What the PAN is
The PAN is the number Inland Revenue Department (IRD) assigns to a taxpayer in Nepal. It follows you across every tax you deal with: VAT, income tax and withholding. Businesses that pay you will ask for it before they release payment, because they report their suppliers to Inland Revenue Department (IRD) by this number.
Who needs one
Anyone about to earn assessable income, anyone the Department has designated, and anyone who has to withhold tax must take a PAN before that income is earned or that payment is made. Others may apply voluntarily. Employees are in scope: a person with employment income takes a personal PAN (P-PAN), and the employer quotes it on the E-TDS filing when it deposits the tax withheld from their salary. There is a hard commercial edge to this — an employer cannot deduct remuneration or wages paid to a worker with no PAN, apart from casual wages up to NPR 3,000. Selling online counts as doing business: IRD's notice of Bhadra 2083 says people trading through Facebook, TikTok or Instagram must come into the tax net with a PAN first.
How to register, step by step
- Go to ird.gov.np, open the Taxpayer Portal, expand 'Registration (PAN, VAT, EXCISE)' and click 'Application for Registration'. For a personal PAN use 'Application For PPAN Registration' instead, or the Nagarik App, or the IRD Nepal mobile app.
- Take a submission number first: set a username and password (both case-sensitive), give a mobile number and email, tick Income Tax — and VAT too if you are registering for both at once — and choose the Inland Revenue Office or Taxpayer Service Office you will deal with. Write the submission number, username and password down; you need them to reopen the draft and to print the form.
- Fill the business tabs: trade name in Nepali and English, registration date, number and issuing office, start of trading, head office and main place of business, landlord details and floor area if rented, bank account, branches, warehouses, and the business classification from the NSIC code list on IRD's site. Every director's PAN is mandatory — the portal pulls their details from it.
- Verify the mobile number and email with the one-time password the portal sends, then Save and Submit. Submitted details cannot be edited afterwards.
- Print the application, sign it and take it with your documents to the office you picked. The tax officer verifies it, captures the biometric record if you have none, and issues the PAN certificate. Display it where everyone can see it at your main place of business.
How to find or check a PAN
IRD runs a free public lookup at ird.gov.np/pan-search: type the number, clear the captcha, and it returns the taxpayer. Tax clearance certificates are checked separately at ird.gov.np/tax-clearance using the fiscal year and the certificate number.
Documents, cost and how long it takes
Registering a business for a PAN at an Inland Revenue Office is free of charge. According to the IRD Citizen Charter of the Kalanki office, the file needs the registration certificate from the body that registered the business, a copy of the ownership certificate for the premises or a rental agreement with the landlord's ownership certificate or an electricity bill, and the original citizenship certificate with a copy for the owner. A company, firm or partnership also supplies its minutes and the citizenship copies of its partners or directors, and a proprietor or authorised representative must attend. No fixed processing time is published: applications are served by token and turn at the office.