2 PANs on Your ITR? Your Tax Relief May Be Denied

If you declared income under IDS or any tax scheme but have two PANs linked to your name, the tax department may reject your payment credit. Here is what to do before a reassessment notice lands at your door.

Here's what happened: ITAT Pune upheld a tax reassessment notice against a taxpayer whose IDS tax payment was split across two PAN numbers, creating a credit mismatch in IT records.. The tribunal directed the Assessing Officer to verify the actual tax paid and grant conditional relief if the payment is confirmed — putting the burden of proof on the taxpayer.. Holding two PANs, even unintentionally, violates Section 272B of the Income Tax Act and attracts a ₹10,000 penalty per instance..

What you should do: Log in to the Income Tax e-filing portal and check your Form 26AS — verify that all tax payments, advance tax, and TDS credits appear under your single active PAN.. If you suspect a duplicate PAN exists in your name (from an old address, name change, or employer filing error), immediately submit a PAN surrender form at an NSDL or UTI service centre to deactivate the extra one.. If you declared income under IDS or any past voluntary disclosure scheme, cross-check your challan receipts against your current PAN — and if there is a mismatch, write to your Assessing Officer with payment proof before a notice arrives..

You can check whether a duplicate PAN exists against your Aadhaar by visiting the e-filing portal under 'Verify Your PAN' — it flags mismatches before the tax department does.

For readers weighing their credit and loan options, our personal loan guide and CIBIL score resources put this update in context.