What is PAN?

Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a national identification number, issued to all taxpayers in India whose income is taxable. This the number is issued by the Income Tax office, printed on a credit card size plastic card and called PAN Card. The PAN is unique and permanent. A PAN Card tracks betwaeen a a person in the taxman's database. PAN card has been made mandatory and can be issued to non tax payers also.

The PAN is mandatory for a majority of financial transactions such as opening a bank account, receiving taxable salary or professional fees, sale or purchase of assets above specified limits etc.; especially high-value transactions.

The primary purpose of the PAN is to bring a universal identification to all financial transactions and to prevent tax evation 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. An important point to note would be that once issued, the PAN is not affected by a change of address.

PAN should be mentioned when anyone is filing Income tax return, opening Demat account, making a deposit of Rs.50000 or more in a Post office / bank, purchasing property or vehicle etc.

Structure of PAN

PAN is a 10 digit alphanumeric number as AAAAA9999A for example. First five characters are letters, next 4 numerals and last character letter. PAN uniquely identifies each deductee. If the PAN does not follow the above structure, then the PAN is invalid. The fourth character of the PAN must be one of the following, depending on the type of assessee

C - Company

P - Person

H - Hindu Undivided Family (HUF)

F - Firm

A - Association of Persons (AOP)

T - AOP (Trust)

B - Body of Individuals (BOI)

L - Local Authority

J - Artificial Juridical Person

G - Govt

How to apply for PAN Card?

You can obtain the application form(Form 49A) from UTIISL(UTI Investor Services Ltd) or NSDL(National Securities Depository Ltd). Fill the form aptly and submit it at any of the IT PAN service centres.

search for nearest pan card application

You can use your PAN to check the status of your income tax refund.

Taxpayers will get status of refund 10 days after the refund has been sent by their Assessing Officer to refund banker. Status will be available only for those taxpayers whose refunds are to go through refund banker scheme.

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