India Pan Application

India PAN application (Form 93/94/95/96, Protean/UTIITSL/incometax.gov.in)

You are helping the user apply for a brand-new PAN — the Income Tax Department's Permanent Account Number, a 10-character alphanumeric ID used for filing tax returns, high-value financial transactions, and KYC. There is no pre-existing login for a new applicant; you drive the browser, fill the form from the user's documents and answers, and the user reviews and submits/pays/authenticates themselves.

Form number change (1 April 2026): the old Form 49A (Indian applicants) and Form 49AA (foreign applicants) were replaced by four category-specific forms under the Income Tax Act, 2025 and Income Tax Rules, 2026: Form 93 (Indian citizen individual, including NRIs with Indian citizenship, and minors via guardian), Form 94 (Indian entity — company, LLP, firm, trust, HUF, AOP/BOI), Form 95 (foreign citizen individual, including OCI holders), Form 96 (foreign entity). PANs already issued under 49A/49AA remain valid — nothing changes for people who already have one. If the portal still labels things "49A" anywhere, treat it as the same underlying flow; some pages may not have relabeled yet.

PAN application is separate from, and often confused with:

• Income Tax e-filing portal registration — a different, later step (a separate skill). It needs an existing PAN and creates the login used to actually file returns; it is not how you get the PAN in the first place.
• GST registration — a different portal and process, and it requires the entity to already have a PAN.
• TAN registration (Form 134/135, Protean/NSDL portal) — for deducting/collecting tax at source, a different number entirely.
• PAN correction/change request — for fixing details on an already-issued PAN, not a new application.
• Company/LLP incorporation (SPICe+) — for new companies/LLPs, PAN is often allotted automatically as part of incorporation; if the user is incorporating a new entity, check whether they actually need a standalone PAN application at all before starting this flow.

Read this first: what you must and must not do

• You are not a tax advisor. Don't advise on tax positions, which entity type to form, or how to reconstruct a lost/forgotten PAN account. You only enter the data the user gives you.
• Check whether the user already has a PAN before starting. Everyone is entitled to exactly one PAN; holding more than one is an offence under the Income Tax Act. If there's any doubt, ask the user to check first rather than filing a duplicate application.
• Never type the user's Aadhaar OTP, e-KYC OTP, or e-Sign OTP/PIN. These are personal, biometric-linked steps tied to the individual's Aadhaar or DSC — the user must complete them themselves whenever the portal prompts for it.
• Never make the final payment or click final submit yourself if it requires the user's own payment instrument or signature. Fill the form, show the user everything for review, and let them enter payment details and authenticate (e-Sign/DSC/physical signature) themselves.
• Verify, don't assume. Read every value — name, date of birth, address, parents' names — off the user's actual ID documents, exactly as spelled there. A name that doesn't match the identity/address proof is the single biggest cause of rejection.
• Stop and ask on any validation error or unexpected portal message rather than guessing around it.
• Route to Instant e-PAN first when eligible (see below) — it's free and near-instant, versus the paid, slower Form 93/94/95/96 route.

Two routes — pick the right one

1. Instant e-PAN (free, fastest) — on incometax.gov.in, under "Instant e-PAN". Only for an adult Indian resident individual who: has never had a PAN, has a valid Aadhaar, and has a mobile number currently linked to that Aadhaar. Uses Aadhaar e-KYC via OTP; the e-PAN (a PDF) is typically issued within minutes to a few hours, with a physical card option available separately. Not available for minors, HUFs, firms, companies, trusts, or anyone without an Aadhaar-linked mobile — those must use route 2.
2. Form 93/94/95/96 via Protean or UTIITSL — for everyone else, or for anyone who wants a fuller application (e.g. providing an explicit AO code, representative assessee, or a physical PAN card by post). Full field-by-field flow below.

Ask the user which situation they're in before starting; it determines which route and which form.

Route 1: Instant e-PAN walkthrough

1. Go to incometax.gov.in → "Instant e-PAN" (under Quick Links, pre-login).
2. Select "Get New e-PAN", enter the Aadhaar number, and confirm the declaration.
3. An OTP is sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile — the user enters this themselves.
4. The portal pulls demographic details (name, DOB, gender, address, photo) straight from Aadhaar/UIDAI — there's little to type, but have the user confirm every field matches what they expect, since this becomes the PAN record.
5. Submit. The portal displays an acknowledgement number for status tracking.
6. Status can be checked on the same page with the acknowledgement number; once allotted, the e-PAN PDF (password-protected, usually with the DOB as password in DDMMYYYY) is available to download and is also emailed if an email was linked to Aadhaar.

If Aadhaar has no mobile linked, or the demographic details are wrong, this route can't proceed — send the user to Route 2, or to update Aadhaar with UIDAI first if they'd rather fix it at the source.

Route 2: Form 93/94/95/96 walkthrough

Full prerequisite list is in references/before-you-start.md. Core flow:

1. Choose the portal and form. Either Protean (tinpan.proteantech.in or the current Protean PAN services site) or UTIITSL — functionally equivalent, don't mix acknowledgement numbers between them. Confirm the applicant category with the user, then select the matching form: 93 (Indian individual), 94 (Indian entity), 95 (foreign individual), 96 (foreign entity).
2. Application type and category. Select "New PAN – Indian Citizen/Entity" or "New PAN – Foreign Citizen/Entity" as applicable, then the sub-category (individual, HUF, company, firm, trust, etc.).
3. Personal/entity details. Full name exactly as it should appear on the PAN and as shown on ID proof, date of birth/incorporation, gender (individuals), status (resident/NRI/foreign national), and — for individuals — parents' names (mother's name is mandatory even if not printed on the card; father's name required unless the applicant specifically wants only the mother's name shown, which is allowed for single parents).
4. Contact details. Email and mobile number — used for the OTP that confirms submission and for status updates. Prefer ones the applicant actually controls.
5. Address for communication. Residence or office address, matching a proof document the user will upload/submit (see prerequisites for the accepted list — Aadhaar, passport, voter ID, utility bill, bank statement, etc., each with its own recency rules).
6. AO (Assessing Officer) code. A jurisdiction code the portal usually auto-suggests from the address/pin code; let it auto-fill rather than guessing, and only override it if the user has been told a specific AO code by the Income Tax Department.
7. Document submission mode. Digital (e-Sign via Aadhaar OTP, or DSC for entities — no physical form needed) or physical (print, sign, and courier/hand in the physical form with photocopies to a PAN centre). Digital is faster; physical is the fallback when e-Sign isn't available (e.g. Aadhaar not linked to mobile).
8. Upload photo and signature to the spec shown on the form (JPEG, specific dimensions/file size) if applying digitally with a scanned signature rather than DSC/e-Sign.
9. Review. Walk every field against the ID document before moving on — this is the point to catch a transliteration mismatch, a wrong pin code, or a swapped DOB format.
10. Payment. Fee varies by whether the communication address is within India or abroad, and by document-submission mode; let the user choose the payment method and pay themselves.
11. Authentication. Aadhaar e-Sign (OTP to Aadhaar-linked mobile — user enters this), DSC (for companies/LLPs, user signs), or physical signature on the printed form for the postal route. Never do this step yourself.
12. Acknowledgement. On successful submission, the portal shows an acknowledgement/coupon number — give this to the user for status tracking and note it down; it's also needed if physical documents must be posted afterward.

Gotchas

Detail in references/gotchas.md. The big ones:

• Using the wrong form after 1 April 2026. Applications filed under old 49A/49AA labelling after the cutover risk rejection or delay — always confirm the portal is presenting 93/94/95/96 (or the correct successor) for new applications.
• Applying for a second PAN. If the user isn't sure whether they already have one, check the portal's PAN status/verification tool before filing a fresh application — holding two PANs is legally an offence and has to be actively surrendered, not just ignored.
• Name mismatch with ID proof. The PAN name must match the identity proof exactly (including spacing/initials); mismatches are a leading cause of rejected or delayed applications.
• Trying Instant e-PAN without an Aadhaar-linked mobile. It will fail at the OTP step — check this before starting Route 1, or route straight to Route 2.
• Confusing this with e-filing portal registration. Getting a PAN is not the same as being registered to file returns on incometax.gov.in — that's the next, separate step once the PAN is allotted.

After submission

Give the user the acknowledgement number (Route 2) or the Instant e-PAN acknowledgement (Route 1) and point them to the same portal's status-check page. Typical timelines: Instant e-PAN — minutes to a few hours once Aadhaar e-KYC succeeds; e-PAN under Route 2 — a few days after successful digital submission; physical card by post — one to a few weeks after that, depending on the address. Remind the user, without advising, that having a PAN is a prerequisite for e-filing registration and most financial KYC, but doesn't by itself create the e-filing login — that's a separate step (see the Income Tax e-filing registration skill) once the PAN is confirmed allotted.