To make a TAN application online, fill in Form 49B on the Protean (formerly NSDL eGov) portal, pay the ₹77 processing fee, and mail the signed acknowledgment to Protean’s Pune office within 15 days. Allotment typically follows in seven to ten working days once the signed acknowledgment reaches them and payment clears.1Income Tax Department. Apply for TAN Online
Do You Actually Need a TAN?
Anyone who deducts or collects tax at source must obtain a TAN before making any such deduction or collection. The law uses deliberately broad language: “every person” who deducts or collects tax needs one.2Income Tax Department. Income Tax Act 1961 – Section 203A That sweeps in companies running payroll, sole proprietors paying contractors, government departments disbursing taxable payments, and statutory bodies handling public funds.
A PAN does not substitute for a TAN. They serve different purposes, and holding one does not exempt you from applying for the other. There are narrow carve-outs where a PAN can be used in place of a TAN: TDS on property purchases, rent payments by individuals or Hindu Undivided Families, and certain payments for virtual digital assets.3Income Tax Department. What Is the Difference Between PAN and TAN Outside those specific situations, a TAN is mandatory.
Branches or divisions of the same organization can hold separate TANs when they act as independent deductors. A bank with dozens of branches would typically have a separate TAN per branch, and every Drawing and Disbursing Officer in a government office who deducts tax independently should have a distinct TAN. Form 49B has dedicated categories for branches of companies, branches of sole proprietorships, and branches of firms or associations. What you cannot do is hold more than one TAN for the same deducting unit. If a duplicate has been issued, the unused one must be cancelled.
What to Have Ready Before You Open Form 49B
Form 49B is the only application form for TAN allotment, and it starts by asking you to select your deductor category. The options include central or state government offices, statutory and autonomous bodies, companies, branches or divisions of companies, individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, sole proprietorship branches, firms, associations of persons, and trusts. Each category triggers a slightly different set of fields, so picking the wrong one means filling out the wrong sections.
Gather the following before you start:
- Full legal name of the entity or office, exactly as it appears on the incorporation certificate, PAN records, or government notification.
- Designation of the person responsible for tax deduction or collection.
- Complete address of the office or branch applying, including PIN code.
- A working phone number and email address; the TAN letter goes to the address you enter.
Individuals rarely need to attach supporting documents. Business entities should keep incorporation or registration paperwork within reach in case the processing centre queries a name mismatch. Checking every field against official records before submission is worth the extra few minutes. Mismatched names and wrong categories are the most common reasons applications get flagged.
Filing Form 49B on the Protean Portal
Go to the Protean website and open the online Form 49B option. Complete all mandatory fields, review the confirmation screen, and move to payment. The processing fee is ₹77, made up of ₹65 for the application and 18% GST.4Protean eGov Technologies Limited. Online Application for TAN (Form 49B) You can pay by net banking, credit card, debit card, cheque, or demand draft.5Protean eGov Technologies Limited. Online Application for TAN (Form 49B) – Guidelines
Once payment clears, the system generates an acknowledgment slip. Print it, sign inside the designated box (or have the authorised signatory sign if the applicant is not an individual), and mail it to:
Protean eGov Technologies Limited
4th Floor, Sapphire Chambers
Baner Road, Baner
Pune – 411045
Mark the envelope “APPLICATION FOR TAN” followed by your acknowledgment number.1Income Tax Department. Apply for TAN Online The signed acknowledgment must reach Protean within 15 days of your online submission. Processing does not begin until it arrives.4Protean eGov Technologies Limited. Online Application for TAN (Form 49B)
Tracking Your Application
After mailing the acknowledgment, check status on the Protean TAN services page using your acknowledgment number.6Income Tax Department. Status of TAN Allotment typically takes seven to ten working days from the date Protean receives the signed acknowledgment and confirms payment. When the Income Tax Department issues the TAN, Protean sends the allotment letter to the address on your application.7Protean. TAN Services Overview – Apply and Manage TAN
Using the TAN Once You Have It
A TAN is a ten-character alphanumeric code with a fixed pattern: three letters for the city of allotment, one letter for the initial of the deductor’s name, five system-generated digits, and a final system-generated letter. A quick check of that structure helps catch typing errors before they land on a challan.
Your TAN must appear on all TDS and TCS payment challans, all tax deduction certificates issued to employees and vendors, all quarterly TDS/TCS statements, all annual returns, and any other documents prescribed by the department.2Income Tax Department. Income Tax Act 1961 – Section 203A Omitting the TAN or quoting a wrong one prevents the payment from being properly credited, which creates problems for both you and the deductee.
Under the Income Tax Act, 2025, which takes effect on April 1, 2026, TAN remains mandatory on all TDS returns. Existing TANs carry over automatically, so there is no need to reapply once the new act begins.8Income Tax Department. FAQs on Interplay and Transition
Correcting Details, Cancelling Duplicates, Surrendering
If a detail on your TAN is wrong, submit a correction request through the Protean portal. Select the “TAN Change Request” option, enter the corrected values, and tick the checkbox next to each field you want updated. Category corrections are allowed only when the original entry was genuinely wrong, for instance reclassifying an entity mistakenly recorded as “Firm” to “Company.” You cannot change the category simply because the business structure has evolved. After paying, print the acknowledgment, sign it, and mail it to the same Protean address in Pune used for new applications.9Income Tax Department. Change Your TAN Data
If a duplicate TAN was issued in error, use the same TAN Change Request route to cancel the unused number, keeping the active one live. If the entity has wound up or stopped making taxable payments and no longer needs a TAN, the process is different: send a written cancellation request on plain paper, with supporting documents, to your jurisdictional Assessing Officer (TDS). There is no online form for a full surrender.
Penalties for Not Applying or Misquoting
Two situations trigger a penalty of ₹10,000 each. Failing to obtain a TAN when you are required to deduct or collect tax is one. Quoting a TAN on challans, certificates, or statements while knowing it to be false or incorrect is the other.10Indian Kanoon. The Income Tax Act, 1961 – Section 272BB Section 468 of the Income Tax Act, 2025 carries the same ₹10,000 penalty forward for both violations.11PRS India. The Income Tax Bill, 2025
The fine is often the smaller cost. A missing or wrong TAN causes TDS credits to fail at the processing stage, so the people you deducted tax from may not see the credit in their Form 26AS. That leads to correction filings, unhappy employees and vendors, and potential interest on late deposits. Getting the TAN, and quoting it correctly every time, is far cheaper than the cleanup.