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 : The
Economic Times
