Annual information return obligation requires reporting specified financial transactions to the tax authority within prescribed time and format. Persons responsible for registering or maintaining records of prescribed transactions must furnish an annual information return to the prescribed income-tax authority for specified financial transactions recorded in a financial year, within the prescribed time and in the prescribed form and electronic media. Specified financial transaction includes prescribed transactions such as purchase, sale, services, works contracts, investments, expenditures, and loans or deposits, subject to Board-prescribed values and a minimum annual aggregate threshold. Defective returns may be intimated for rectification and, if unrectified, treated as invalid; non-filing may attract a notice requiring filing within a stipulated period.