the forms used to apply for and update the permanent account number pan has been amended to include the third gender according to a gazette notification issued dated april 92018 form 49a and form 49aa will now also have the option of transgender along with the male and femalethe income tax department has clarified that no supporting documents for gender would be required while making a fresh application or making changes in exisitng pan card aadhaar and the voter id already have the third gender as an option in their formswhy this was neededpan card is an important financial document as it is required to avail various financial services like opening a bank account investing in fixed deposits filing itr and so on last year the government introduced section 139aa of the income tax act which made it mandatory for applicants applying for new pan card to quote their aadhaar number from july 1 2017 existing pan card holders were asked to link it with aadhaar to avoid their pan card becoming invalid however since aadhaar already has the third gender as an option and pan so far did not have the option it posed as a serious problem this is because pan and aadhaar cannot be linked even if there is a slight mismatch so with a mismatch in gender in the two ids transgender people have been finding it difficult to link their pan and aadhaar the times of india had recently reported that transgender people have been facing problems obtaining pan cards as the application form had male and female as the only gender options similarly transgender who are eligible to file income tax returns itr would have also faced the problem of their return not being processed by the tax department as the pan would not have linked with aadhaar due to mismatch in gender details the circular issued by the central board of direct taxes cbdt last year stated that taxpayers would be allowed to file their returns without linking of pan with aadhaar however for the returns to get processed the two will have to be linked recently cbdt has extended the deadline to link pan with aadhaar to june 30 2018