Mind spills

We all have PAN cards (Permanent Account Number) in India which we often use as identification proof.

I have one as well. I discovered today that though my name, father’s name, photograph and signature on the card are correct, the details in the IT departments database are wrong. i found this out while trying to register on the IT return site as each time I entered my name it checked the database and gave me a validation error -

Please recitfy the following errors(s):

This is due to the name being incorrectly entered in the Tax department’s database. Their error message had a typo :)

Here is what I did -

1. Go to the following URL https://onlineservices.tin.nsdl.com/etaxnew/tdsnontds.jsp (This is the site to make online payment to the tax dept.)
2. Select ‘Challan No. /ITNS 280’
3. Enter your PAN and other mandatory details and click ‘Proceed’.
4. The screen that comes next will ask you to verify if the name corresponds to the PAN no. Here’s where you will see some discrepancy that the tax dept. database has regarding your name.

You can file an application to the tax dept to correct your name here - https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html