Income Tax Portal Update: Here's New Mandate on PAN Registration

Previously, taxpayers could register their PAN on the Income TaxDepartment’s e-filing portal by entering some basic information, such as PAN, name, date of birth, and phone number. Aadhaar linkage was encouraged and eventually became mandatory for filing tax returns, but Aadhaar OTP was not required to be verified at the registration step.

Now, Aadhaar OTP verification has been added as a requirement for the PAN registration process. This means that your PAN should be attached to your Aadhaar, and your Aadhaar must be linked to an active phone number that is capable of receiving OTPs.

In this era of Digitalization, this seems to be a smart move on the part of the Income Tax Department. This actually helps to verify the identity of the taxpayer as well as prevents the misuse and duplication of PANs.

With the central government making Aadhaar and Aadhaar OTP verification mandatory for various governmental services, this step of making OTP verification mandatory in the Income Tax Portal helps the department to check that only genuine users access the Income Tax Portal and file their Income Tax returns.

The impact of this new update on the taxpayers is that you will not be able to finish the PAN registration process on the portal if your Aadhaar is not connected to a working mobile number. Refund processing, income tax return filing, and access to other services that need PAN verification may be delayed as a result. Although this new update may require the taxpayers to link their users to update their mobile numbers in Aadhaar, this is a major step in ensuring accountability and compliance.I

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