New Delhi: The deadline to link Permanent Account Number (PAN) card and the Aadhaar card has been extended to June 30, 2023.
In a notification on Tuesday, the Finance Ministry said that from July 1, 2023, all unlinked PAN cards shall become inoperative. Besides, (i) No refund shall be made against such PANs; (ii) Interest shall not be payable on such refund for the period during which PAN remains inoperative; (iii) TDS and TCS shall be deducted /collected at a higher rate, as provided in the Act.
Earlier, the last date to link the PAN card and Aadhaar card was March 31, 2023. A recent tweet from the Income Tax Department stated: “As per IT Act, 1961, it is mandatory for all PAN holders, to link their PAN with Aadhaar before 31.3.23. From 1.4.23, the unlinked PAN shall become inoperative. Please link today!”
Earlier, even the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had asked investors to ensure that their PAN Card is linked with Aadhaar by March 31, 2023 or investors will not be able to initiate any transactions in financial markets like NSE and BSE. It has issued repeated reminders to everyone to ensure that the necessary linking is done.
The Income-tax Department of India proposed to link Aadhaar cards with PAN cards to address the issue of duplication of PAN cards. Earlier, the IT Department identified cases where one person had multiple PANs, or where one PAN number was allotted to multiple individuals. This, the IT Department said, resulted in inaccuracies in the tax collection process. Therefore, in order to bring in a transparent method of de-duplication of the PAN database, Aadhaar- PAN linking was made mandatory.
Once done, the Centre intends to verify the identity of taxpayers, prevent tax evasion, and ensure compliance with tax laws. Aadhaar has the unique identification number and biometric data of Indian residents, linking both identity proofs can help in eliminating fake and duplicate PANs, thereby increasing the efficiency of the tax system.
PAN-Aadhaar linking is not required for NRIs, individuals who are not citizens of India, senior citizens aged above 80 years and residents of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu Kashmir.
How to check PAN-Aadhaar linking status
Taxpayers can check their PAN-Aadhaar linking status by either visiting the Income Tax e-filing portal or by sending an SMS.
1. Open the Income Tax e-filing portal landing page.
2. Search for the ‘Quick Links’ option on the homepage.
3. Select ‘Aadhaar status.’
4. You will be redirected to a page where you have to login your PAN and Aadhaar numbers.
5: Once done, the server will check the PAN-Aadhaar link status, and you will receive a message on your status.
6: In case your PAN and Aadhaar cards are not linked, the message will say, “PAN not linked with Aadhaar. Please click on ‘Link Aadhaar’ to link your Aadhaar with PAN.”
7: If the linking process is on, the taxpayers shall receive this message: “Your Aadhaar-PAN linking request has been sent to UIDAI for validation. Please check the status later by clicking on ‘Link Aadhaar Status’ link on Home Page.”
8. Once done, a confirmation message will be displayed on the screen. Side by side, you will also receive an OTP on your registered mobile number.
9. One can also link Aadhaar cards with PAN cards by sending an SMS. To do so-
Send UID PAN – SPACE -12 digit Aadhaar- Space- 10 digit PAN to 567678 or 56161.
