Aadhaar Pan Card Link: The final date to complete your PAN–Aadhaar card linkage is December 31, 2025. Beginning January 1, 2026, the Income Tax Department
will declare all PANs that remain unlinked as inoperative. According to notification No. 26/2025, issued on April 3, 2025, individuals who were allotted a PAN using an Aadhaar Enrolment ID before October 1, 2024 are required to complete the linkage using their permanent Aadhaar card number by the end of 2025. PAN cards that are not linked by the deadline will be marked inactive or inoperative and cannot be used for tax-related or major financial transactions. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has warned that non-compliance with the rules will have financial consequences, including the suspension of income tax refunds and the application of higher tax deduction rates at source from January 1, 2026. To complete the linking process, taxpayers must first ensure they have a valid PAN, Aadhaar number, and a registered mobile phone to receive a one-time password. In cases where the PAN was issued before July 1, 2017, and has not been linked previously, a fee of Rs 1,000 will be applicable, according to notification.
How to link your PAN card with your Aadhaar card: A step-by-step guide
- Visit the portal homepage at https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/
- Select the Link Aadhaar option under Quick Links.
- Now enter your PAN card and Aadhaar card details.
- After choosing to pay through e-Pay Tax, you are required to re-enter your PAN, verify your mobile number through an OTP,
- Select the Income Tax option, and proceed to payment.
- You will need to select the assessment year and mark the payment category as Other Receipts (500). The amount of Rs 1,000 will be automatically filled in, and the payment can be made using net banking, debit card, or UPI. It may take four to five working days for the payment to reflect in the system.
- Go to the Link Aadhaar section, enter your PAN and Aadhaar details, and validate the information.
- A confirmation message will appear stating "Your payment details are verified." After this, users will have to enter their name and mobile number as per their Aadhaar card.
- Next, users will have to enter their name and mobile number as per their Aadhaar card.
- They will need to confirm the Aadhaar validation and also indicate whether their Aadhaar record only includes the year of birth.
- The process is completed by entering the six-digit OTP sent to the registered mobile number.
Taxpayers can check the status of their PAN-Aadhaar linking even without logging in. By selecting 'Link Aadhaar Status' in the Quick Links section on the e-filing homepage and entering their PAN and Aadhaar details, users can view the current status. Successful linking will be indicated by a green checkmark, while pending cases will display a message stating that the request has been sent to UIDAI for validation.
What will happen if the ITR is not processed by December 31, 2026?
ET reported, quoting Chartered Accountant Suresh Surana, that the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) is required to process the ITRs filed for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26 during Financial Year (FY) 2025-26. Under Section 143(1), a notice must be issued within nine months from the end of the financial year in which the ITR is filed, in accordance with Section 143(1) and its proviso.
Therefore, in cases where the ITR is filed on July 31, 2025, September 16, 2025, or December 31, 2025 (late-filed ITR), the statutory time limit available to the CPC for processing the return will expire on December 31, 2026. "If CPC does not process the return within this prescribed period, it loses the legal authority to issue an intimation under Section 143(1) thereafter," he said.
