The Indian government has once again extended the deadline to link Aadhaar cards with PAN numbers for Indian citizens.
The latest mandatory deadline to have your Aadhaar linked with Permanent Account Number is June 30, 2023. Failing which, the PAN will become inoperative, leaving residents unable to file income tax returns, carry out NSE or BSE transactions and several other financial services.
Certain categories of individuals are exempt from the requirement of linking the Aadhaar and PAN. According to the Income Tax Department's portal, Aadhaar-PAN linkage is not mandatory for individuals in the following categories:
- Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) as per the Income Tax Act 1961
- Residents of the states of Assam and Meghalaya and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir
- Anyone who was of the age of 80 years or more at any time during the previous year
- Individuals who are not citizens of India
Under the Income Tax Act, NRIs with a PAN and Aadhaar card may link the two, but it is not mandatory for them. However, if an NRI does not link his PAN and Aadhaar, they need to update their residential status as an NRI on the Income Tax portal online. If the Income Tax Department is not informed about residential status and PAN-Aadhaar is not linked, the PAN number may become inoperative.
For the rest of the taxpayers, the Aadhaar-PAN linking is mandatory. The government has extended the PAN-Aadhaar linkage deadline by another three months till June 30. All Aadhaar-PAN holders can link them at the Income Tax Department's e-filing portal.
Earlier, the deadline was set to expire on March 31, 2023. Last year, the tax department had extended this deadline by three months with a late fee of INR 500, which was further stretched to March 31, 2023 with a fine of INR 1,000.
As per a recent circular issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), once an individual's PAN becomes inoperative, he or she shall be liable for all the consequences under the Income Tax Act and will have to suffer a number of implications.
The provisions of the I-T Act make it mandatory for all individuals, except for certain categories, who have been allotted a PAN to intimate Aadhaar number to the prescribed authority so that it can be linked with their PAN.