Linking Aadhaar to PAN: Income Tax website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in crashes as people rush to link PAN with Aadhaar before June 30

Users reported that the Income Tax website was taking very long to open the Aadhaar-Pan linking page. Moreover, when the page opened, the captcha which is mandatory to finish the linking exercise would not show up.

By Sandhya Dangwal | Updated: June 29, 2017 1:17 PM IST

Mumbai, June 29: The Income Tax Department website www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in crashed on Thursday as people rushed to link their PAN with Aadhaar card. The last day for linking PAN to Aadhaar is July 30, i.e. tomorrow. Users reported the site was taking very long to open the Aadhaar-PAN linking page and when the page opened, the captcha which is mandatory to finish the linking exercise would not show up.

Aadhaar is issued by the UIDAI to all the resident of India while PAN is a ten-digit alphanumeric number allotted in the by the I-T Department to a person, firm or entity. The PAN-Aadhaar linking is mandatory for all. Even if an individual’s income is below exemption limit but has both PAN and Aadhaar, it is required to link both by a date to be notified as per section 139AA. The government has made it mandatory for everyone who has a permanent account number (PAN) as on July 1 to link it with their existing 12-digit biometric Aadhaar number.

The amended income tax rules notify that the government has made quoting of the 12-digit biometric Aadhaar or the enrolment ID a must at the time of application of permanent account number (PAN).  Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley through an amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns.

Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act says that every person who has been allotted PAN as on July 1, 2017 and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar Number shall intimate the same to the tax authorities before a date to be notified by the government.  Both the identity proofs, Aadhaar and PAN have already been made mandatory for filing tax returns, opening of bank accounts and financial transactions over Rs 50,000.  An individual who is applying for a new PAN will have to also mandatorily quote their Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrolment ID

Published Date: June 29, 2017 1:02 PM IST | Updated Date: June 29, 2017 1:17 PM IST