It is important to keep the PAN card safe. It can be misused if it is stolen or lost. Fraudsters often use stolen PAN cards for transactions.
Often people take PAN i.e. Permanent Account Number lightly. Doing this can be costly. The rules related to PAN are very strict. The reason for this is that PAN is a number through which the Income Tax Department keeps track of all your financial transactions. It also plays a big role in assessing the tax liability of an individual taxpayer or company. There has been a decline in tax evasion cases since the introduction of PAN. Let us now tell you why it is important to keep your PAN card safe.
File a police report in case of PAN theft or loss
First of all, it is important to know that if your PAN is stolen or falls into someone else’s hands, it can be misused. Every day such cases are heard in which fraudsters use stolen PAN. Many times stolen PAN is used for illegal transactions. After investigation, it is found that the income of the PAN holder is so low that he cannot do big transactions. Fraudsters mostly use the PAN of people whose income is very low. Therefore avoid keeping PAN card in your wallet. If your PAN card is lost or stolen then definitely inform the police. This will save you from getting into trouble in case of misuse of PAN.
It is illegal to have more than one PAN
It is important to know that a person should have only one PAN. If a person has more than one PAN, the Income Tax Department can impose penalty on him. First the department will cancel one PAN. Then he will impose a penalty. If there is wrong information in PAN, the bank can freeze your account. Therefore, if any wrong information has been inadvertently entered in your PAN, then you should get it corrected. If you have two PAN cards by mistake, you should return one to the Income Tax Department.
Penalty may be imposed for entering wrong PAN number
You also need to be careful while filling PAN number in financial or any other kind of transaction. Income Tax Department can impose penalty for giving wrong PAN. This fine can be up to Rs 10,000. Especially in income tax return filing, you need to take special care of your PAN number. It would be good to check the PAN number once before submitting the ITR form.
