WHAT IS PAN Card Number ?

 Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a ten-digit alphanumeric number, issued in the form of a laminated card, by the Income Tax Department, to any “person” who applies for it or to whom the department allots the number without an application. PAN enables the department to link all transactions of the “person” with the department. These transactions include tax payments, TDS/TCS credits, returns of income/wealth/gift/FBT, specified transactions, correspondence, and so on. PAN,
thus, acts as an identifier for the “person” with the tax department.
PAN was introduced to facilitates linking of various documents, including payment of  taxes, assessment, tax demand, tax arrears etc. relating to an assessee, to facilitate easy retrieval of information and to facilitate matching of information relating to  investment, raising of loans and other business activities of taxpayers collected through various sources, both internal as well as external, for detecting and combating tax evasion and widening of tax base.
A typical PAN is AFZPK7190K.
First three characters i.e. “AFZ” in the above PAN are alphabetic series running from AAA to ZZZ
Fourth character of PAN i.e. “P” in the above PAN represents the status of the PAN holder. “P” stands for Individual, “F” stands for Firm, “C” stands for Company, “H” stands for HUF, “A” stands for AOP, “T” stands for TRUST etc.  Fifth character i.e. “K” in the above PAN represents first character of the PAN holder’s last name/surname.
Next four characters i.e. “7190” in the above PAN are sequential number running from 0001 to 9999.
Last character i.e. “K” in the above PAN is an alphabetic check digit.


As we all know, PAN (Permanent Account Number) Card is issued by the Income Tax Department of India. It is more like a person’s identity in India. A PAN card in India contains unique 10 digit alphanumeric number. A PAN card contains important information like holder’s name, husband/fathers Name, date of birth, 10 digits PAN card number and his Photo.

PAN Card Number is used to identify people filing Income Tax Returns. Every person who is earning is required to have a PAN Number and has to fill the IT Returns irrespective of whether his earnings are below Rs 1,50,000 or not. People with earnings of less than 1.5 Lakh need not file tax returns.

No matter which part of the country you reside in, once you make your PAN card, the number will remain with you. It’s not as if, you change your residential address and subsequently you will require changing your PAN as well. That’s a wrong assumption. PAN card from India gives you this advantage of having the same number for the rest of your life, that was first allotted to you. The PAN has a total of 10 alphanumeric characters where the first 5 characters are letters followed by 4 numbers and then again a letter. For example, AEIQTP5674Z is a perfect example of a PAN number. The structure of the number determines PAN card authenticity. Because of the unique PAN number held by every income tax payee in India, he/she is easily identifiable. It also makes hiding of black money seemingly impossible.

The 4th character of the PAN number acts as a ready determinant. It also depends upon the holder’s status as an assessee. The assessment of the PAN card holder can be done by Income tax department. He can be assessed as a person, body of individuals, a company, local authority, HUF or Hindu undivided Family, the government, an Association of persons or AOP or an artificial juridical person. 5th character helps in identifying the surname of the PAN holder to whom it belongs. Such details are not exactly known to every PAN card holder.

One should have a PAN card irrespective of whether he pays taxes or not. Even filing zero tax return proves very handy in future. It helps in building credibility while applying for home loans etc. In case, one has forgotten his PAN number, he can find PAN card number on appropriate sites.


WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE PAN?
It is mandatory to quote PAN on return of income, all correspondence with any income tax authority. From 1 January 2005 it will be mandatory to quote PAN on challans for any payments due to Income Tax Department.
It is also compulsory to quote PAN in all documents pertaining to the following financial transactions :-
(a) sale or purchase of any immovable property valued at five lakh rupees or more;
(b) sale or purchase of a motor vehicle or vehicle, [the sale or purchase of a motor vehicle or vehicle does not include two wheeled vehicles, inclusive of any detachable side-car having an extra wheel, attached to the motor vehicle;]
(c) a time deposit, exceeding fifty thousand rupees, with a banking company ;
(d) a deposit, exceeding fifty thousand rupees, in any account with Post Office Savings Bank;
(e) a contract of a value exceeding one lakh rupees for sale or purchase of securities;

(f) opening a bank account;
(g) making an application for installation of a telephone connection (including a cellular telephone connection);
(h) payment to hotels and restaurants against their bills for an amount exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees at any one time ;
(i) payment in cash for purchase of bank drafts or pay orders or banker’s cheques for an amount aggregating fifty thousand rupees or more during any one day;
(j) deposit in cash aggregating fifty thousand rupees or more with a bank during any one day;
(k) payment in cash in connection with travel to any foreign country of an amount exceeding twenty-five thousand rupees at any one time.

PAN – LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The legal authority for allotment and use of the new series of PAN is derived from PAN, e.g, who is required to apply for PAN, who else can apply for PAN, who will allot PAN, transactions where PAN is required to be quoted, use of PAN in TDS certificates and TDS returns, that one person can have only one PAN and the manner of applying for PAN.
1962. This rule, amended in 2003, also specifies the copies of documents required to be submitted along with the PAN application as proof of identity and address of the PAN applicant.
entering into specified transactions/activities. Persons who do not have PAN are the persons to whom section 139A does not apply. These are persons who have Govt./State Govt. and Consular offices, where they are payers.
provisions of section 139A.
Section 139A of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This section lays down the framework for The manner of applying for PAN is laid down in Rule 114 of the Income-tax Rules, Rule 114B lists down the documents in which PAN is required to be quoted while exempted from quoting PAN on furnishing a declaration in Form 60. Rule 114C lists agricultural income by furnishing declaration in Form 61, non-residents, and Central Penalty of Rs.10,000/- is imposable u/s 272B for failure to comply with the



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