A permanent account number(PAN) is a ten unique alphanumeric character issued by the Indian Income Tax Department, to any person resident in India. The idea of PAN Card was first introduced in the Year 1972 and now around more than 430 million PAN Cards are allotted to individuals only, out of which 37% women & 63% male.
Know the meaning of your PAN number
For example, the PAN number is, A B C P D 1 2 3 4 N
# Here the first three alphabetic character of the PAN represent a series starting from AAA to ZZZ.
The fourth letter indicates the status of the PAN holder. Where,
P = Individual,
C = Company,
H = HUF(Hindu Undivided Family),
F = Firm (Partnership Firm),
A = AOP(Association of Persons),
T = Trust,
B = BOI(Body of Individual),
L = Local Authority,
J = Artificial Juridical Person,
G = Government
The Fifth letter is stands for surname (in case of Individual) or entity first name (for other cases)
The Sixth to Ninth Character 1234 are sequential number starting from 0001 to 9999.
And the last character ‘N‘ is an alphabet generated by formula to the preceding nine letters and numbers.
Few Important Facts about PAN:
- A PAN card is not a proof of Indian Citizenship. There is no minimum or maximum age requirement to apply for PAN card allotment. It can be issued to all citizens; even minors can get a PAN card provided furnish the required documents. A PAN card can also be issued to an NRI, a foreigner, or a foreign company, if they intend to enter into a financial transaction in India.
- In recent times, the Date of issue of the PAN Card is the mentioned at the right (vertical) hand side of the photo on the PAN card if issued by NSDL (now rebranded as Protean eGov Technologies Limited) and will not be mentioned if issued by UTI-TSL.
- Furnishing father’s name in PAN application not mandatory. Earlier, applicants were required to furnish father’s name in PAN application form which was also printed on the PAN card. However, as per a new rule which came into effect on December 5, 2018, applicants can now choose whether they want the name of their father or mother on the card. If the applicant’s mother is a single parent, furnishing father’s name isn’t mandatory.
- Their are certian transactions in which quoting of PAN number is mandatory by every person except the Central Government, the State Governments and the Consular Offices. Transactions are like Sale or purchase of a motor vehicle or vehicle other than two wheeled vehicles; Opening of a demat account with a depository, participant, custodian of securities or any other person with SEBI; Sale or purchase of goods or services of any nature for an amount exceeding Rs. 2 lakh per transaction except for non-resident etc.
- Income Tax Department has authorised UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services Limited (UTIITSL) and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) [now protean] to set-up and manage PAN Service Centers. UTIITSL and NSDL [now protean] have established PAN Service Centers and TIN Facilitation Centers at various places in major cities of India (hereinafter referred to as PAN application centers of UTIITSL/Protean).
- A person cannot hold more than one PAN. A penalty of Rs. 10,000/- is liable to be imposed under section 272B of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for having more than one PAN. If a person has been allotted more than one PAN then person should immediately surrender the additional PAN card(s).
- Any person, who does not have PAN and enters into any of above transaction, can make a declaration in Form No.60.