PAN: what the ten characters mean, and what makes one stop working
Two of the ten characters say something real about you, and one of them is why correcting your surname will never change your PAN. Then the forms that actually apply from April 2026, and the difference between a PAN that is inoperative and one that is gone.
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What are you actually trying to do with a PAN?
Four questions get called the same thing and have four different answers, in four different places. This sorts them before you spend an afternoon on the wrong portal.
What has happened?
- I do not have a PAN and need one
Do you hold an Aadhaar number?
- Yes
Apply by intimating the Aadhaar number alone.
Rule 158(3) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026: the Aadhaar is authenticated and the PAN allotted on the authenticated data. The shortest route into the system, and it means the PAN arrives already linked.
- No
Form 93 if you are an individual and a citizen of India — wherever you live.
The test is citizenship, not residence: an Indian citizen who is non-resident, or resident but not ordinarily resident, still uses Form 93. Form 94 for an Indian company or an entity formed or incorporated in India, Form 95 for an individual who is not a citizen of India, Form 96 for an entity formed or incorporated outside India. Forms 49A and 49AA stopped being accepted on 1 April 2026.
- Yes
- I have one and something on it is wrong or has changed
Form PAN CR-01 — but work out first whether this is a correction or a change.
A correction fixes something that was always wrong and needs only a document already carrying the right version. A change reflects something that has since changed and needs evidence of the change itself. Merging the two is why these applications get rejected.
Correction against name change → - It has stopped working, or somebody says it is inoperative
Check the linking status first. It is free and takes under a minute.
An inoperative PAN is almost always an unlinked one, and rule 162(2) restores it within thirty days of intimating your Aadhaar. Check before paying anything — a large share of people asking turn out to be linked already.
Linking, the fee and the failure paths → - I have lost the card
Order a reprint, or download the e-PAN. Do not apply again.
Nothing has happened to the number. A fresh application is an application for a second PAN, and that is the commonest way people end up holding two. The e-PAN is the digitally signed PDF and is accepted wherever the card is.
- I think I have two PANs
Surrender one — and keep the one everything is attached to.
Not the older one, not the newer one. The one your filings, bank accounts and investments actually use. Section 262(8) prohibits possessing a second PAN and section 467(1) lets an officer impose ₹10,000 for the breach — discretionary, not automatic — and a voluntary surrender is a materially different conversation from a discovery.
Forms and rule references from the Income-tax Rules, 2026, in force since 1 April 2026, read on 10 September 2026.
A PAN is allotted once and is never recomputed. Changing your name does not change your PAN — including the character in it that encodes your old surname.
The fifth character records the first letter of the surname as it stood on the application. It is a fossil of the name at allotment and stays that way for life, which is why a person whose surname changed on marriage keeps a PAN whose fifth character reflects the maiden surname. What changes is the name recorded against the number, on Form PAN CR-01, and a new card is printed carrying the same number.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026 both took effect on 1 April 2026 and replaced the 1961 Act and the 1962 Rules. Everything on this page is written on the provisions actually in force. If you have just read a page citing section 139AA, section 234H or rule 114AAA — including, when this page was last checked, the Income Tax Department’s own help page and the PAN service provider’s own article — you were reading about the same requirement under its old numbering, and the translation table on this page tells you which is which. This page asks for no PAN and stores nothing.
A PAN is a ten-character identifier — five letters, four numerals and a final letter — allotted once and never reissued, and two of those characters actually say something about the holder. The fourth encodes what kind of holder it was issued to (P for an individual, C for a company, H for a Hindu undivided family, F for a firm, T for a trust and so on) and the fifth is the first letter of the surname or registered name. From 1 April 2026 a new PAN is applied for on Form 93, 94, 95 or 96 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026 — Forms 49A and 49AA are no longer accepted — and the dividing line between them is citizenship, not residence: Form 93 for an individual being a citizen of India, Form 94 for an Indian entity, Form 95 for an individual not being a citizen of India, Form 96 for an entity formed or incorporated outside India. Any later change or correction goes on the change-or-correction request, PAN CR-01 for an individual and PAN CR-02 for anyone else.
Key takeaways
- The fourth character is the only genuinely informative one. P is an individual, C a company, H a Hindu undivided family, F a firm, T a trust, A an association of persons, B a body of individuals, G a government body, L a local authority and J an artificial juridical person.
- The fifth character is the first letter of the surname — which is why correcting a surname does not change your PAN. The number is allotted once and does not move, whatever happens to the name attached to it.
- The tenth character is a check digit computed from the first nine, so a portal can reject a malformed PAN without looking anything up. But “invalid” is not only a typo: it can equally mean a number that never existed, or one that has been cancelled or deactivated. The Department’s own Verify PAN Status service is what tells the two apart.
- From 1 April 2026 the application forms are 93, 94, 95 and 96 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Forms 49A and 49AA are no longer accepted for a new application, and corrections have moved to Form PAN CR-01 and PAN CR-02.
- Inoperative, surrendered and invalid are three different things, and only one of them reverses. An inoperative PAN is still yours and rule 162(2) restores it within thirty days of intimating your Aadhaar.
- Section 262(8) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 says that a person already allotted a PAN “cannot apply, obtain or possess another”. The penalty for breaching that sits in section 467(1) — a failure to comply with section 262, for which the Assessing Officer “may impose” ₹10,000. Section 467(2) is a different provision, about quoting or intimating a number known to be false. Neither is automatic, and voluntarily surrendering an extra PAN is a materially different position from being found with it.
What the ten characters of your PAN actually say
Five letters, four numerals, one letter. Two of those positions carry information about you, and one of them is the reason a PAN issued to a company looks different from one issued to a person. The specimen below is not a real PAN and is not valid as one.
| Position | What it is | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Alphabetic series | A running alphabetic series, AAA to ZZZ. Nothing about you. People read meaning into these three letters constantly and there is none to read. |
| 4 | Holder type | The one genuinely useful character. It says what kind of holder the PAN was issued to — see the table below. If yours is not the letter you expect, that is worth looking into. |
| 5 | Name initial | For an individual, the first letter of the surname as it was given on the application. For anyone else, the first letter of the registered name. This is why a surname correction is the correction people most often expect to change their PAN and it does not: the number is allotted once and does not move. |
| 6–9 | Serial number | A four-digit serial, 0001 to 9999. Nothing about you. |
| 10 | Check character | A check character computed from the first nine. It exists to catch a typo: mistype one character anywhere in the number and the tenth no longer agrees, which is why a portal can tell you a PAN is invalid without looking anything up. |
The fourth character, decoded
| Letter | Stands for | Who holds one |
|---|---|---|
| P | Person — an individual | The overwhelming majority of PANs. If you are a person and your fourth character is not P, that is worth looking into rather than shrugging at. |
| C | Company | A company incorporated under the Companies Act. |
| H | Hindu undivided family | The family as an assessee in its own right, distinct from every individual in it. A person filing a personal return on an HUF PAN has a real problem. |
| F | Firm | A partnership firm, and limited liability partnerships. |
| A | Association of persons | Two or more persons joining for a common purpose — a club, a society, a joint venture. |
| T | Trust | A trust, private or public. |
| B | Body of individuals | Individuals carrying on an activity together without forming an association of persons. |
| L | Local authority | A municipality, panchayat, cantonment board or similar. |
| J | Artificial juridical person | An entity that is a person in law without being any of the above — a deity, a university created by statute. |
| G | Government | A government body. |
Structure and holder-type codes as published by Protean, the PAN service provider. Checked 10 September 2026.
If you have just read a page citing section 139AA, read this first
The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 on 1 April 2026, and the Income-tax Rules, 2026 replaced the Income-tax Rules, 1962 on the same day. The requirement did not change. Its numbering did — and almost nothing on the open web has caught up, including, when this page was last checked, the Income Tax Department’s own help page and the PAN service provider’s own article. Nothing you were told was wrong in substance. It was cited to a provision that no longer exists.
| What you will still see cited | What is actually in force | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| Section 139AA(2), Income-tax Act, 1961 | Section 262(6), Income-tax Act, 2025 | The requirement to intimate your Aadhaar number, and the consequence of not doing it. |
| Rule 114AAA, Income-tax Rules, 1962 | Rule 162, Income-tax Rules, 2026 | How a PAN is made inoperative, what follows while it is, and the thirty days back to operative. |
| Section 234H with rule 114(5A) | Rule 158(10), Income-tax Rules, 2026 | The ₹1,000 fee on a late intimation. The amount did not change; the provision behind it did. |
| Sections 206AA and 206CC | Section 397(2), Income-tax Act, 2025 | The higher rate at which tax is deducted or collected against an inoperative PAN. |
| Section 272B | Section 467, Income-tax Act, 2025 | The ₹10,000 penalty. Sub-section (1) covers a failure to comply with section 262 — which is where the bar on holding a second PAN sits, in section 262(8). Sub-section (2) is the separate provision on quoting or intimating a number that is false, knowing or believing it to be false. In both, the Assessing Officer “may impose”: nothing is automatic. |
| Forms 49A and 49AA | Forms 93, 94, 95 and 96 | Applying for a PAN. Form 93 is for an individual being a citizen of India, Form 94 for an Indian entity, Form 95 for an individual not being a citizen of India, Form 96 for an entity formed or incorporated outside India. The test is citizenship, not residence. The old forms are no longer accepted for a new application. |
| “Request for New PAN Card Or/And Changes Or Correction in PAN Data” | Form PAN CR-01 (individuals) and PAN CR-02 (others) | Changing or correcting anything on an existing PAN. |
Source: the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026, the latter notified by CBDT Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), dated 20 March 2026 and in force from 1 April 2026. Checked 10 September 2026.
What a PAN is, and what it is not
A Permanent Account Number is an identifier the Income Tax Department allots to a person for tax purposes. The word doing the work is permanent: it is allotted once, it does not change when your name, address, marital status or state of residence changes, and it is not reissued. A replacement card is a new piece of plastic carrying the same number.
It is not a proof of citizenship, it is not a proof of address, and it is not an identity document in the sense that a passport is. It is a tax identifier that a great many institutions have adopted as a convenient identity check because it is unique and easily verified. That distinction matters when you are asked for one: the question of whether you are legally required to have a PAN and the question of whether a bank will open an account without one are different questions with different answers.
What it is genuinely required for is set out in section 262 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the successor from 1 April 2026 to section 139A of the Income-tax Act, 1961. Broadly, a person whose income crosses the threshold, a person carrying on business or profession above a stated turnover, and a person required to furnish a return must have one — and it must be quoted in specified transactions.
One person, one PAN. That is not a convention; it is the point of the thing, and holding a second one is a defined default with a defined penalty.
Applying for a PAN, on the forms that are actually current
This changed on 1 April 2026 and a great deal of what is written about it has not caught up. The Income-tax Rules, 2026 replaced the Income-tax Rules, 1962, and rule 158 replaced Forms 49A and 49AA with four category-specific forms. An application on Form 49A is no longer an application.
| Form | Who uses it | What it replaced |
|---|---|---|
| Form 93 | An individual who is a citizen of India — including a citizen living abroad, whether non-resident or resident but not ordinarily resident. | Form 49A, for individuals who are Indian citizens. |
| Form 94 | An Indian company, an entity incorporated in India, or an unincorporated entity formed in India — LLP, firm, trust, Hindu undivided family, association of persons, body of individuals or local authority. | Form 49A, for entities. |
| Form 95 | An individual who is not a citizen of India — whatever their residential status. | Form 49AA, for individuals. |
| Form 96 | An entity incorporated outside India, or an unincorporated entity formed outside India. | Form 49AA, for entities. |
These are the forms’ own headings, taken from the copies published by the PAN service provider: Form 93 “[For an Individual being a Citizen of India]”, Form 94 “[For an Indian Company / an Entity incorporated in India / an Unincorporated Entity formed in India]”, Form 95 “[For an Individual not being a Citizen of India]”, Form 96 “[For an Entity incorporated outside India / an Unincorporated Entity formed outside India]”. All four are made under rule 158 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Note what the test is not: residence. An Indian citizen living abroad — a non-resident, or resident but not ordinarily resident — still uses Form 93. Much secondary reporting of the 2026 change puts non-residents on Form 95; that is wrong, and a wrong form is a rejected application.
Rule 158 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 allows a person who holds an Aadhaar number but no PAN to apply by intimating the Aadhaar number alone: the Aadhaar is authenticated and the PAN is allotted on the authenticated data. The Department offers it as “Instant e-PAN” on the e-filing portal. It is the shortest route into the system that exists, and it is why a PAN allotted in recent years is generally already linked.
Reading your own PAN
The decoder above breaks the ten characters into what each position does. Two of them repay attention.
The fourth character is the holder type, and it is the one worth checking. A PAN issued to you as an individual carries P. If yours carries something else and you are an individual, that is not a cosmetic oddity — it means the PAN was allotted against a different kind of applicant, and it will behave differently at every institution that reads it.
The fifth character is the first letter of the surname, taken from the name as it was given on the application. This is the source of a persistent misunderstanding. People assume that correcting or changing a surname changes the PAN, because the PAN visibly encodes the old surname. It does not. The number is allotted once; the fifth character is a fossil of the name at the time of allotment and stays that way for life. A woman whose surname changed on marriage keeps a PAN whose fifth character reflects her maiden surname, and that is correct and expected.
The tenth character is a check digit derived from the first nine. It is the reason a portal can reject a PAN as invalid instantly: mistype any character and the tenth no longer agrees with the rest, so the number can be rejected without a database lookup. It also means that a PAN that "looks right" is not necessarily a real PAN — a check digit only proves internal consistency, not existence.
Checking status, and getting the card again
Three different things get called "checking my PAN status" and they have three different answers.
If you have applied and are waiting, the service provider you applied through — Protean or UTIITSL — tracks the application against its own acknowledgement number. That is the tracking that answers "where is my PAN".
If you hold a PAN and want to know whether it is operative, that is a different check entirely and it lives on the Income Tax e-filing portal, under Link Aadhaar Status. It answers "is my PAN working", which is the question people usually mean.
If you have lost the card, nothing has happened to the number. A reprint is ordered from the service provider, and an e-PAN — the digitally signed PDF — is generally faster and is accepted wherever the card is. Ordering a reprint is not an application for a new PAN and must not be filed as one: that is one of the ways people accidentally end up holding two.
Applying afresh because the card was lost, or because an earlier application seemed to have gone nowhere, or because a spouse applied on your behalf without knowing you already had one. None of those is dishonest and all of them produce the same defined default. If you suspect it has happened, the fix is to surrender the extra rather than to hope.
Two PANs: what actually happens, and what to do
One person, one PAN. The prohibition is in section 262(8) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, and it is short enough to quote: “A person who has already been allotted a Permanent Account Number cannot apply, obtain or possess another Permanent Account Number.” It carries forward what section 139A(7) of the 1961 Act used to do.
The penalty most pages reach for is the right amount attached to the wrong sub-section, so it is worth separating two provisions that are easily run together. Section 467(1) is the one that reaches a second PAN: “If a person fails to comply with the provisions of section 262 … the Assessing Officer may impose a penalty of ten thousand rupees on him.” Section 467(2) is a different thing altogether — it applies where a person required to quote or intimate a PAN or an Aadhaar number “provides or quotes or intimates a number which is false, knowing or believing it to be false”, and it is ten thousand rupees for each such default.
So possession and false quoting are two separate defaults with two separate provisions, and this matters practically. The exposure under 467(2) grows with use, because it is per default. And in both, the statute says the Assessing Officer “may impose”: it is a discretionary penalty following a default, not a charge that lands on you automatically the moment a second PAN exists.
The practical position is straightforward even if the law around it is not. If you hold two, surrender one. The surrender is filed with the PAN service provider, identifying the PAN being retained and the one being given up. Do it before the Department notices rather than after: a voluntary surrender and a discovery are not the same conversation.
Which one to keep: the one your filings, your bank accounts and your investments are actually attached to, not the older one or the newer one as a rule of thumb. Surrendering the PAN that everything is linked to creates a second problem larger than the first.
Inoperative, surrendered, invalid — three states people confuse
These get used interchangeably and they are not interchangeable. The lifecycle diagram above shows the transitions; this is what each one means.
| State | What it means | Does it reverse? | What it is caused by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inoperative | The PAN exists and is yours, but during this period no refund of tax is granted, no interest is payable on such a refund, and tax is deducted and collected at the higher rate under section 397(2). You can still file a return. | Yes — within thirty days of intimating your Aadhaar number, under rule 162(2) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. | Failing to intimate the Aadhaar number under section 262(6). |
| Surrendered or cancelled | The PAN has been given up deliberately. It no longer identifies anybody and cannot be used. | No. This is intentional and permanent. | Holding more than one and giving up the extra; or the death of an individual or the dissolution of an entity. |
| Invalid | Not one state but a bucket. It can mean the string is not a well-formed PAN, because the check digit does not agree with the first nine characters. It can equally mean the number is well formed but does not exist, or exists and has been cancelled, deactivated or otherwise made inactive — for instance after a duplicate was surrendered or removed. | Depends entirely on which of those it is, which is why the first step is to find out rather than to guess. | A mistyped character; or a number that never existed; or a record that has been cancelled or deactivated. Check the number against the card, then use the Income Tax Department’s own pre-login “Verify PAN Status” service, which validates whether a PAN is active. If the status is not what you expect, the Department’s own guidance is to take it to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer. |
From sections 262 and 397(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 and rule 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, together with the Income Tax Department’s own Verify PAN Status user manual, read on 10 September 2026. One point about all three states: none of them changes your PAN. The ten characters allotted to you stay yours. What can be reissued is the card — a physical PAN card or an e-PAN — and that is a different request from anything in this table.
The Aadhaar requirement, in one paragraph
A PAN must carry its holder’s Aadhaar number or it stops working. That requirement is section 262(6) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the manner is rule 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, a late intimation carries a fee of ₹1,000 under rule 158(10), and four categories of person are outside it altogether. All of that — including the check that tells you whether you are already linked, which most people asking turn out to be — is on the linking page, and it is not repeated here.
Worked examples
Example 1: Reading a PAN that turned out to be the wrong kind
- Holder
- An individual, filing a personal return
- Fourth character of the PAN
- H
- What they assumed
- That the letters were random
- 1.H in the fourth position denotes a Hindu undivided family, not an individual.
- 2.So the PAN was allotted to the family as an assessee, not to the person holding the card.
- 3.That is not a defect if the family genuinely holds it — an HUF is a separate assessee and has its own PAN.
- 4.It is a serious problem if the person has been filing a personal return on it, because the return and the PAN describe two different assessees.
The fourth character is worth ten seconds of anybody’s attention. Where it does not match the kind of taxpayer you are, that is a question for a professional rather than a correction form — the PAN is not wrong, it is somebody else’s kind of PAN.
Example 2: The surname that changed and the PAN that did not
- Event
- A change of surname on marriage
- Fifth character of the PAN
- The initial of the maiden surname
- What they expected
- A new PAN reflecting the new surname
- 1.The fifth character is taken from the name given on the application at the time the PAN was allotted.
- 2.A PAN is allotted once and is not reissued. Nothing about a later change of name causes it to be recomputed.
- 3.What changes is the name recorded against the PAN, not the PAN itself — and that is a correction filed on Form PAN CR-01.
- 4.A new card is printed carrying the new name and the same number.
The PAN keeps the old surname initial for life, and that is correct. If a bank or an employer queries it, the answer is that the fifth character records the name at allotment and does not track later changes.
Example 3: Two PANs, discovered late
- How it happened
- A second application filed years earlier, after the first appeared to have gone nowhere
- Which one is in use
- The second — every bank account, investment and return is attached to it
- The instinct
- Surrender the newer one, because it is the "extra" one
- 1.The prohibition is in section 262(8), and the penalty for breaching it in section 467(1): the Assessing Officer “may impose” ₹10,000. Discretionary, and not something that lands automatically the moment a second PAN exists.
- 2.Which PAN to keep is decided by what is attached to it, not by which came first.
- 3.Here everything is attached to the second, so the second is the one to retain.
- 4.The surrender is filed with the PAN service provider, identifying the PAN retained and the one given up.
Surrender the first, retain the second. Surrendering the one everything is linked to would have created a larger problem than the one being solved — and doing it voluntarily is a materially different position from being found with two.
More questions about this page
What does the fourth letter of a PAN card mean?▼
Does my PAN change if I change my name?▼
Which form do I use to apply for a PAN in 2026?▼
What is the penalty for having two PAN cards?▼
Is an inoperative PAN the same as a cancelled PAN?▼
How do I check whether my PAN is working?▼
I lost my PAN card. Do I apply again?▼
Can I get a PAN using only my Aadhaar?▼
What is the last character of a PAN for?▼
Official sources checked
The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.
- Section 262(8): “A person who has already been allotted a Permanent Account Number cannot apply, obtain or possess another Permanent Account Number.” Section 467(1): a ₹10,000 penalty the Assessing Officer “may impose” for a failure to comply with section 262. Section 467(2): a separate ₹10,000 penalty, for each default, where a person quotes or intimates a number which is false, knowing or believing it to be false. In force from 1 April 2026; successors to sections 139A and 272B of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
- Income-tax Rules, 2026 — rules 158 and 162The application forms 93 to 96, the Aadhaar-only application route in rule 158(3), the ₹1,000 fee in rule 158(10), and the inoperative-PAN machinery in rule 162. Notified by CBDT Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), 20 March 2026.
- The ten-character structure, the holder-type codes in the fourth position, the surname initial in the fifth and the check digit in the tenth, as published by the PAN service provider. Checked 10 September 2026.
- Where an operative-or-not check is actually made, under Link Aadhaar Status. Checked 10 September 2026 — on which date the portal’s own Link Aadhaar help page was still citing the repealed section 139AA(2A).
Four words people use interchangeably, and should not
Most of the confusion about a PAN that has stopped working comes from these four being treated as one thing. They are four different states with four different causes and only one of them reverses.
Inoperative
Still yours; temporarily crippled.
The PAN exists and is yours. During the period it is inoperative, rule 162(3) provides that no refund of tax is granted, no interest is payable on such a refund, and tax is deducted and collected at the higher rate under section 397(2). You can still file a return. Rule 162(2) restores it within thirty days of your intimating your Aadhaar number.
Basis: Rule 162, Income-tax Rules, 2026
Surrendered or cancelled
Deliberately given up; permanent.
Filed with the PAN service provider, identifying the PAN retained and the one given up. The usual cause is a person discovering they hold two. It is intentional and it does not reverse — which is why the choice of which one to keep matters more than people expect.
Basis: Section 262, Income-tax Act, 2025
Invalid
Usually a typo, not a state.
What a system says when a string is not a well-formed PAN — most often because the tenth character, a check digit computed from the first nine, does not agree with the rest. Check the number against the card before concluding anything has happened to the PAN.
Not linked
A cause, not a state.
Being unlinked is what makes a PAN inoperative; it is not itself a state of the PAN. And it is not the same as being exempt: four categories of person are outside the requirement altogether, and an exemption is not a flag banks and deductors can see.
Basis: Section 262(6), Income-tax Act, 2025
These are four separate questions. Winning one of them does not decide any of the others.
From the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026, read on 10 September 2026.
The life of a PAN: from application to whatever happens next
Six states and the trigger that moves a PAN between them. Most PANs only ever occupy two of them.
Applied for, not yet allottedIn transit
An application is in with a service provider against an acknowledgement number. Tracking at this stage is done with the service provider, not on the Income Tax portal — people look in the wrong place constantly.
The application is accepted becomes Allotted and operative
On Form 93, 94, 95 or 96 under rule 158 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 — the form chosen by citizenship, not residence — or by intimating an Aadhaar number alone, the route the Department offers as Instant e-PAN.
The application is rejected becomes Applied for, not yet allotted
Back to the start, with a reason. The commonest are a name that does not match the proof, and a wrong form — and from 1 April 2026 an application on Form 49A is a wrong form.
Allotted and operativeWorking
The ordinary state, and where a PAN spends its life. Refunds issue, interest accrues, ordinary rates of deduction and collection apply.
Failing to intimate the Aadhaar number becomes Inoperative
Section 262(6)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 with rule 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026.
A change of name, address or other particular becomes Allotted and operative
Form PAN CR-01 for an individual. The number does not change; a new card is printed. The PAN never leaves this state.
InoperativeNot working
Still yours, and still exists. No refund for the period, no interest on such a refund for the period, higher-rate deduction and collection under section 397(2). Filing a return is unaffected.
Intimating the Aadhaar number after paying the ₹1,000 fee becomes Allotted and operative
Within thirty days, under rule 162(2). Refunds and ordinary rates resume from that point; interest for the inoperative period is not paid retrospectively, and nothing propagates to a bank or a deductor by itself.
One of two, in useNot working
A person holding more than one PAN. Almost never deliberate — a reapplication after a lost card, an application that seemed to have gone nowhere, a second one filed on somebody’s behalf. Section 262(8) says a person already allotted a PAN cannot apply for, obtain or possess another; section 467(1) lets the Assessing Officer impose ₹10,000 for a failure to comply with section 262. “May impose”, not must.
Voluntarily surrendering the extra becomes Surrendered
Filed with the service provider, retaining the PAN your filings, accounts and investments are actually attached to — not the older or the newer one as a rule of thumb.
SurrenderedIn transit
Deliberately given up. It no longer identifies anybody. Doing this voluntarily is a materially different position from being found with two.
Closed on death or dissolutionIn transit
A PAN belongs to an assessee, so it ends when the assessee does — on the death of an individual or the dissolution of an entity. Filings for the final period still have to be made, which is why this is not the first thing to do.
From sections 262 and 467 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 and rules 158 and 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, read on 10 September 2026. Note the two limbs of section 467 kept apart here: sub-section (1) is the penalty for a failure to comply with section 262, which is where the bar on a second PAN lives; sub-section (2) is the separate penalty for quoting or intimating a number known to be false.
Every page in this guide
You are here
Working out what your PAN is doing
What to do next
- 1
If it has gone inoperative, the linking page is the whole answer
Check first — most people asking turn out to be linked already — and rule 162(2) restores an inoperative PAN within thirty days of intimation.
Linking Aadhaar with PAN → - 2
If a particular on the PAN is wrong, that is Form PAN CR-01
The checkbox logic on that form is where applications are rejected, and the evidence differs depending on whether this is a correction or a change.
PAN correction and name change → - 3
If the underlying problem is a name you are changing legally
The legal change has to happen before any document can be corrected to reflect it. Doing it in the other order means doing it twice.
The name-change dependency chain → - 4
If the Aadhaar side is where the problem actually is
What can be updated online, what needs a centre, the lifetime limits, and every record you must separately go and fix afterwards.
The Aadhaar services guide →