PAN - Its Relevance

PAN - Permanent Account Number - The 10 Digit Alphanumerical Sequence



Let’s take a look at the breakdown of the 10 digit alphanumerical sequence:


1. The first five fields are called the core fields and are alphabetical in nature.


2. The first three letters of the core field are an alphabetical series running from AAA to ZZZ.


3. The forth character of the PAN must be one of the following, depending on the type of assesse:


C – Company


P – Person


H — HUF (Hindu Undivided Family)


F — Firm (including LLP)


A — Association of Persons (AOP)


T — AOP (Trust)


B — Body of Individuals (BOI)


L — Local Authority


J — Artificial Juridical Person


G — Govt


(Example – Company = AAACA; Artificial Juridical Person = AAAJA; HUF = AAAHA; etc.)


4. The fifth character of the PAN is the first character of the following:


a) Your surname in the case of “P” or;


b) For all others you would use the first letter of the name of the Entity, Trust, Society, Organization, HUF, etc.


(Example - Gopal Krishna Raju [Personal] = AAAPR4444A; Gopal Krishna Raju [HUF] = AAAHG4444A; General Firm = AAAFG4444A; etc.)


5. The next four numbers are sequential numbers running from 0001 to 9999.


6. The last digit is an alphabetic check digit.


Nowadays, DOI (Date of Issue) of PAN Card is mentioned at the right (vertical) hand side of the photo on pan card.