New Delhi: The income tax department has changed rules for those applying for a new PAN card, allowing individual taxpayers the flexibility to furnish their mother’s name instead of that of their father’s. So far, it was mandatory to mention one’s father’s name in the application for a Permanent Account Number but now the exception has been made for those with single parents.
The new PAN card application form, which will be made available from December 5, asks the applicant whether his or her mother is a single parent and if he or she wishes to apply for PAN by furnishing the mother’s name.
According to a new notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the father’s name is mandatory except where a mother is a single parent and PAN is applied forby furnishing the name of only the mother. The amendment to Income Tax Rules, 1962, will come into effect from December 5.
If you want, you can also get your mother’s name printed on the PAN card instead of father’s. The new PAN application form will seek your mother’s name too. You will also be given the choice of whose name you want on the card — father or mother.
If a mother is a single parent then her child’s PAN card will carry only her name because the father’s name will not be sought in such cases by the income tax department. PAN applicants will have a choice as to whose name they want printed on the card. In case no option is provided then only father’s name will be used.
Nangia Advisors LLP Partner Suraj Nangia said the Income Tax department has now addressed the concerns of those whose mothers are single parents and, hence, would want to have their mother’s name printed on PAN cards instead of the estranged/deceased father.
