In the past, we covered articles to explain the meaning of numbers on a credit card and meaning of numbers on a cheque. Just like a credit card or a cheque leaf, the numbers and alphabets on a PAN card too have a significance. Through this article, we’ll understand the meaning of these alphabets and numbers found on a PAN card.
Meaning of Numbers on a Pan Card
Here is how a PAN card looks like:
Unlike credit cards or cheque leafs, which have only numbers, a PAN Card consists of a 10 digit alphanumeric sequence. Let’s understand what each character of this sequence stands for.
First 3 Characters
The first 3 characters on a PAN card represent an alphabetic series running from AAA to ZZZ.
4th Character
The 4th character represents the status of the PAN holder, which can be one of the following:
- C – Company
- P – Person
- H — HUF (Hindu Undivided Family)
- F — Firm
- A — Association of Persons (AOP)
- T — AOP (Trust)
- B — Body of Individuals (BOI)
- L — Local Authority
- J — Artificial Juridical Person
- G — Government
So, an individual will have the 4th character as P.
5th Character
The fifth character of the PAN is the first letter of:
- the surname in the case the status is “P”, or,
- the name of the Entity, Trust, Society, Organization, HUF, etc. in all other cases
For e.g., an individual with the name Vivek Kumar Shukla will have S as the fifth character.
6th to 9th Characters
The next four numbers are sequential numbers running from 0001 to 9999.
10th Character
The last digit is an alphabetic check digit which is generated by applying a formula to the preceding nine letters and numbers.
Below is a pictorial representation of the above information to easily explain the meaning of numbers on a PAN card:
Don’t forget to share this interesting piece of information with your friends.
Do you know you can identify if a credit card is fake by doing simple calculation?
After reading your post, I went back, checked my PAN card and now I know what is my number says… Thanks a lot
Good one buddy !!!
A very valuable piece of information .thank you very much.
Good one boss 🙂
Very informative…..but the 10th character explanation is somewhat hazy
Thanks a lot for giving this precious information
It is very useful information to me thank you very much
It’realy a valuable piece of information
i find most of ur posts are easy to understand and informative , thanks
when i started NGO before a year my lawyer told that u must have ur trust pan. now i under stand the 4th and 5th words makes it different.thanks dude
What is the formula for the 10 th digit?
This is a very good information.Thanks a lot.I’ll share this with my friends.
i get more knowledge in this side
thank you…
Would you please let me know the check sum formula to find check digit
Thanks Lot.
This is informative for readers.
The website is realy verry easy to understand…
Please explain me the 10th digit of pan number with example.
JPRP01869A DESCRIBE THE PAN