ALERT! Still haven't linked PAN card with Aadhaar card? Income Tax dept lends helping hand as last date looms

As an alert to taxpayers, the Income Tax department has already announced that the last date to link PAN card with Aadhaar card is March 31. It must be done to file income tax return (ITR). And, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra has even issued a warning, saying CBDT might even consider to cancel the PAN cards of those who are yet to link it with their Aadhaar card. "By linking with Aadhaar, We will know whether there are any duplicate PANs or not. And there are certain duplicate PANs... If it is not linked, we may cancel the PAN also," he had said. 

This means that if you haven't linked your PAN card with Aadhaar card, you have just about five weeks to complete the process. To make the job easier, Income Tax department, on February 22 suggested four ways to link Aadhaar card with PAN card. It also reminded that the last day to complete the process remains to be March 31. 

Here's how to link your Aadhaar card with PAN card:

1. Online (through the income tax e-filing website)

You can link PAN card with Aadhaar card at Income Tax Department's e-filing portal - incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. To do this, go to the website and look for 'link Aadhaar' option on the Income Tax website's home page. The portal will ask you to enter details like name, PAN card number and Aadhar card number to complete the process. 

Link PAN-AADHAR today...
Beneficial tomorrow.

Last date to link PAN with AADHAR is 31st March, 2019. pic.twitter.com/e38txe9adh

— Income Tax India (@IncomeTaxIndia) February 22, 2019

2. Income tax return (ITR)

You can also link the two identification numbers at the time of filing the  income tax return (ITR) online (e-filing). The link of e-filing is available on the websites of NSDL (tin-nsdl.com) and UTIITSL (utiitsl.com), as well as the income tax e-filing portal.

3. SMS

You can also link Aadhar card with PAN card via SMS. For this, you need to send an SMS to 567678 or 56161 in the following format, according to the Income Tax Department website:

UIDPAN <12-digit Aadhaar> <10-digit PAN>

For example, UIDPAN 111122223333 AAAPA9999Q

According to Sushil Chandra's statement at an Assocham event earlier this month, only 23 crore PAN card holders have so far linked their cards with biometric ID Adhaar card. This means more than half of PAN card holders are yet to get their Adhaar cards linked. The income tax department believes that linking the two can help it find out spending pattern and other details of the assessee as PAN card is also linked with the bank account. It also believes that it would be easier to gauge whether the benefits of welfare schemes are availed by eligible persons.