PAN or Permanent Account Number serves as a unique number for an income tax-payer. Now, while it is mandatory to have a PAN card, you could be in trouble for holding more than two. As per the rules, no one is allowed to hold more than one PAN number. Also, no two individuals or entities can hold the same PAN number as per the income tax rules.
What if you have two PAN cards?
If, for any reason, you have acquired two PAN cards, then you must surrender the additional card immediately. Sometimes, on applying for a PAN online, it gets delayed and does not reach the tax-payer physically. The individual re-applies and ends up receiving two PAN cards with different numbers.
This qualifies as an offense. Anyone who has two PAN cards, will end up paying a penalty of Rs 10,000 under section 272B of the Income Tax Act. If a person has been allotted more than one PAN then he should immediately surrender the additional PAN cards.
Also, PAN card holders should know that they cant use different PAN details for different business purposes. For example, if one is using different PANs for the Demat account and another for Income-tax return or payment of taxes, then the one used for Income-tax purpose should be retained and the other number should immediately be surrendered.
In order to surrender your additional PAN, you can either go online or submit the form offline. There is a common form for surrendering or for making any changes in the PAN. You can download the form from the link that says Request For New PAN Card Or/ And Changes Or Correction in PAN Data on the official NSDL website and submit at any of the NSDL offices.
