Taxpayers not linking PAN with Aadhaar by March 31 would be required to pay a penalty ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000, the income tax department has said.

The last date for linking Permanent Account Number (PAN) with biometric Aadhaar is March 31, 2022. Not adhering to the deadline will lead to PAN becoming inactive.

 In a notification, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said delayed intimation of Aadhaar will attract a late fee of Rs 500 in cases where it is linked within the next 3 months or by June 30, 2022.

Thereafter, Rs 1,000 would have to be paid by taxpayers as penalty.

 Non-linking of PAN with Aadhaar will lead to PAN becoming inoperative after March 31, 2022. It can be reoperationalised on payment of penalty, said a CBDT  notification dated March 29.

 AKM Global, Tax Partner, Amit Maheshwari said the government after extending the deadline several times for linking Aadhaar with PAN has finally come up with a late fees notification where Rs 500 penalty would be attracted for the first three months beginning April 1, 2022 and thereafter Rs 1,000.

 "Any failure may lead to PAN becoming inoperative, which deems that a person had no PAN for income-tax purposes. It is advisable for taxpayers to check their income tax portal and ensure that Aadhaar and PAN are linked. NRIs may have some concerns since in some cases they do not have Aadhaar,” Maheshwari said.

Nangia Andersen LLP Partner Neeraj Agarwala said it is now mandatory to link the Aadhaar number with PAN to complete income tax-related tasks such as filing returns on income.

While PAN is used for various transactions like opening a bank account, purchase of immovable property or proof of identity, inactive PAN will trigger domino effect and individual who have not linked their Aadhaar may face multiple challenges.

"Once your PAN becomes inactive, the person will be restricted from doing financial transactions (where quoting of PAN is mandatory like mutual funds), subjected to TDS at higher rates and penalty under section 272B," Agarwala said.

For those who do not have access to income tax portal, the linking process is made available through SMS also, he added.