Mandatory to link PAN and Aadhaar by Dec 31, says tax department

NEWDELHI: It is mandatory to link your Permanent Account Number (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 31st 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 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 t a x d e p a r t ment . T h e 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.

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

Aadhaar i s i ssued by t he Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to a resident of I ndia and PAN i s a 10- digit alphanumeric number allotted by the I-T Department to a person, firm or entity.

The Supreme Court had in June upheld the validity of an Income Tax Act provision making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and income tax return (ITR) filing, but had put a partial stay on its implementation till a Constitution bench addressed the issue of right to privacy.

Finance minister Nirmala Si t haraman i n her budget speech delivered in July had said that Aadhaar card will now double up as a PAN card for all purposes including filing of Income Tax.