According to the Income Tax Department, taxpayers may avail of the facility of linkage of their Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar if they cannot do it so far. The Government of India, as per the recent announcement, has directly specified that people now have around until May 31 to link up their PAN with their Aadhaar; there will be no problems with their own income coming to a fractional shortage because of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS).
PAN not linked with biometric Aadhaar is a requirement under the prevailing tax regulations that set the TDS amount to be double the applicable rate. Even though the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) relieves the deviances shown by taxpayers who were issued notices for failing to make TDS/TCS (Tax Collected at Source) as notices due to their introspective PANs of deductees/collected were inoperative.
When the deductors and collectors have particular issues, the CBDT made a special condition for transactions that were closed by March 31, 2024, and where PAN was operational by connecting it to Aadhaar on or before May 31, 2024. There was no requirement of Tax deduction or even collecting at a higher rate.
With this move, tax advisors are willing to come out of their hiding since this is a salvage measure for both deductions and collections. They urge timely PAN registration incorporating the Aadhaar number by contacting the deductees as early as possible before the due date of May 31. Nevertheless, they perceive that, at present, PAN operators do not have a utility to confirm the functioning of PAN, and the deducers must count on the deductees themselves for that purpose.
At this point, Income Tax Department actions specifically aim to remove this burden on taxpayers and encourage immediate observations on PAN-Aadhaar linkage, which will concertedly benefit individuals and the tax authorities.
