Now interchangeable: You can file Income Tax returns without a PAN card, thanks to Aadhaar

New Delhi, July 05: Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman today announced that people would be able to file their taxes by just quoting their Aadhaar number.

This would mean that you would not need a PAN card to file your income taxes. She said that from now on, those who did not have a PAN card would just have to quote their Aadhaar number to file their tax returns.

The finance minister said that PAN and Aadhaar is being made inter-changeable for filing of Income Tax returns. This is a step towards ease of living of tax payers. She also sad that more than 120 crore Indians now have Aadhaar cards and there for ease of tax payers, she is proposing to make PAN and Aadhaar interchangeable.

Prior to this announcement, It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had said that linking PAN with Aadhaar was mandatory for filing tax returns.

The court's direction came on an appeal filed by the Centre against a Delhi High Court order allowing two persons, Shreya Sen and Jayshree Satpute, to file Income Tax returns for 2018-19 without linking their Aadhaar and PAN numbers.

"The aforesaid order was passed by the High Court having regard to the fact that the matter was pending consideration in this Court. Thereafter, this Court has decided the matter and upheld the vires of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. In view thereof, linkage of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory," the bench said.

The top court noted that with regard to Assessment Year 2018-19, it has been informed that the two petitioners had filed the Income Tax returns in terms of the orders of the High Court and the assessment has also been completed.

"We therefore make it clear that for the assessment year 2019-20, the income tax return shall be filed in terms of the judgment passed by this court.