Permanent
Account Number
(PAN) is a code that acts as identification of Indians Tax Payers and issued to
all judicial entities identifiable under the Indian Income Tax Act 1961. It
contains 10-character which are alpha-numeric. An example number would be
in the form of ABCDE1234F. It is issued by the Indian Income Tax
Department under the supervision of the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT)
and it also serves as an important proof of identification.
It is
also issued to foreign nationals under certain conditions. Today PAN has become
mandatory for a majority of financial transactions such as opening a bank
account, receiving taxable salary or professional fees, sale or purchase of
assets etc.; especially high-value transactions.However primary purpose of the
PAN is to bring a universal identification to all financial transactions and to
prevent tax evasion by keeping track of monetary transactions, especially those
of high-net-worth individuals who can impact the economy.
The PAN
is unique to each individual and is valid for the life time of the holder,
throughout India.
and is not affected by any change in the address of the PAN holder.
Structure
of the PAN - Every PAN has 10 Alpha-Numeric characters such as ABCDE1234F.
The criteria to allot a PAN to any peroson is unique and described below...
1.
First five characters are letters, next four numerals, last character letter
2. The
first three letters are sequence of alphabets from AAA to ZZZ
3. The
fourth character represents the type of the holder of the PAN Card. Each holder
is uniquely defined as below:
A —
Association of Persons (AOP)
B — Body
of Individuals (BOI)
C —
Company
F — Firm
G —
Government
H — HUF
(Hindu Undivided Family)
L — Local
Authority
J —
Artificial Juridical Person
P —
Individual
T — AOP
(Trust)
K — Krish
(Trust krish)
4. The
fifth character of the PAN is the first character of
(a) the
surname or last name of the person, in the case of a
"Personal/Individual" PAN card, where the fourth character is
"P" or
(b) of
the name of the Entity, Trust, society, or organisation in the case of Company/
HUF/ Firm/ AOP/ BOI/ Local Authority/ Artificial Judicial Person/ Govt, where
the fourth character is
"C","H","F","A","T","B","L","J","G".
5. The
last character is an alphabetic check digit.
Use of PAN - Quoting the PAN is mandatory when
- filing Income Tax returns,
- tax deduction at source,
- or any other communication with Income Tax Department.
- opening a new bank account,
- purchase of foreign currency,
- bank deposits above Rs. 50,000/=
- purchase and sale of immovable properties, vehicles etc.
How to
Obtain PAN - Obtaining PAN is not
mandatory like AADHAR till now but is optional like obtaining passport, driving
license etc. One can apply for
PAN by submitting the prescribed PAN application to the authorized PAN agency
of the district or through online submission to NSDL/UTIITSL/Any other
Authorised Agency in prescribed format with prescribed Fee.After applying, it
takes about 10–15 days to receive the PAN Card and the card is sent by courier
/ registered India Post.
Prescribed Application Form for
PAN -
There are
two types of PAN applications:
1. Application
for allotment of PAN: - This application form should be used when the applicant has never
applied for a PAN or does not have PAN allotted to him.
Following forms have been notified by ITD for submitting applications for allotment of new PAN-
Following forms have been notified by ITD for submitting applications for allotment of new PAN-
- FORM 49A: - To be filled by Resident Indian citizens and those who are located outside India.
- FORM 49AA: - To be filled by foreign citizens.
2. Application
for new PAN Card or/and Changes or Corrections in PAN Data: - Those who have already obtained
the PAN and wish to obtain the new PAN card or want to make some changes /
corrections in their PAN data, are required to submit their applications in the
following form prescribed by ITD:
- REQUEST FOR NEW PAN CARD OR/AND CHANGES OR CORRECTION IN PAN DATA:- The same form can be used by Indian as well as foreign citizens. A new PAN card bearing the same PAN but updated information is issued to applicant in such case.
Online
application facility for obtaining PAN - With the change of time and technology, it is
very easy to make Online Application for PAN allotment authorised agencies like
NSDL e-Governance or UTIITSL.
Process
to apply for PAN Card through