The Income Tax Department issues a ten-digit unique alphanumeric number known as a PAN.

This PAN number is used by Individuals, Partnership Firms, HUFs, Private Limited companies, Public Limited Companies, etc.

What do different Characters and Numbers represent in PAN Numbers?

Example: BCNPP6818C

1. Out of the first five characters, the first three characters represent the alphabetic series running from AAA to ZZZ.

2. The fourth character of PAN represents the status of the PAN holder.

a) ”P” stands for Individual

b) ”C” stands for Company

c) ”H” stands for Hindu Undivided Family (HUF)

d) ”A” stands for Association of Persons (AOP)

e) ”B” stands for Body of Individuals (BOI)

f) ”G” stands for Government Agency

g) “J” stands for Artificial Juridical Person

h) ”L” stands for Local Authority

i) “F” stands for Firm/ Limited Liability Partnership

j) ”T” stands for Trust

3. The Fifth character of PAN represents the first character of the PAN holder’s last name/surname in the case of an individual. In the case of non-individual PAN holders, the fifth character represents the first character of the PAN holder’s name.

4. Next four characters are sequential numbers running from 0001 to 9999.