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If you are eligible to obtain Aadhaar number, you will, on or after July 1, 2017, quote Aadhaar number in the application form for allotment of permanent account number and in your return of income.

Why? According to government, Aadhaar-enabled biometric identification will help check instances of multiple PANs and also keep a tab on tax evaders.

What if your income is below the tax limit?

Even then. If you don't file income tax return but possess both PAN and Aadhaar then linking the two is compulsory otherwise your PAN will be liable to become invalid from a date to be notified by the government, as per section 139AA of the Act.

The recent Supreme Court order provides interim relief to those who may have PAN but do not have an Aadhaar and have not applied for one as yet from having to compulsorily link the two. It does not provide any relief to those who already have both PAN and Aadhaar.

Even individuals who are not required to file income tax returns due to income being below exemption limit but possess both PAN and Aadhaar are mandatorily required to link both by a date to be notified as per section 139AA. If such individuals do not link the two by the date to be notified then their PAN will become invalid as per Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act introduced in the last budget, according to Sonu Iyer, Tax Partner and People Advisory Services Leader, EY.

This means that a large number of people - senior citizens, students, entry-level workforce, housewives etc. who have PAN and Aadhaar both, but don't file returns will have to link the two numbers. This can be done via the income tax department's e-filing website.

Link it if you don't want to lose your PAN

If a person does not link PAN and Aadhaar as mandated by section 139AA then the person's PAN would become invalid. If a person's PAN becomes invalid they would face problems in all banking / financial transactions requiring PAN to be quoted.

How does one do it

The IT department has made provision for assesssees to link their PAN to Aadhaar on the efiling portal. If you have Aadhaar and PAN card and you haven't linked it yet, here's help.

Link

Visit the income tax e-filing portal at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and enter your user id and password to access your profile. A new user can register on the portal by entering basic registration details such as PAN, name and date of birth.

Update Aadhaar

Once you are logged into the portal, go to the "Profile Settings" tab. A drop down menu will appear. Click on "Link Aadhaar". A new form will be displayed.

Details

You need to enter name, date of birth and gender as per PAN records. Next, your Aadhaar number and your name as per Aadhaar records must be entered. These details must be submitted after entering the text in the captcha code appearing on the screen.

Confirmation

After submitting the Aadhaar details, a success message is displayed confirming the linking of Aadhaar with PAN. A confirmation email is also sent to the registered email id of the assessee.

Points to note

• Once Aadhaar-PAN is linked, one can e-verify the IT return using Aadhaar if the mobile number is registered with Aadhaar database.
• If the name in Aadhaar does not exactly match with the name on PAN, you need to additionally provide Aadhaar OTP or EVC to proceed with partial name match.

Source: ET