Aadhaar-PAN linking deadline ends on December 31: How to link your PAN with Aadhaar - A step by step guide

Aadhaar-PAN Card linking deadline: The deadline to link your PAN with your Aadhaar card ends on December 31, 2025. All unlinked Aadhaar-PANs will be declared inoperative by the Income Tax Department starting January 1, 2026. A notification in this regard was issued on April 3, 2025. According to Notification No. 26/2025, if you received a PAN using an Aadhaar Enrolment ID before October 1, 2024, you must complete the linking process using your permanent Aadhaar card number by December 31, 2025. Individuals failing to do so by the end of 2025 will face deactivation of their PAN cards and will not be able to use them for tax-related or major financial transactions, an ET report said.

If the PAN-Aadhaar link is not completed, individuals may face financial consequences such as higher tax deduction at source rates and suspension of income tax refunds from January 1, 2026, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has warned.

To complete the process, you must have a valid PAN, an Aadhaar number, and a registered mobile phone to receive one-time passwords. If the PAN was issued before July 1, 2017 and was not linked earlier, a fee of Rs 1,000 will apply, the report said.

Step-by-step process to link your PAN with Aadhaar

1. The process starts with payment of the mandatory fee on the Income Tax Department’s e-Filing portal

2. Log on to the official portal - https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/

3. Under Quick Links, find the Link Aadhaar option and click on it

4. Enter your Aadhaar and PAN card details

5. Select the e-Pay Tax option and re-enter your PAN. Verify your mobile number using the OTP received, then choose the Income Tax option and proceed with the payment

6. After selecting the assessment year, choose Other Receipts (500) as the payment category. The Rs 1,000 fee appears automatically and can be paid via UPI, debit card, or net banking. The transaction may take four to five working days to show up in the system

7. Once the payment is reflected, which may take a few days, you can proceed with submitting the linking request

8. Go to the Link Aadhaar section and enter your PAN and Aadhaar details to verify the information

9. Once the payment is verified, a message saying “Your payment details are verified” will appear on the screen

10. After this, enter your name exactly as it appears on your Aadhaar card along with your mobile number. You will then be asked to confirm Aadhaar validation and specify whether your Aadhaar mentions only the year of birth.

11. The process is completed by entering the six-digit OTP sent to your registered mobile number.

Taxpayers can also check the status of their PAN–Aadhaar linkage without logging in. To do this, select Link Aadhaar Status under Quick Links on the e-Filing homepage and enter your PAN and Aadhaar details. If the linking is successful, a green checkmark will be shown. If it is still under process, a message will appear stating that the request has been sent to UIDAI for validation.