📋 In This Guide
Why Verify a PAN Before Trusting It
Your PAN (Permanent Account Number) is the single most-used identity number in Indian finance — required to open a bank account, file income tax returns, buy property, invest in mutual funds, and complete almost any transaction above a specified threshold. It appears on tax documents, Form 16, rent agreements, and increasingly on KYC forms across banking and fintech apps.
Because PAN follows a strict, predictable format, a fast structural check catches obvious typos — extra characters, wrong character types, or copy-paste errors from a scanned document — before they cause a rejected form or a mismatched TDS filing.
Random Letters
First 3 characters are an arbitrary alphabetic series
Category
4th letter tells you individual, company, trust, etc.
Sequence No.
4-digit number assigned within that series
Check Letter
Final character — formula not publicly disclosed
How a PAN Is Structured — Character by Character
A PAN is always exactly 10 characters in the format AAAAA9999A. Every position has a defined role laid out by the Income Tax Department when PAN was introduced.
Position 1–3 — Random Alphabetic Series
Three letters (A–Z) assigned sequentially by the department's system — they carry no personal meaning and simply form part of a unique series.
Position 4 — Holder Category
A single letter that identifies what type of entity the PAN belongs to — individual, company, trust, firm, and so on. See the full table below.
Position 5 — Name Initial
Usually the first letter of the PAN holder's surname (for an individual) or the first letter of the entity's name (for a company, trust, or firm).
Position 6–9 — Sequence Number
A four-digit number (0001–9999) assigned within that particular alphabetic series — this is simply a running counter, not tied to any personal detail.
Position 10 — Check Character
A single alphabetic check character. Unlike a GSTIN, the Income Tax Department has never published the formula behind this digit, so it cannot be independently recalculated or verified by any third-party tool — including this one.
PAN Holder Category Codes Explained
The 4th character of every PAN maps to one of ten official holder categories:
| Letter | Category |
|---|---|
| P | Individual (Person) |
| C | Company |
| H | Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) |
| F | Firm / Limited Liability Partnership |
| A | Association of Persons (AOP) |
| T | Trust |
| B | Body of Individuals (BOI) |
| L | Local Authority |
| J | Artificial Juridical Person |
| G | Government Agency |
Worked Example — Decoding a Sample PAN
PAN vs GSTIN — What's the Difference
PAN and GSTIN are closely related but not the same thing. PAN is a lifetime identity number issued once by the Income Tax Department, used across all your tax and financial activity. GSTIN is a state-wise GST registration number that embeds your PAN — a business with operations in five states can hold five different GSTINs, all sharing the same 10-character PAN in positions 3–12.
Validating a business GST number instead?
Check format, verify the checksum, and decode state, PAN and entity number.
5 Common PAN Entry Mistakes to Avoid
Frequently Asked Questions
PAN stands for Permanent Account Number — a unique 10-character alphanumeric code issued by the Income Tax Department to every taxpayer, individual, and business entity in India, used to track financial transactions and file income tax returns.
Enter the 10-character PAN into the validator above. It checks the format against the official pattern and decodes the holder category and structure — confirming structural validity, though not whether the PAN is actually issued.
The first three letters are a random alphabetic series. The 4th letter indicates holder category. The 5th letter is usually the first letter of the surname or entity name. The next four digits are a sequence number, and the final letter is a check character.
It indicates the category of the PAN holder — P for Individual, C for Company, H for HUF, F for Firm/LLP, A for Association of Persons, T for Trust, B for Body of Individuals, L for Local Authority, J for Artificial Juridical Person, and G for Government Agency.
No. This tool checks format and structure only. For live confirmation, use the official "Verify Your PAN" service on the Income Tax e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in.
PAN is a 10-character lifetime identity number issued once by the Income Tax Department. GSTIN is a 15-character GST registration number that embeds a business's PAN along with a state code and registration details.
PAN is mandatory for filing income tax returns, opening a bank account, high-value transactions, buying property, and most financial dealings above specified thresholds — though not compulsory for every citizen.
No. All validation and decoding happens instantly inside your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded, logged, or stored on any server.
The 10th character is a check character, but the Income Tax Department has never published the formula used to generate it. Unlike a GSTIN checksum, there is no public algorithm for this letter, so this tool checks structure only.