Alert! PAN cards to become inoperative if not linked with Aadhaar by 31 March

February 16: The Income Tax department, in its latest notification, has clearly said that Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards will become inoperative, if it is not linked with Aadhaar by 31 March, 2020. The deadline for linking of PAN and Aadhar has been extended several times and the current deadline ends on March 31, 2020. More than 17 crore PAN cards will become inoperative if not linked with the Aadhar by end of March.

As per the latest figures, over 30.75 crore PANs have already been linked to Aadhaar. However, 17.58 crore PANs are yet to be linked with the 12-digit biometric ID.

For those linking PAN with Aadhaar after March 31, 2020, the I-T department said it shall “become operative from the date of intimation of Aadhaar number”. Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.

There are two ways to link your PAN card to your Aadhaar card: through SMS and/or through the IT department website. In order to link your PAN and Aadhaar via SMS, you need to type a message in the format: UIDPAN <space> <12-digit-Aadhaar no.> <space> <Alphanumeric 10-digit PAN number>. You can send this SMS either to 567678 or 56161.

In order to link your PAN and Aadhaar via the IT department website, you will have to visit the IT-department website homepage incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. You need to follow the steps specified on the IT-department website to link your PAN and Aadhaar online.

Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India, or UIDAI, to a resident of India and PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the income tax department to a person, firm or entity.