How to apply for a PAN card

This is the fastest and cheapest option and is available to individuals who have an Aadhaar with a mobile number linked to it, and who do not already hold a PAN.

Go to the income tax e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in and choose 'Instant e-PAN' under Quick Links. You do not need to be registered on the portal.

Enter your Aadhaar number, accept the declaration, and validate with the OTP sent to your Aadhaar-registered mobile. Your name, date of birth, gender and address are pulled from Aadhaar — which is why they must be correct on Aadhaar first.

Confirm the details and submit. An acknowledgement number is generated and the e-PAN is usually issued within minutes.

Download the e-PAN from the same portal. It is a digitally signed PDF and is legally equivalent to a physical card for every purpose, including bank KYC — institutions that insist on a physical card are applying their own policy, not a legal requirement.

There is no fee for the instant route. If a website or agent is charging you for this, they are charging for something the government provides free.

Apply through Protean eGov (formerly NSDL) at onlineservices.nsdl.com or UTIITSL at pan.utiitsl.com. Both are authorised by the Income Tax Department and the outcome is identical — the choice between them makes no difference.

Use this route if you have no Aadhaar or no mobile linked to it, if you are applying for a company, firm, HUF, trust or other non-individual entity, if you are a foreign citizen (Form 49AA rather than 49A), or if you want a physical card delivered.

Form 49A is for Indian citizens and entities; Form 49AA is for foreign citizens and entities. Choose correctly, because the fee and the document requirements differ.

You will need proof of identity, proof of address and proof of date of birth from the prescribed lists — Aadhaar, passport, voter ID, driving licence, bank statement and others are accepted, with specific combinations required.

Aadhaar-based e-KYC and e-sign avoid posting physical documents entirely and are worth using where available. Otherwise the signed acknowledgement and documents must be posted to the processing centre.

Fees are prescribed and modest, with a higher fee for despatch outside India. Track the application with the acknowledgement number; a physical card typically arrives within a couple of weeks.

Linking is mandatory for most PAN holders under section 139AA of the Income-tax Act. Certain categories are exempt, including residents of some states, non-residents, people aged over 80, and non-citizens.

Check your status first: the e-filing portal has a 'Link Aadhaar Status' page that tells you whether the link exists. Do this before paying any fee — a great many people who think they are unlinked are already linked.

To link, use the Link Aadhaar service on the e-filing portal with your PAN, Aadhaar number and OTP. A fee applies for linking after the original deadline, paid as a challan on the portal before initiating the link.

The names must match between PAN and Aadhaar. Where they differ — an expanded initial, a middle name present on one and not the other, a married name on one — the link fails, and the fix is to correct one of them first, which is a separate process with its own timeline.

An unlinked PAN becomes inoperative rather than cancelled. The practical consequences are substantial: income tax refunds are not issued, interest is not paid on withheld refunds, TDS and TCS are deducted at higher rates, and PAN-based KYC fails at banks, mutual funds and demat accounts.

It reverts to operative after linking, typically within about 30 days, but the higher TDS already deducted has to be recovered through your return rather than reversed automatically.

To correct a name, date of birth, photograph or signature, use the 'Changes or Correction in PAN' application through the same Protean or UTIITSL portals, with documentary proof of the corrected detail. The PAN number itself never changes — you get a new card with the same number.

Holding more than one PAN is an offence under section 272B and carries a penalty. Duplicates usually happen accidentally: an application made twice, or one made through an agent and forgotten. Surrender the extra one through the correction form, marking the PAN to be retained.

For a lost card, apply for a reprint through the same portals, or simply download the e-PAN, which is legally sufficient for almost everything.

PAN is required for a defined list of transactions above prescribed thresholds — cash deposits, property purchases, vehicle purchases, large payments — and quoting it wrongly or failing to quote it where required carries penalties.

Treat the number carefully. PAN plus name plus date of birth is enough for several kinds of impersonation, including fraudulent loan applications. Do not post images of your card, and check your Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement periodically for income or transactions you do not recognise — that is the single best detection mechanism for PAN misuse.

If you find your PAN has been misused, report it through the e-filing portal's grievance mechanism and, where money is involved, to the cyber crime helpline on 1930.