Indian citizen residing abroad, foreign citizen and other than individual (like company or trust or firm etc.) who wants to apply for PAN should fill the PAN application 49AA. Basically PAN application for Non Resident can be bifurcated into three categories
1. Citizen of India but residing out of India at the time of making application.
2. Not a citizen of India i.e. foreign citizen.
3. Other than individual (like company or trust or firm etc.) – not a citizen of India – having no office of its own in India.
The applicable form is Form 49AA, while filing up following points need to be considered:
1) AO Code:
AO code pertaining to International Taxation Directorate should be used. In case the AO code is not provided correctly by the applicant, then it shall be replaced with first international taxation AO code of Delhi Regional Computer Center.
2) Address:
i. A foreign address can be provided as residential (only for Individuals) and office address by applicants, if they do not have any Indian address of their own.
ii. Individual applicants may indicate any address (residential or office – whether Indian or foreign) as the address for communication.
iii. In case the applicant being a foreign citizen who at the time of making the application provides Indian office address, then it is mandatory to provide following documents as proof for the office address:-
a) Copy of appointment letter/contract from Indian Company and
b) Certificate (in original) of address in India of applicant issued by authorized signatory of employer on employer‟s letter head mentioning the PAN of the employer.
c) Copy of PAN card for the PAN mentioned in the employer‟s certificate.
It may be noted that PAN of the employer as mentioned in the employer‟s certificate has to be verified before accepting the application.
iv. If any applicant does not have any office in India, but is registered/approved by any competent authority in India, it may provide an Indian address as office address which is mentioned in certificate of registration or approval of the competent authority or the accompanying documents issued by the competent authority to such applicant or in the application made by the applicant before the competent authority.
v. Entities registered outside India may give address of their “Indian tax consultant‟, as “care of” address, in RA column in addition to foreign address in office address column. In this case “care of” address would be the communication address.
vi. Additional courier charges (Rs. 862/- at present) for PAN card dispatch shall be payable by applicant at the time of making application if the address for communication is a foreign address. Hence, the total fee in such case shall be Rs. 1017/- (inclusive of taxes at present).
vii. Care should be taken at if RAs address is provided in the application (which must be an Indian address), then additional courier fee should not be taken from the applicant even if the address for communication is a foreign address. Card in such cases is sent at the RAs address.
viii. Complete address including name of state (if applicable) and name of country should be clearly mentioned in the application as part of the address in line meant for providing “Town / city / district”
ix. During digitization of such applications, state should be digitized as code „99‟ and pincode should be digitized as „999999‟. These code i.e. 99 and 999999 must not be used in any other case. For applicants like employee of armed forces – army etc. where address is provided like “56 APO” (this is only for illustration), state and pin code should be digitized as provided. In case, correct state and pin code are not available or applicable, then 88 and 888888 should be digitized as state code and pin code respectively.
3) e-mail id –
A valid e-mail id must be provided by such applicants
4) Representative Assessee (RA)
i. Providing details of RA is not mandatory in the PAN application for such applicants. Hence, this column may be left blank, if required. However, if the RA details are provided, proof of identity and address shall be required in respect of RA also in addition to the applicant.
ii. Entities registered outside India, may use RA column for giving address of their „Indian tax consultant‟ as a “care of” address as prescribed below:
a) Applicant‟s own name should be filled in name column of RA.
b) Name of the „Indian tax consultant‟ should be filled in first line of address column of RA.
c) Address of the „Indian tax consultant‟ should be provided in remaining lines for address as “care of “address.
d) The original power of attorney, duly notarized/attested* by Indian Embassy/ High Commission or Consulate, should be submitted along with the application. It should specifically mention that „Indian tax consultant‟ is authorized to receive notice from Income Tax Department on behalf of the applicant.
5) Photograph and signature
i. Individual applicants should provide their own recent colour photograph of prescribed size (not applicable for other applicants).
ii. Application should always be signed by the applicant himself / herself in all such cases (for individuals). In case of other than Individual, application should be signed by an authorized signatory on behalf of the applicant (e.g. director of the company or partner of the firm or trustee of the trust etc.).
iii. Even if the RA details are provided, application should be signed by applicant (individual) or by authorized signatory (for other than individual).
6) Proof of Identity (POI) and Proof of address (POA)
Depending upon Individual Status following Documents are required at the time of applying for PAN Card. Application should be submitted along with the appropriate documents in support of identity and address of the applicant
| Sr No | Applicant | Documents as proof of identity and Proof of address |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | For Indian citizen who at the time of making application for PAN is located Outside India | Proof of Identity – Copy of Passport
Proof of address Copy of 1. Passport, or 2. Bank account statement in country of residence 3. NRE bank account statement showing at least two customer induced transactions in last six months period and duly attested by Indian Embassy/Consular office/high commission or Apostille or by the manager of the bank in which the account is held. The applicant may be a joint holder. |
| 2 | Foreign citizen who at the time of making application for PAN is located either in India or outside india | Proof of Identity – Copy of
1. Passport, or 2. Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card issued by Government of India, or 3. Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card issued by Government of India, or 4.Other national or citizenship Identification Number or Taxpayer Identification Number duly attested by ‘Apostille’ (in respect of the countries which are signatories to the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961) or by the Indian Embassy or High Commission or Consulate in the country where the applicant is located Proof of address Copy of 1. Passport, or 2. Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card issued by Government of India, or 3. Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card issued by Government of India, or 4.Other national or citizenship Identification Number or Taxpayer Identification Number duly attested by ‘Apostille’ (in respect of the countries which are signatories to the Hague Apostille Convention of 1961) or by the Indian Embassy or High Commission or Consulate in the country where the applicant is located or authorised officials of overseas branches of Scheduled Banks registered in India (in prescribed format); or 5. Bank account statement in the country of residence, or 6. Non-resident External(NRE) bank account statement in India, or 7. Certificate of Residence in India or Residential permit issued by the State Police Authorities, or 8. Registration certificate issued by the Foreigner’s Registration Office showing Indian address, or 9. Visa granted & Copy of appointment letter or contract from Indian Company & Certificate (in original) of Indian address issued by the employer. Note: – In case ‘Office Address (of India)’ is mentioned in application made by foreign citizens, then it is mandatory to provide following documents as proof for office address in addition to any of the above residence proof: I. Copy of appointment letter/contract from Indian Company and II. Certificate (in original) of address in India of applicant issued by authorized signatory of employer on employer’s letter head mentioning the PAN of the employer and III. Copy of PAN card for the PAN mentioned in the employer’s certificate. |
| 3 | Other than Individual having no office of their own in India | Proof of Identity – Copy of
1. Registration certificate issued in India or of approval granted to set up office in India by Indian Authorities or 2. Registration certificate issued in the country where applicant is located, duly attested by Apostille (in respect of countries which are signatories to the Hague convention of 1961) or by Indian Embassy/ High Commission or Consulate in that country. Proof of address Copy of 1.Registration certificate issued in India or of approval granted to set up office in India by Indian Authorities or 2. Registration certificate issued in the country where applicant is located, duly attested by Apostille (in respect of countries which are signatories to the Hague convention of 1961) or by Indian Embassy/ High Commission or Consulate in the country in that country. Or 3. Applicants mentioning address of „Indian tax consultant‟ as “care of” address must also provide original power of attorney notarized / attested attested by Apostille (in respect of countries which are signatories to the Hague convention of 1961) or by Indian Embassy/ High Commission or Consulate located in the country where applicant is located, which specifically mentions that „Indian tax consultant‟ is authorized to accept notices from Income tax Department on behalf of the applicant |
7) KYC Details:
It is mandatory to provide KYC details in case of an application filled by a Foreign Institutional Investor or a Qualified Foreign Investor, as prescribed under the regulations issued by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Please refer the guidelines issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Prevention of Money Laundering Act for filling these details.
8) Signature / Thumb impression:
Application must be signed by (i) the applicant; or (ii) Karta in case of HUF; or (iii) Director of a Company; or (iv) Authorized Signatory in case of AOP, Body of Individuals, Local Authority and Artificial Juridical Person; or (v) Partner in case of Firm/LLP; or (vi) Trustee; or (vii) Representative Assessee in case of Minor/deceased/idiot/lunatic/mentally retarded. Applications not signed in the given manner and in the space provided are liable to be rejected.
An applicant can fill Form 49AA online and submit the form. Non-citizens of India should only use this Form 49AA for submitting application for allotment of PAN. However, a Qualified Foreign Investor (QFI) has to apply for PAN in Form 49AA through a Depository Participant only.
(For any query you can write to Author ‘CA Chirag Chauhan‘ on [email protected])
Read Other Articles from CA Chirag Chauhan
Republished with Amendments
I have filled out PAN form 49AA on the UTIITSL website, downloaded the completed pdf and saved it after attaching a digital signature to it. However, I do not see any way to upload it back to the website for further processing. Grateful if you can suggest what I need to do to complete the process. Thank you.
My company in the U.S. is applying for a PAN for some trade we do with a Bangalore electronics company. Line 11 on Form 49AA calls for a Registration Number. Is a U.S. Tax I.D. number adequate for this requirement or is it some other form of I.D.
Thanks,
Andy Corbin
Technical Services Laboratory, Inc.
Fort Walton Beach, FL USA