CA Mohamed Asharaf FCA, DISA(ICA)

All about Permanent Account Number (PAN) and how it is structured. Permanent Account Number is basically a method of identifying a taxpayer on the computer system through a unique All-India number so that all information relating to that taxpayer, e.g. taxes paid, refunds issued, outstanding arrears, income disclosed, transactions entered etc. can be linked to him through the computer system. Processing of return of an assessee or other actions on AST software is not possible unless PAN has been allotted to him and is linked to the AO code of the Assessing Officer who is trying to process that return. Permanent Account Number under new series : Since a taxpayer can make payment of taxes or have monetary transaction anywhere in India, a unique all India taxpayer identification Number is essential for linking and processing transactions / documents relating to a taxpayer on computers, as also for data matching. Therefore, a new series of Permanent Account Number was devised which took ca