Aadhaar PAN Link: Status Check, Rs 1,000 Fee and Inoperative PAN Fix

The Aadhaar PAN link is the legal duty of every PAN holder who can get Aadhaar to report that Aadhaar number to the Income Tax Department, done free of login on the e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in through the Link Aadhaar service. Most people now come here for one of three things: to check whether their PAN and Aadhaar are already linked, to pay the Rs 1,000 late fee and link them, or to revive a PAN that has turned inoperative.

Two confusions cost people the most time. The first is the idea that a missed deadline closes the door. It doesn’t: an unlinked PAN becomes inoperative, not cancelled, and it comes back within 30 days of linking after the fee is paid. The second is legal. Most pages still cite section 139AA, but the Income-tax Act, 1961 was replaced on 1 April 2026, and the same duty now sits in section 262(6) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, with the fee and consequences in Rules 158 and 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026.

Aadhaar PAN link at a glance

The essentials, as the department’s notifications and the current rules state them:

Who must link Aadhaar with PAN and who is exempt

Every PAN holder who is eligible for Aadhaar must intimate it. Under the old law, section 139AA(2A) applied this to individuals allotted a PAN as on 1 July 2017. Section 262(6) of the 2025 Act keeps the same rule and the same penalty: a PAN whose holder fails to intimate Aadhaar “shall be made inoperative”. New applicants don’t need a separate step, because the department’s manual says linking happens automatically when a PAN is applied for with Aadhaar.

Four groups are outside the requirement under Notification No. 37/2017 dated 11 May 2017:

• individuals residing in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Meghalaya;
• non-residents as defined in the Income-tax Act;
• individuals aged 80 years or more at any time during the previous year;
• individuals who are not citizens of India.

An exempt person can still link voluntarily, but the department says the same fee applies. An NRI whose PAN shows inoperative should not pay to link: UTIITSL’s notice asks such holders to report their non-resident status, with documents, to their jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO), whose details are on the e-filing portal’s Know your AO service.

The deadlines and the Rs 1,000 fee, in order

The deadline is long past for most people, which is why the fee is now standard. Each date below comes from a department notification, circular or press release.

The Enrolment-ID cohort is the one most people miss. Until 1 October 2024, a PAN could be allotted on an Aadhaar Enrolment ID instead of the Aadhaar number itself; the department withdrew that option from that date. Notification No. 26/2025 required those holders to intimate their actual Aadhaar number by 31 December 2025.

How to pay the Rs 1,000 fee through e-Pay Tax

The fee comes first: the portal won’t accept a link request until it can see the payment. The department’s Link Aadhaar user manual gives this route.

1. On the e-filing portal home page, click Link Aadhaar under Quick Links.
2. Enter your PAN and Aadhaar number and click Continue to Pay Through e-Pay Tax.
3. Enter your PAN, confirm it, and give a mobile number for the OTP.
4. After OTP verification you reach the e-Pay Tax page. Click Proceed on the Income Tax tile.
5. Select the assessment year and the payment type Other Receipts (500), then click Continue.
6. The amount is pre-filled against Others. Click Continue, pick a payment mode and pay through your bank.

One caution on step 5. Since 1 April 2026 the e-Pay Tax page offers separate challans under the Income Tax Act, 2025 and the 1961 Act, and the department’s manual for the Link Aadhaar fee hadn’t been updated for this as of 3 November 2026. Start from the Link Aadhaar quick link, so the portal opens the fee payment itself, and don’t build a challan by hand. The department’s FAQ is strict on three points:

• pay the full Rs 1,000 in one challan; smaller challans are not added up;
• a fee paid under the wrong head or for the wrong amount is not refunded;
• the payment takes 4 to 5 working days to show on the portal.

How to link Aadhaar with PAN on the e-filing portal

Once the payment shows, the link request takes a few minutes. You can do it with or without logging in; the official Link Aadhaar help page covers both.

Without logging in:

1. On the e-filing portal home page, click Link Aadhaar under Quick Links.
2. Enter your PAN and Aadhaar number and click Validate.
3. If the pop-up says your payment details are verified, click Continue.
4. Enter the details asked for, as they appear on Aadhaar, and click Link Aadhaar.
5. Enter the 6-digit OTP sent to the mobile number you gave and click Validate.

After logging in, go to the Dashboard and, in the Profile section under Link Aadhaar to PAN, click Link Aadhaar. Enter the Aadhaar number and click Validate. If the pop-up says “Payments details not found”, the fee hasn’t reached the portal yet: wait the 4 to 5 working days, or pay through the Continue To Pay Through e-Pay Tax button if you haven’t paid at all.

How to check Aadhaar PAN link status

The status check is free and needs no login. On the home page, click Link Aadhaar Status under Quick Links, enter your PAN and Aadhaar number and click View Link Aadhaar Status. The message tells you whether the two are linked or whether the request is still in progress.

After logging in, the same check is under My Profile > Link Aadhaar Status, or from the Dashboard. If the Aadhaar number is shown in your profile, the link is done. A request “pending with UIDAI for validation” just needs another check later; UIDAI has to confirm the Aadhaar details before the link completes. UTIITSL’s PAN portal also has a PAN & Aadhaar Link Status option. To see whether the PAN itself is active, use Verify Your PAN on the e-filing portal.

What an inoperative PAN means

An inoperative PAN still exists, but the tax system stops treating it as valid for the holder’s benefit. Rule 162 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 lists the consequences that run until the PAN becomes operative again:

• no refund of tax due under the Act is made;
• no interest is paid on that refund for the inoperative period;
• TDS and TCS are deducted or collected at a higher rate, under section 397(2) of the 2025 Act (sections 206AA and 206CC under the 1961 Act).

The higher deduction is the one that hurts quietly. A bank, employer or buyer checking your PAN finds it inoperative and must deduct at the higher rate, and the refund that would normally fix it is blocked too. People in the exempt categories are not subject to these consequences, as the 2023 press release states.

How to make an inoperative PAN operative again

The fix is the same Link Aadhaar process: pay the Rs 1,000 fee, then link. Rule 162(2) says the PAN becomes operative within thirty days of intimating Aadhaar after paying the fee. The 2023 press release gave the same 30-day period.

Plan around that window. If a refund is due or a large transaction is coming up, link now rather than the week before. If the status still shows inoperative after 30 days, check Link Aadhaar Status first; a link stuck with UIDAI or rejected for a mismatch is the usual reason, and the fixes are below. The tax law behind all this, old and new, is summarised in the notes on the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Common errors and their fixes

Almost every failed link falls into one of these cases, each with a fix the department itself prescribes.

On the mismatch, fix the record that is actually wrong. If PAN carries the old spelling, follow the PAN card correction guide; if Aadhaar is wrong, the Aadhaar update guide covers the online and centre routes. For biometric linking, carry your PAN, Aadhaar and the Rs 1,000 challan copy to a Protean or UTIITSL centre; the biometric authentication carries its own charge, payable at the centre. If you don’t have a PAN yet, the guide to applying for a PAN card online links Aadhaar at the application stage itself. Tracking a fresh PAN or correction application is covered in this site’s PAN card status guide.

Where to complain and get help

Use the channel that owns the problem:

• e-filing portal (fee, link request, status): 1800 103 0025 or 1800 419 0025, 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Friday, or the Grievances link in the portal footer.
• Wrong link or delinking: your jurisdictional Assessing Officer, found through Know your AO on the e-filing portal.
• PAN record errors: Protean on 020-27218080 or UTIITSL on 033-40802999.
• Aadhaar record errors: UIDAI, through myAadhaar or an Aadhaar centre.

Department complaints ultimately go up to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which frames the rules. Quote your PAN, the challan number and the date of payment in every message.

Frequently Asked Questions

PDF