• PAN structure is as follows: AAAAA9999A: First five characters are letters, next 4 numerals, last character letter
• Each assesse is uniquely identified by the PAN
• If the PAN does not follow the above structure, then the PAN will be shown invalid
• The fourth character of the PAN must be one of the following, depending on the type of assesse:

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

• The fifth character of the PAN is the first character
  • (a) of the surname / last name of the person, in the case of a "Personal" PAN card, where the fourth character is "P" or
  • (b) of the name of the Entity/ Trust/ Society/ Organisation in the case of Company/ HUF/ Firm/ AOP/ BOI/ Local Authority/ Artificial Jurdical Person/ Govt, where the fourth character is "C","H","F","A","T","B","L","J","G".

Nowadays, the DOI (Date of Issue) of PAN card is mentioned at the right (vertical) hand side of the photo on the PAN card.