PAN-Aadhaar linking is not mandatory for these exempted categories

The deadline of March 31, 2023, was issued by the CBDT in March last year through a circular which said that failing to comply would lead to the discontinuation of the PAN.

The Centre has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN) before March 31, 2023. If a person fails to meet the March 31 deadline, their PAN will become inoperative, meaning they will not be able to file their income tax return, carry out NSE of BSE transactions or perform a range of banking services.

However, there are certain people and categories who do not have to mandatorily link their PAN to Aadhaar. As per 2017 notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with PAN does not apply to four categories. Here’s what these categories are:

1. Residents of the states of Assam and Meghalaya and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir

2. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) as per the Income Tax Act 1961

3. Anyone who was of the age of 80 years or more at any time during the previous year

4. Individuals who are not citizens of India

If you fall in any of the above categories, you do not have to link your PAN with Aadhaar before March 31 this year. For other taxpayers, the linking is mandatory. The Aadhaar-PAN linking was free before March 31, 2022. A fee of Rs 500 was imposed from April 1, 2022 and was later increased to Rs 1,000 from July 1, 2022.

If you have not yet linked your PAN and Aadhaar card, you can visit this step-by-step guide on how to do so.

If you have already linked your PAN and Aadhaar, or if you are unsure about whether they are linked, you can check the status using the steps mentioned here.