Overview
- Under Notification No. 26/2025 issued April 3, 2025, those allotted a PAN using an Aadhaar enrolment ID filed before October 1, 2024 must intimate their Aadhaar number by year‑end.
- Unlinked PANs will be marked inoperative from January 1, 2026, blocking return filing and refunds, stalling pending proceedings, and triggering higher TDS/TCS rates.
- Linking can be completed on the Income Tax e‑Filing portal via the pre‑login ‘Link Aadhaar’ option by entering PAN and Aadhaar and confirming through OTP; status can be checked without logging in.
- If a fee applies or the PAN is already inoperative, a payment of Rs 1,000 must be made first via e‑Pay Tax, and payment confirmation can take several working days to reflect before linkage is processed.
- Data mismatches in name or date of birth can cause failures and should be corrected with UIDAI or PAN service providers (Protean/UTIITSL), and a late‑December surge may lead to portal congestion and delays.