Permanent Account Number (PAN) card has been made compulsary for every transaction with the Income Tax department. Now a days PAN card is mandatory for opening a bank account, for transaction of immovable properties, for foreign travel, for dealing in securities and for so many more.
A PAN card also works as identification proof. Some cases have come into light where a person avails more than one PAN card. In such cases, person should retain any one of them and should surrender the other through a letter addressed to jurisdictional assessing officer. It is illegal to have more than one PAN card and the penalty for this is Rs 10000. If a person has used different PAN for different purpose by mistake then he must surrender the additional card immediately and also inform the institution, where he has used that card about the correct PAN. Availing PAN does not mean that person has to file return. A person may avail PAN card even if he is not income tax payee. Return is mandatory only if the person has taxable income.
