Last date for linking Aadhaar and PAN extended to June 30th

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday extended the deadline for linking one's Aadhaar card with their PAN (Permanent Account Number) from March 31st 2021 to June 30th 2021, owing to the pandemic.

"Central Government extends the last date for linking of Aadhaar number with PAN from March 31st, 2021 to June 30th, 2021, in view of the difficulties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic," the Income-tax department tweeted on its official Twitter handle.

"Date for issue of notice under section 148 of Income-tax Act,1961, passing of consequential order for direction issued by the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP) & processing of equalisation levy statements also extended to April 30th, 2021.(2/2)," reads a follow-up tweet.

A failure to link the two today as per the previous deadline could have resulted in the PAN card becoming inoperative. Additionally, a person must also pay up to Rs 1000 as a late fee for not linking the two identification numbers under section 234H of the Finance Bill 2021 passed in the Lok Sabha last week. While the Aadhaar number is a 12 digit identification number issued by UIDAI, the PAN number is a 10-digit alphanumeric issued by the Income Tax department.

Linking the two identification numbers is compulsory to complete income tax-related chores such as filing for income returns. It could be done online on the IT department's e-filing portal or the official website of National Securities Depository Limited or in person at a PAN card service centre.