look news india
New Delhi. The Income Tax Department has issued a ‘high alert’ for crores of taxpayers and PAN card holders of the country. If you have the next 5 days If you do not complete your mandatory compliance process within 30 days, your PAN card will be declared ‘inoperative’. As the last date of 9 February 2026 approaches, the department has made it clear that no relief of any kind will be given after this. This warning is important for salaried employees, business owners, freelancers and investors alike.
What is the reason for PAN card becoming inactive?
The main objective of the government and the Income Tax Department is to curb ‘tax evasion’ and ‘fake identities’. Under this data cleaning campaign, verification of every PAN card and its linking with Aadhaar has been made mandatory. The PAN cards of those whose details do not match the records or who have ignored the linking process will be banned in the financial systems.
What do you need to do in the next 5 days?
If you want to avoid fines and legal complications, do these two things immediately:
PAN-Aadhaar Linking: Visit the official Income Tax portal and ensure that your PAN is linked to Aadhaar.
Details Verification: Check whether your name, date of birth and gender are the same in both the PAN and Aadhaar documents.
If PAN becomes ‘inoperative’, you will have to face these 5 big difficulties
Having an inoperative PAN card means putting ‘brakes’ on your financial activities:
ITR Filing: You will not be able to file your income tax return.
banking services: It will be impossible to open a new bank account or transact more than ₹50,000.
Investment ban: You will not be able to invest money in mutual funds, share market or FD.
High TDS: TDS may be deducted on your income at much higher rates than usual (e.g. up to 20%).
Property Transaction: There will be legal hurdles during the purchase or sale of any property.
How to check your PAN Status?
It takes just 2 minutes to know whether your PAN card is secure or not:
step 1: E-filing portal of Income Tax Department incometax.gov.in Go to.
Step 2: By going to ‘Quick Links’ section ‘Verify Your PAN’ Click on Options.
Step 3: Enter your PAN number, full name, date of birth and mobile number.
Step 4: After OTP verification, you will immediately know whether your PAN is ‘active’ or not.
Penalties and fines: Delay will cost heavily
If you do not comply within the deadline, you will have to pay penalty or late fee as per Income Tax rules to get the PAN reactivated. Additionally, the loss incurred due to your financial transactions being halted during the inactive period will be different.
