Tax dept extends deadline for Aadhaar-PAN linkage till Dec 31

Also, the Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the government's decision on Aadhaar and has posted the matter for next hearing in November.

And so, the extension was in line, the source said.

Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.

However, those categorised as non-resident Indians as per the Income Tax laws, people who are not citizens of India, those above 80 years of age and residents of the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir had been exempt from the requirement.

The source further said that people who do not have Aadhaar can file their Income Tax returns, but their returns will not be processed till they submit their Aadhaar number.

The tax department had on July 31 stated that "unless a finding is made that Aadhaar is constitutionally not valid, tax return filers will need to link their PAN with Aadhaar by August 31, 2017."

Incidentally, December 31 is also the deadline for people to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar.

Tax filers, however, were allowed to file their annual income returns by August 5 without linking their Aadhaar with PAN.

They were to just quote Aadhaar or the acknowledgement number for having applied for the ID.

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It had further stated that "income-tax returns filed will not be processed should tax filers fail to link Aadhaar and PAN on or before August 31, 2017.

The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar previously was July 31 but was extended to August 31.