIS PDF without a checkable signature can be edited. Matching the two is stronger than relying on either alone.

How can I tell if a Form 16 PDF was edited?

Open the original PDF in a signature-aware reader or a PDF signature checker. A valid signature means the file is unchanged since signing. "Modified" or "invalid" means it changed after signing. No signature means you need another check, such as matching TDS to Form 26AS.

Can a candidate change their AIS?

They can't edit the reported figures. They can give feedback on an entry on the portal, which is recorded separately from the reported value. A downloaded PDF copy can still be edited outside the portal.

Are payslips worth asking for at all?

Yes, for the monthly breakup, but only together with the bank credits or a tax record for the same period.

Is a scanned Form 16 acceptable?

A scan loses the digital signature, so it can't be checked that way. Ask for the original PDF, or match it against Form 26AS or AIS.

Sources

Income Proof
Form 16
AIS
Payslip
Document Fraud
Digital Signature
Form 26AS

myutils.me

Written by the team behind myutils.me, a free, independent app that brings ITR status, refunds and AIS/TIS for each PAN into one dashboard. Check anything important against the Income Tax portal before you act on it.