Linked your Aadhaar and PAN card? Fine. Else pay Rs 500 as fine

You know when you file your taxes and the Income Tax site asks you for your Aadhaar number and PAN card details? Well, today is the last date to update that for FREE.

From tomorrow, i.e, April 1, linking your Aadhaar card to your PAN card on the income tax portal will be chargeable for a fine of Rs 500.

If you do not do so till June 30, 2022, the fine to do the same linking process will go up to Rs 1,000. 

WHAT DO WE EXACTLY HAVE TO DO?

So, today is a lucky day for two things. 

First, if you are yet to link your PAN card to your Aadhaar card, you have a few hours left to do that for FREE and without implications.  

Second, if you haven't filed your Income Tax Returns for AY 2021-22 yet, today is the last day to file a Belated Return. 

WHY DO WE NEED TO DO THIS?

The Central Board of Direct Taxes sets up the tax laws in the country and is responsible for implementing them. As per the law, every person who has received a PAN and is eligible to receive an Aadhaar card, is required to intimate their Aadhaar card to the respective government authorities.  

CBDT amends Income Tax Rules,1962 for prescribing fee u/s 234H of IT Act,1961. Window of opportunity provided to taxpayers upto 31st March,2023, vide Notification No. 17/2022 dt 29/03/2022 for intimating Aadhaar on payment of certain fee. Circular No. 7/2022 dt 30/3/2022 issued. pic.twitter.com/oqSHSyFHro

— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) March 30, 2022

If the same is not done, your PAN card will become inoperative and all proecedures where PAN is required will be halted. For eg: opening a bank account, applying for a debit or credit card, etc.

Say, you then decide to link your Aadhaar card to your PAN card:

• in between April and June 2022, you will only be able to do that after you pay a fine of Rs 500.
• If you decide to do this even later (i.e, post June 2022), the fine will increase to Rs 1,000. 
• Also, the government can levy a fine of Rs 10,000 on you for having an inactive PAN card.

Well, nobody likes to pay a fine, so you might as well spend a minute and check if everything is in place.

On that note, cheers to a fine, fine-less financial year!