In a circular issued by the Income Tax Department on March 30, taxpayers have been cautioned against a penalty for “non-linking of PAN with Aadhaar by March 31.” (Circular No. 7/2022 dt 30/3/2022 issued,” Income Tax India said in a tweet)
The penalty is of up to ₹1,000. Such PAN will remain functional for one more year till March 2023, for filing ITR.
Further, the circular lists:
1) PAN not linked to Aadhaar, would become “inoperative” after March 31, 2023.
2) Beginning April 1, 2022, a late fine of ₹500 will be levied if PAN linking with Aadhaar is done within the first three months and thereafter ₹1,000 fees will be levied.
3) However, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has restricted the penalty only to late fees and clarified that the PAN will continue to be operative and all transactions that mandate quoting PAN will not be affected2
4) In order to mitigate the inconvenience to taxpayers, as per notification dated March 29, 2022, a window of opportunity has been provided to taxpayers up to March 31, 2023 to intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions, the CBDT said, adding such intimation would have to be accompanied by late fees.
5) After March 31, 2023, the PAN of taxpayers who fail to intimate their Aadhaar, as required, shall become inoperative.
6) The CBDT has extended the deadline for linking Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar many times and the last date now is March 31, 2022.
7) As per data available, till January 24, 2022, more than 43.34 crore PANs have been linked with Aadhaar.
8) PAN-Aadhaar linkage would help in eliminating duplicate PAN and curbing tax evasion.
9) Once your PAN becomes inactive, the person will be restricted from doing financial transactions.
10) Taxpayers can link their PAN and Aadhaar and even check the status of linking by visiting the income tax portal.
