Mandatory To Link Your Pan With Aadhaar By December 31: Income Tax Department

It is mandatory to link your PAN with Aadhaar by the end of this year, the Income Tax Department said in a public message on Sunday. “Building a better tomorrow! To reap seamless benefits of income tax services, complete the vital link before 31^st December, 2019,” the department said.

It is mandatory to link your PAN with Aadhaar, according to the public message issued a fortnight before the deadline ends. The deadline to link the permanent account number (PAN) with Aadhaar was extended till December 31 by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) through an order issued in September this year. Earlier, the deadline for this linkage was September 30.

The CBDT frames policy for the Income Tax Department. The Supreme Court, in September last year, had declared the Centre’s flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid and held that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for the filing of I-T returns and allotment of PAN.

Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to tax authorities.

Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to a resident of India and PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the I-T Department to a person, firm or entity.

Earlier in March, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had extended the deadline for linking PAN with the Unique Identity Number by 6 months till September 30. This is the seventh time the government has extended the deadline for individuals to link their PAN to Aadhaar.

However, the government has made quoting of Aadhaar mandatory while filing income tax returns (ITRs) with effect from April 1, 2019.

Earlier, the CBDT said there were reports that those PANs which are not linked with Aadhaar number by March 31 may be invalidated, following which the matter was considered by the government and the date extended till September 30.

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.

As per updated data till March 5, over 16.65 crore PANs, out of the total about 33 crore, have been linked with Aadhaar.