PAN Card Validator

💳 PAN Card Validator India — Free PAN Format Checker 2026

A PAN (Permanent Account Number) is a 10-character alphanumeric identifier issued by India's Income Tax Department under Section 139A of the Income Tax Act 1961. It is mandatory for filing income tax returns (ITR), opening bank accounts, making investments above ₹50,000, property transactions, and most high-value financial transactions under CBDT Rule 114B. Every Indian taxpayer, registered company, HUF, and foreign national earning income in India must have a PAN.

A valid PAN follows the strict CBDT format: AAAAA9999A — exactly 10 characters. The first 3 characters are alphabetic sequence codes, the 4th character identifies the entity type (P=Person, C=Company, H=HUF, F=Firm, A=AOP, B=BOI, G=Government, J=Artificial Juridical Person, L=Local Authority, T=Trust), the 5th character is the surname initial of the holder, characters 6–9 are running numbers (0001–9999), and the 10th character is an alphabetic check digit. SuccessMate's PAN Validator instantly checks all these rules, decodes the entity type, and gives you a detailed breakdown — all 100% in your browser, with no data sent to any server.

This tool is useful for tax consultants verifying client PANs before ITR filing, accountants doing TDS compliance checks, HR teams processing employee Form 16, banks doing KYC, fintech apps doing PAN validation, and individuals double-checking their PAN before submitting to government portals. Use our Bulk PAN Validator to validate multiple PAN numbers at once — ideal for CAs and finance teams. Note: format validation confirms the PAN follows CBDT structural rules; for live database verification (whether a PAN actually exists and is active), use the official Income Tax e-filing portal.

📋 PAN Card Format Explained — CBDT Rules 2026

Position 1–3 (AAA): Alphabetic sequence assigned by the Income Tax Department — no specific meaning for individuals. Position 4 (entity code): The most important character — identifies whether the PAN belongs to a Person (P), Company (C), HUF (H), Firm (F), Trust (T), Government entity (G), etc. Position 5 (surname initial): For individuals, this is the first letter of the holder's last name as per their official records. For non-individuals (companies, HUF), it is the first letter of the entity name. Positions 6–9 (running number): A sequential number from 0001 to 9999 assigned by the IT Department. Position 10 (check character): An alphabetic check digit computed from the preceding 9 characters using a proprietary CBDT algorithm.

Common reasons a PAN fails format validation: wrong length (not exactly 10 characters), numeric characters in positions 1–5 or position 10, a letter in positions 6–9, an invalid entity code at position 4, or lowercase letters (PAN is always uppercase). Always enter PAN in uppercase — our tool auto-converts to uppercase as you type.