Know Meaning of Characters in Income-Tax PAN

Most of the readers of this blog would have PAN (Permanent Account Number) issued by the Indian Income-Tax Department. However, do you know what does the characters in the PAN mean?

Below is the format of a PAN:

It is a 10 digit alpha-numeric number, where first five characters are letters, the next four numbers & the last one a letter again. These 10 characters can be divided in five parts explained below.

1. First three characters are alphabetic series running from AAA to ZZZ.

2. Fourth character of PAN represents the status of the PAN holder.

C — Company

P — Person

H — HUF(Hindu Undivided Family)

F — Firm

A — Association of Persons (AOP)

T — AOP (Trust)

B — Body of Individuals (BOI)

L — Local Authority

J — Artificial Juridical Person

G — Government

3. Fifth character represents first character of the PAN holder’s last name/surname. In case of all other assesees 5th field will be first letter of Name/First Name.

4. Next four characters are sequential number running from 0001 to 9999.

5. Last character in the PAN is an alphabetic check digit.

Now a days, the DOI (Date of Issue) of PAN card is mentioned at the right (vertical) hand side of the photo on the PAN card.

-Tanmay