How To Change PAN AO Jurisdiction

Who is an Assessing Officer (AO)?

Every assessee comes under the jurisdiction of an Assessing officer, where an AO has the power to make decisions, judgements and assessments of an assessee. Assessing officers are designated on different posts such as Income tax officer, additional officer, joint commissioner, deputy commissioner, etc.

An AO is assigned based on the taxpayer’s PAN number. Each PAN card is connected to the AO code and assigned the geographical details. 

Further, there are various circumstances where you may need to contact your AO, such as income tax refund issues, responses to outstanding tax demands, evaluating ITR. The AO also has the power to impose penalties or waive them off; in such circumstances, you need to contact AO. Although, the faceless assessment has made the process seamless but for change of AO, you need to follow aprocedure.

Change of AO/PAN jurisdiction 

An assessee can change their AO in the following situations:

• In case of changing the permanent address
• In case of unprofessional behaviour of AO

Change of AO in case of change in address

When an assessee changes his/her residential area, he is required to update/modify the details at the Income-tax portal and communicate the same to the Income-tax department. Changing address details in PAN doesn’t automatically change your jurisdiction. You have to write a letter to your jurisdiction AO requesting him to change the address. 

On satisfaction of the current and new AO, the current AO transfer process and transfer your documents and migrate your PAN to the new AO. 

To communicate about the change in residential address, the assessee has to follow the following steps:

1. Visit NSDL https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan2/and apply for change the address on PAN card along with the fees.
2. Fill in all the required details and upload the documents.
3. Now,submit the form and make payment. After submitting the form, you will receive the acknowledgement.
4. Take the print of acknowledgement, paste your photograph and sign on the same. 
5. send this acknowledgement along with the supporting documents to NSDL within 15 days of making an online application.  

Once the above process is complete, you need to 

1. Make an application to the current AO mentioning the reason for shifting the address
2. Another application to the new AO requesting him to apply to the existing AO for change of AO
3. On acceptance of the request by the new AO, the application is forwarded to the income tax commissioner.
4. Once the commissioner approves your application, the AO is changed from the existing AO to the new AO. 

After writing the above application and completing the change of AO process, your assessment records will be moved from your current jurisdictional AO to your new jurisdictional AO.

Change of AO in case of unprofessional behaviour of AO

Another reason to change AO is the non-efficiency of existing AO to discharge duties properly or unprofessional behavior to deal with assesses. In such situations, you can make an application for change of AO as follow:

1. Make an application explaining the complete scenario and why you are not satisfied with the current AO’s behavior and send it to the Income Tax Ombudsman. The complaint should be accompanied by relevant documents. 

Note: The application must contain the complainant’s name, address, the exact reason for filing the complaint and the officer against whom he wants to make the complaint. 

2. Once the Ombudsman approves the application, he shall sign it and forward the application to the income tax commissioner. 
3. After his approval, your AO will be changed. 

How to know Jurisdiction and AO code?

You can easily check your AO Jurisdiction at the Income-tax website by following the simple steps;

1. Visit the official website of Income Tax https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/
2. Click on “Know your AO.”
3. Fill in the mandatory details, i.e., PAN and mobile number and click on “Submit.”
4. You will receive an OTP on your registered mobile number. Enter the OTP and click on submit. 

5. PAN jurisdictional details will be displayed on your screen.

One can read more about the process from this official pdf of income tax department also https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/Documents/pan-migration.htm