Here’s What Will Happen If You Don’t Link PAN With Your Aadhar Card By March 31

New Delhi: The income tax department has extended the deadline for linking PAN cards with Aadhar cards till March 31, 2022, failing which the PAN card will become inoperative. All such PAN cards which are not linked to Aadhaar cards will be declared inoperative after the deadline ends.

If PAN becomes inoperative, the income tax department will consider that the individual has not submitted PAN and therefore liable to face the consequences for the same. “Where a person, whose permanent account number has become inoperative…, is required to furnish, intimate or quote his permanent account number under the Act, it shall be deemed that he has not furnished, intimated or quoted the permanent account number, as the case may be, in accordance with the provisions of the Act, and he shall be liable for all the consequences under the Act for not furnishing, intimating or quoting the permanent account number,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) mentioned earlier.

Mentioning the Aadhar number is mandatory while filing an income tax return.

It is also mandatory for opening a bank account, buying mutual funds or shares and even making cash transactions of over Rs 50,000. According to Section 272B of the Income Tax Act, a penalty of Rs 10,000 can be levied in case PAN is not quoted or furnished as required by the Income Tax Law. Under the provisions, a penalty could be imposed for every such non-compliance, News18 reported.

“A penalty of Rs 10,000 would be levied on each default. Suppose, PAN of Mr A becomes inoperative. He makes payment to a hotel in cash for an amount exceeding Rs 50,000 and also makes payment in cash for purchase of foreign currency for an amount exceeding Rs 50,000. In this situation, the income tax department can impose penalty of Rs 20,000, i.e., Rs. 10,000 for each default,” Naveen Wadhwa, DGM, Taxmann was quoted as saying by News18.

In Budget 2021, the Union government has added a new section 234H in the Income Tax Act, where an individual will have to pay a penalty if PAN and Aadhaar are not linked after the deadline ends. So if an individual misses the deadline, he or she will be liable to pay a penalty not exceeding more than Rs 1,000.