Income Tax department warning: Don’t reveal PAN on social media

A tweet made by the Income Tax department of giving warning to all PAN holders for not sharing their ten-digit alphanumeric PAN publicly on social media. Such sharing of personal data can lead to misuse.

The Income Tax Department is warning taxpayers or assesses owing to mentioning of PAN from a number of taxpayers in the tweets while taxpayers were questioning about ITR processing, ITR refunds, etc on Twitter.

The tweet made “…May we also request you not to share personal details like PAN on social media to avoid it being misused!” — is the standard response of the Income Tax department on Twitter in a reply to all taxpayers who reveal their PAN on the social media site.

Sharing of personal data, including PAN, can lead to cases of identity theft where miscreants can make transactions in your name without your knowledge.

Similarly, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has also asked Aadhaar cardholders to not share their 12-digit identity number in public as it conations personally sensitive information. Aadhaar is also linked not only to your PAN card but also with bank accounts and even passport, which can be misused and can cause trouble

For asking tax-related queries, the income tax department has come out with an online query form where you can ask questions and get it answered directly from the I-T department officials.

The form can be used to get your query answers related to e-filing of ITR, processing and claiming tax refund. 

In the query form, you need to provide your name, PAN, assessment year for which the issue is reported, mobile number, email id, your detailed query, and social media user id.

Once you fill up the form the income tax department will soon answer your queries or address your concerns.