The Income Tax Department of India has today announced that a staggering number of PAN cards (stood at 11.44 lakhs) have been deactivated on the grounds of duplication or being spurious. The problem of PAN duplication wherein a tax payer is able to get hold on two or more PANs somehow has been a serious concern for the Income Tax Department causing a dent on the Government of India’s tax revenue. To curb this issue of single taxpayer having multiple PAN cards, from AY 2017-18 onwards the Government of India has made linking of Aadhaar with PAN mandatory (if you haven’t linked your PAN and Aadhaar yet, read our guide on How to Link Aadhaar and PAN). Also you for those applying for PAN from July 1st, 2017, quoting of Aadhaar is mandatory. Taking further steps in addressing this issue, the Income Tax Department has blocked/deactivated 11.44 lakhs of PAN cards that are found to be fake or duplicate of same tax payer.
You might want to check the activation/deactivation status of your PAN card by following the steps mentioned below:
Step-1: Key in incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in in your browser and hit enter. The Income Tax India E-filing portal will open.
Step-2: On the right hand side of the E-Filing Portal, find a link titled “Know Your PAN | TAN | AO”. Alternatively you may directly reach the page by clicking on this link. Click on the link as shown in the screenshot below:
Step-3: Fill in the details of: Surname, Middle Name, First Name, Status (Individual/HUF/Company/Firm etc.,), Gender, Date of Birth and Mobile Number. Click Submit.
Step-4: OTP/Mobile PIN will be generated. Enter the Mobile PIN and click Validate button. Please keep in mind that maximum 3 wrong attempts are only allowed in entering the mobile number PIN.
Step-5: If there are other PANs with the data you provided (not necessarily multiple PANs), it will now ask you to provide further information as shown below, else you may directly skip to Step-6.
On providing the details, click ‘Submit’.
Step-6: You will receive all the details about your PAN like First Name, Last Name, PAN Number, Jurisdiction and Remarks. Now we are only concerned about the Remarks column. If it shows ‘Active’ you are 
. Your PAN card is valid and active. Nothing needs to be done from your end 
.
