ITR Filing 2025: The Income Tax Department has notified all income tax returns (ITR) form for the financial year 2024-25. The process of filing ITR is also going to start soon, whose deadline will be 31 July 2025. But, if your permanent account number (PAN) is inactive or is not linked to Aadhaar card, then you will not be able to file ITR. You will also have difficulty in claiming TDS credit.
Many people do not know whether their PAN card is active or not. And sometimes the ITR is canceled due to lack of linking. Let us know how you can check your PAN status, what is the way to link it to Aadhaar, and what can be affected if there is no link.
How to check the status of PAN card?
You can check yourself by visiting the official site of income tax whether your PAN card is active or not. For this you do not need to go to an agent or CA.
- Go to Income Tax Portal https://www.incometax.gov.in.
- Click in the “Verify Your Pan” section.
- Enter your PAN number, date of birth and mobile number.
- OTP will come on mobile, which fill and submit it.
- Now the status of PAN will be seen on the screen- Active or Inactive.
If PAN is not active, it means that it has temporarily inactive in government records and cannot be used in any legal financial process. To re -activate the pan, he has to link to the Aadhaar card.
PAN-Aadhaar Link, what to do?
If you have not yet linked PAN to the Aadhaar number, then your PAN’s status will look “active but inoperative”. That is, PAN number is active, but it cannot be used at the moment.
However, you can still link it by filling a fine of ₹ 1,000. Within 7 to 30 days of paying the fine, your PAN will become active and operative again. After this, your TDS credit will also start appearing in the Form 26AS and you will be able to claim it properly while paying tax.
How to link PAN from Aadhaar
The government has made it mandatory to link PAN to Aadhaar. If you have not done this work yet, it can inactive your pan. The way to link PAN to Aadhaar is also quite easy:
- Login on the Income Tax Department website.
- Click on “Link Aadhaar” option.
- Fill PAN, Aadhaar number and Captcha here.
- Now verification has to be done through OTP.
- Your Aadhaar will be linked in a few minutes.
If you have not already done linking, it will cost a late fee of ₹ 1,000. You can fill it online from the “E-Pay Tax” section of the website. The last date to link PAN to Aadhaar is 31 December 2025.
Who is given a discount in linking from Aadhaar?
The government has given exemption to some special classes from this linking at present. For example:
- Senior citizens aged 80 years or older
- Residents of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir
- Indians living abroad (NRI)
- Foreign nationals who have PAN of India
If you come to any of these categories, then you do not need linking at the moment. But still it is necessary to check the status.
What can cause harm if a pan remains inactive?
PAN has to link to Aadhaar and it is not just a formality to keep it active. If your PAN is inactive or is not linked to Aadhaar, many types of problems may occur:
- ITR cannot be filed from inactive PAN. There will be no old returns process and the refund will not be released. There will also be a threat of penalty and notice.
- TDS and TCS will be cut at high rates. Also, their credit form will not be seen in 26AS and the TDS certificate will not be available.
- The bank account does not open when PAN is inactive, not a debit/credit card, and a cash transaction of more than ₹ 50,000 will not be possible.
- Mutual funds, FD, and goods/services above ₹ 2 lakh will not be purchased and sold.
- Will not be able to submit forms like 15G/15h, which will not benefit the TDS exemption.
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