PAN-Aadhaar linking last date extended once again

Shubham Chauhan

21 Feb, 2020

The Income Tax Department of India has extended the last date of PAN-Aadhaar linking for the eighth time.

The deadline to link the two has been extended to 31st March 2020 which earlier was 31st December 2019.

In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict on Aadhaar Card. As per the Supreme Court’s verdict, Aadhaar is constitutionally valid and is mandatory for filing Income Tax returns and for obtaining a Permanent Account Number(PAN).

Key Highlights of PAN-Aadhaar linking

• If you are about to apply for a new PAN card, you must mention your Aadhaar card no. in the application form. Once you have mentioned the Aadhaar number, you can use your Aadhaar number wherever the PAN card is required. PAN and Aadhaar numbers are now interchangeable. The interlinking of the PAN card and Aadhaar card is done automatically in the application stage.

• If you already have a PAN card, it is mandatory for you to link it with Aadhaar before 31st March 2020. Earlier the last date to link your PAN and Aadhaar card was 31st December 2019. This is for the eighth time that CBDT has extended Aadhaar-PAN linking the last date.

• The linking process of Aadhaar and PAN card can be done on the Income Tax department’s e-filing portal. The other option available for linking PAN and Aadhaar is by sending your PAN and Aadhaar details via SMS. You simply have to type UIDAI space your twelve-digit Aadhaar number space your PAN number and send it to 567678 or 56161.

• To link your Aadhaar and PAN via SMS, you need to ensure that the mobile number from which you will send the SMS is the same as the one registered for Aadhaar.

• If you are not able to link your Aadhaar and PAN card before the deadline, i.e. 31s March 2020, your PAN card will become ‘inoperative’ as per CBDTs latest notification. Moreover, you will not be able to file your income Tax Return (ITR).

Online Procedure of PAN- Aadhaar Linking

• The first step is to visit the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department.
• Next click on ‘Link Aadhaar’ option which is available on the left side under ‘quick Links’ section
• Now you have to fill in the required details including PAN number, Aadhaar number, your name as mentioned in the Aadhaar card.
• The next step is to request OTP on the registered mobile number.
• If all the details mentioned are found correct, PAN-Aadhaar linking will be successful.

Take Away

Since many people are yet to link their PAN and Aadhaar card, the Income Tax department of India decided to extend the last date for linking both documents. Moreover, many business people in the country have certain apprehensions that if their PAN gets linked with Aadhar, all their information would be automatically shared with the government because Aadhar is being used for getting all the documents such as passport, voter id, etc. Keeping all these factors in mind CBDT recently extended the due date to 31st March 2020.