Income Tax dept issues warning as deadline for Aadhaar-PAN linking approaches

New Delhi: There are only a few weeks remaining until taxpayers must link their PAN cards to their Aadhaar numbers. The deadline had been extended by the Income Tax department to June 30 in March. However, it also levied a 1,000 charge on taxpayers who apply for the linking after the deadline. The Income Tax agency has now tweeted people once more to not miss the deadline, cautioning them to do so "at your own risk." Officials claim that connecting one's PAN and Aadhaar is a crucial step in the fight against tax evasion, NDTV reported.

"As per Income-tax Act, 1961, it is mandatory for all PAN holders, who do not fall under the exempt category, to link their PAN with Aadhaar on or before 30.06.2023. Please link your PAN & Aadhaar today," the Income Tax department said in a June 13 tweet.

The notification that goes along with it also outlines the penalties that taxpayers will incur if their PAN and Aadhaar are not linked by the deadline. This includes:

• PAN cards of such taxpayers will become inoperative
  
• Both tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) will be deducted/collected at a higher rate in such cases
• Any pending refunds and interest on such refunds will not be issued

How to check Aadhar-PAN Card link status online?

To verify the status of Aadhaar-PAN linking, a taxpayer must go to the income tax e-filing portal.

• On the homepage, click Quick Links, then Link Aadhaar Status
• The page that opens will have two fields where the taxpayer needs to enter PAN and Aadhaar numbers
• After the server checks the status, a pop-up message will be displayed. If Aadhaar and PAN are linked, the message will read: "Your PAN is already linked to given Aadhaar".
• If the two documents are not linked, the following message will appear on the screen: "PAN not linked with Aadhaar. Please click on 'Link Aadhaar' to link your Aadhaar with PAN".
• In case the Aadhaar-PAN link is in progress, the taxpayer will see this message: "Your Aadhaar-PAN linking request has been sent to UIDAI for validation. Please check the status later by clicking on the 'Link Aadhaar Status' link on Home Page."

Alternatively, taxpayers can also check the status by logging into the Income Tax portal and completing the following steps:

• After logging in, the taxpayer needs to visit the 'Dashboard' on the homepage and click the 'Link Aadhaar Status' option
  
• He/she can also go to 'My Profile' and click on the 'Link Aadhaar Status' option
• If your Aadhaar is linked to the PAN, the Aadhaar number will be displayed. If the two documents are not linked, 'Link Aadhaar Status' will be displayed
• The website will also show a check-the-status later if the request to link your Aadhaar with PAN card is pending with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

The Income Tax department has a dedicated FAQ page regarding the procedure to link PAN with Aadhaar to help taxpayers.