PAN, TAN, GSTIN and More: How Your Business's Registration Numbers Fit Together

A new business quickly collects a set of registration numbers: a PAN, a TAN, a GSTIN, and often an Udyam number, an IEC, EPF and ESIC codes, and state registrations for Professional Tax and Shops and Establishments. They look unrelated, but most of them are built on the PAN, and knowing how they fit together makes it much easier to keep them consistent. This guide explains the links.

PAN Is the Foundation

The Permanent Account Number is the business's identity for income tax, and most other registrations ask for it or are built on it. Because so much depends on it, the name and details on the PAN should be right before you apply for anything else. A mismatch between the PAN and another registration is one of the most common reasons applications are rejected.

A business has only one PAN, whatever the number of branches, states or activities.

TAN Sits Alongside PAN

The Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number is a separate number for deducting or collecting tax at source. It doesn't replace the PAN, and a PAN can't be used where a TAN is needed. TDS payments, TDS returns and TDS certificates all carry the TAN.

Unlike PAN, a business can have more than one TAN. Branches or divisions that handle their own TDS can get separate TANs, as long as each is used consistently for its own deductions.

GSTIN Contains the PAN

A GST identification number has 15 characters. The first two are the state code, the next ten are the business's PAN, and the last three identify the registration within that state and act as a check. So a business registered for GST in three states has three GSTINs, each containing the same PAN.

That's why GST registration needs a valid PAN first, and why a change to the PAN details often has to be reflected in GST too.

Other Numbers That Use the PAN

• IEC: the Import Export Code is issued against the PAN, and for most businesses the IEC number is the same as the PAN.
• Udyam: Udyam registration uses the PAN and pulls investment and turnover data from income tax and GST records linked to it.
• EPF and ESIC: employer registrations ask for the PAN, and are linked to it in the government's records.
• Bank accounts: banks need the business's PAN to open and keep a current account.

The State Registrations

Professional Tax and Shops and Establishments registrations are issued by each state, under that state's law. They have their own numbers, which don't contain the PAN, though the application asks for it. A business with premises in several states may need these registrations in each one, subject to each state's rules.

Which Number to Quote Where

• Income tax returns and tax payments: PAN.
• TDS payments, returns and certificates: TAN, with the deductee's PAN.
• GST invoices, returns and payments: the GSTIN for that state.
• Imports and exports: the IEC.
• PF and ESI returns and payments: the EPF and ESIC establishment codes.
• Professional Tax payments and returns: the state Professional Tax registration number.
• Invoices and letterheads: usually the GSTIN, and often the PAN and CIN or LLPIN for companies and LLPs.

Keeping Them Consistent

• Make sure the business name and address match across all registrations.
• When something changes, update the PAN first where relevant, then the registrations built on it.
• Keep a single list of every registration number, the portal it's on, and who has the login.
• Check that the TAN on TDS payments matches the TAN on the TDS returns.

Getting Help

Think Filing sets up PAN, TAN and the other registrations a business needs, and keeps them consistent as the business grows.

Sources

• Income Tax Department guidance on PAN and TAN.
• GST portal guidance on the structure of the GSTIN.
• DGFT guidance on the Import Export Code.