You must be aware of requirement of Permanent Account Number (PAN), Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN). Now, the Income Tax department has introduced one more number – Document Identification Number (DIN).

The DIN has been introduced through the guidelines issues by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). DIN will be effective from 1.07.2011. It is made compulsory that every income tax authority shall allot a computer generated Document Identification Number in respect of every notice, order, letter or any correspondence issued by him to any other income tax authority or assessee or any other person and such number shall be quoted thereon.

Any if any notice, order, letter or any correspondence issued does not bear DIN would be treated as invalid and would be deemed never to have been issued. In turn, DIN quotation is also compulsory on every communication with the IT department by taxpayers.

Every document, letter or any correspondence received by an income tax authority or on behalf of such authority, shall be accepted only after allotting and quoting of a computer generated Document Identification Number (DIN) and if it does not bear DIN, it shall be treated as invalid and shall be deemed never to have been received.

The DIN is expected to improve the standards of Income Tax Department service and bring more transparency to the functioning of the Income Tax department and its communications. Now, existence of any communication could not be denied as it would be backed by the DIN.

The DIN is also expected to enable tracking of documents and minimize taxpayers grievances. DIN also result in error-free filing of returns and refund claims.

For DIN no application form or other formality would be necessary from your end. The DIN will be issued by the IT department. They would be generated and allotted by the IT department itself through the ‘Aaykar Sampark Kendras’