Income tax assesseesare required to link their PAN or Permanent Account Number with Aadhaar (Unique Identity Number) by the end of the month.
According to theIncome Tax Department, income tax assessees need to link the two identification numbers - the 10-digit PAN and 12-digit Aadhaar - by March 31, 2019.
This will be essential for filing an income tax return (ITR).
The Income Tax Department has announced March 31 as the due date for assessees to link the two.
That means if you haven't linked yourPAN card with Aadhaar card yet, you have less than four weeks to do so.
The mandatory linking of Aadhaar and PANis applicable to PAN holders requiring filing of income tax return, according to the taxman's website - incometaxindia.gov.in.(Read: How to link PAN card with Aadhaar)Thetaxmanhas also urged theincome taxassessees to link their PAN with their bank accounts.
"Get your refund directly, swiftly and securely in your bank account," the Income Tax Department said on microblogging website Twitter.
Stating that it would issue "only e-refunds" from March 1, 2019, the I-T department said the (income tax) refunds would be credited to bank accounts linked with PAN.
This will be applicable to savings, current, cash and overdraft accounts, according to the income tax website.Currently, the Income Tax Department issues refunds to assessees either in their bank account or through account payee cheques.The Income Tax Department also said the assessees will be able to check the status of linkage of a bank account with a PAN through its e-filing portal, incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.( Income tax assessments to be "completely faceless" in few years, says taxman)The Income Tax Department has listed steps for assessees whose PAN is not linked to their bank account to take up the linkage:Provide PAN details to the bank branchValidate the bank account by logging in to Income Tax Department's e-filing portalOnce logged on to e-filing portal, fill up details by selecting "pre-validate your account" link under "profile setting" sectionIf the bank is integrated with the e-filing portal, the pre-validation will be done "directly through EVC and net banking route", the Income Tax Department noted.
However, if it is not integrated, the Income Tax Department will validate the bank account from the details provided by the user, according to the taxman.PAN or Permanent Account Number is a ten-digit alphanumeric number issued by the Income Tax Department to an assessee.
PAN enables the taxman to link transactions of the person.
These include tax payments, TDS (tax deducted at source)/TCS (tax collected at source) credits and income tax returns.