Aadhar And PAN Link
Introduction
A five judge bench of Supreme Court in its judgement on September 26, 2018 upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhar and made it mandatory to link certain document with Aadhar Card, PAN Card being one of them. In other words, the court upheld the legality of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.
This section mandated quoting of Aadhaar number while in the “application form for allotment of permanent account number” and “in the return of income”. The court upheld the 139AA even as it struck down a number of other provisions related to Aadhaar and its usage. The Supreme Court also said that linking of Aadhaar number with mobile phone numbers and bank accounts was not needed and ruled that the government orders requiring this were unconstitutional. The court also struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar act that allowed private companies to use Aadhaar authentication. The court said that private companies like Paytm were not authorised to use Aadhaar authentication and should not insist on seeking Aadhaar number of their users.
Benefits
Benefits of Aadhar and PAN linking can bring
- Eliminating Fake PAN Card – Linking will help the government to weed out fake PAN cards that many individuals use in order to conceal their taxable income and pay less or no taxes at all.
- Identification of Tax Evaders – Currently, a PAN card is essential for submitting ITR. Since PAN is necessary KYC requirement for bank accounts, linking the Aadhar with PAN will automatically link an individual’s Aadhar with their bank accounts. This will make it easier for the Income Tax Department to track everyone’s transactions.
- Suppressing Money Laundering – Fake identities can be traced smoothly which will expand the scope of curbing illegal activities such as money laundering, drug trafficking etc.
- Ease in Income Tax Return filings – PAN card is mandatory to file income tax returns by linking Aadhar and PAN card will enable the individual to file their returns online without any hassle. Earlier the taxpayer had to send acknowledgement to the IT department while filing returns. The legitimacy of returns (ITR-V) can be verified through an OTP received on your Aadhar registered mobile number.
Aadhar And PAN Link Video
Modes to link
- SMS
Send SMS to 567678 or 56161 from your registered mobile number in the following format:
UIDPAN<SPACE><12 Digit Aadhaar Number><SPACE><10 Digit PAN>
For E.g., UIDPAN 123456789000 EPOPE1234E
- Online
By visiting the website of the PAN Service providers (i.e., www.tin-nsdl.com or www.utiitsl.com). Click on the button ‘Link Aadhaar to PAN’ which will direct you to the income-tax website.
By visiting directly the e-filing website (i.e., www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in).
- Paper Mode:
File one page Form along with minimal fee with the designated PAN centre. Copies of PAN card, Aadhaar card are to be furnished.
Problems during the process of linking
a) Phone number of taxpayer is not updated in Aadhaar database:
Taxpayers cannot link their Aadhaar number with PAN if their phone number is not updated in the Aadhaar database. In this case taxpayers are required to visit the Aadhaar Facilitating Center to update their phone number in Aadhaar database.
b) Gender Mismatch:
In case of gender mismatch, taxpayers won’t be able to link Aadhaar with PAN. In this case, taxpayers are required to change the gender either in Aadhaar database or in PAN database.
c) Date of birth:
Aadhaar won’t be linked to PAN in case there is mismatch in date of birth of the taxpayer. However, taxpayers whose Aadhaar Card contains only the Year of Birth and it matches with the PAN records, linking of these two documents would not be difficult.