Aadhaar-PAN linking must from July 1, govt notifies rules

Come July 1 and the government's new measure to check tax evasion through multiple pan cards will come into effect.  

The new step is linking of aadhaar card with PAN card and you have just three days left to do the same.

The government has made quoting of the 12-digit biometric Aadhaar or the enrolment ID a must at the time of application of permanent account number (PAN).

Finance minister Arun Jaitley through an amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to check tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.

The revenue department said "every person who has been allotted PAN as on July 1, 2017, and who in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 139AA is required to intimate his Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to the principal director general of income tax (systems) or DGIT (systems)".

The rules will come into force from July 1, 2017, the revenue department said while amending Rule 114 of the I-T Act, which deals in application for allotment of PAN.

As many as 2.07 crore taxpayers have already linked their Aadhaar with PAN.

Aaadhar may replace PAN card

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has hinted that the Aadhar card may replace PAN card in the future.

"A stage may come when unique identity card (Aadhaar) may become the sole card. There are many countries where such a situation exists. There is a social security number in America and in India it (Aadhaar) could be the counterpart," Arun Jaitley had said.

It could be a possibility. The government looks decisive to give Aadhar all the power by making it mandatory for PAN Card application and filing Income Tax Returns.

There are many other services, including railway ticket booking, claiming of subsidies, application for scholarships where Aadhar in all likelihood is going to become mandatory.

Aadhar was developed for targeted delivery of subsidies and services to individuals in India by assigning them unique identity numbers.

Now, with the government linking it to most services, it cannot be called voluntary anymore.

While Aadhaar is a biometric authentication issued by the UIDAI, PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number alloted by the I-T department to individuals and entities.

Link it if you don't want to lose your PAN

Your PAN card will become invalid if you do not link PAN and Aadhaar as mandated by section 139AA, posing problems in all banking / financial transactions requiring PAN to be quoted.

How to link you aadhaar card with PAN card

Go to income tax department's e-filing portal at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and enter your user id and password to access your profile. If you are a new user, you can register on the portal by entering basic registration details such as PAN card, name and date of birth.

Update Aadhaar After logging into the portal, go to the "Profile Settings" tab.  Click on "Link Aadhaar" on the drop down menu that will appear. A new form will be displayed.

Details

Enter name, date of birth and gender as per PAN records. Then enter your aadhaar number and name. After you submit the aadhaar details, a success message is displayed confirming the linking of Aadhaar with PAN. A confirmation email will be sent to the registered email id of the assessee.