NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 00:58 ET
- India’s tax board set Dec. 31 as the deadline for certain PAN holders to intimate their Aadhaar number.
- Tax expert Abhishek Soni said missing the cutoff would make affected PANs inoperative from Jan. 1, 2026.
- The Income Tax Department says a 1,000-rupee fee applies to make an inoperative PAN operative again by intimating Aadhaar.
India’s income tax rules give a group of taxpayers until Dec. 31 to link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) to Aadhaar, the national identity system, under a government notification.
The year-end deadline matters because PAN is required for filing income tax returns and is widely used across banking and investing for identity checks. Taxpayers who miss the requirement risk losing access to routine tax and financial services tied to PAN.
The Income Tax Department says a PAN that becomes “inoperative” can block refunds and change how taxes are withheld. It says tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) can apply at higher rates for such PAN holders. Income Tax Department
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in an April 3 notification that people allotted a PAN on the basis of an Aadhaar application enrolment ID filed prior to Oct. 1, 2024 must intimate their Aadhaar number by Dec. 31, 2025.
Local media have carried reminders as the deadline nears, warning that unlinked PANs could stop working and disrupt key transactions.
A 1,000-rupee charge applies in cases where a PAN must be made operative again by intimating Aadhaar, the Income Tax Department’s FAQ says. Mint also reported that taxpayers who have not completed linking may face a 1,000-rupee penalty.
“If you miss this deadline, your PAN will become inoperative from 1 January 2026,” said Abhishek Soni, CEO and co-founder of Tax2win. Upstox – Online Stock and Share Trading
PAN is a tax identifier used in income tax filings, while Aadhaar is a national identity number. Mint said linking the two is meant to strengthen identity verification in the tax system.
Taxpayers can check PAN-Aadhaar status and submit linking requests on the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal, including through the “Link Aadhaar” quick link that can be used without logging in, the department’s FAQ says. Income Tax Department
For people facing mismatches in details between PAN and Aadhaar records, the department advises correcting data in either database before trying again. It points taxpayers to PAN service providers Protean and UTIITSL for PAN updates and to the UIDAI portal for Aadhaar updates.
The Dec. 31 date adds to a long compliance timeline. Mint reported that the CBDT first set a June 30, 2023 deadline and later extended it to May 31, 2024 before issuing the 2025 notification covering enrolment-ID cases.
The Income Tax Department and local media have urged taxpayers to complete checks ahead of the deadline to avoid last-minute disruption to services that require quoting a PAN.
