How to Apply for PAN Registration in Nepal: Step-by-Step Guide

Published August 11, 2026.

A Permanent Account Number (PAN) is the tax identification number every registered business and most working individuals in Nepal need before they can file a tax return, issue certain invoices, or open a business bank account — and applying for one is a genuinely straightforward, procedural process once you know which track applies to you and have the right documents ready. This guide is a pure how-to walkthrough of that application process itself: how business PAN and individual PAN differ, exactly what documents each requires, and the steps from gathering paperwork to holding your PAN certificate. If you're trying to understand how PAN relates to VAT rather than how to actually apply, our PAN vs VAT guide covers that comparison in detail — this post focuses squarely on getting your PAN application done correctly the first time.

PAN registration at a glance

A Permanent Account Number is a unique tax identification number issued by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). It's mandatory for every registered company and most individuals conducting business — without it, you cannot legally file income tax returns, issue certain invoices, or in most cases even open a business bank account. PAN is the identifier every subsequent tax interaction ties back to: income tax filing, claiming credit for tax withheld at source, and any further registration such as VAT, which builds directly on an existing PAN. There's no scenario where a registered company can reasonably defer PAN registration — it's the very first tax-related step after receiving your company or Ward registration certificate.

This guide assumes you already know, broadly, why PAN matters and are here for the practical part: how to actually get one. If you're still weighing whether you need PAN, VAT, or both, read our PAN vs VAT comparison first — it lays out exactly when each becomes mandatory.

Business PAN vs. individual PAN

Before you fill out anything, it's worth being clear on which of the two PAN tracks actually applies to your situation, since the documents and the underlying registration each builds on are different.

Business PAN applies to any registered company — Private Limited, Public Limited, partnership, or a Sole Proprietorship — and is obtained right after that underlying registration is complete. For companies registered through the Office of the Company Registrar, business PAN builds on your company registration certificate and MOA/AOA. For a Sole Proprietorship specifically, the underlying registration runs through the local Ward office and PAN rather than through OCR, and doesn't require an MOA or AOA at all — a distinction that trips up first-time applicants who assume every business PAN application needs company-style constitutional documents.

Individual PAN applies to a person conducting business or earning income outside a straightforward single-employer salary relationship — freelancers, consultants, professionals with multiple income sources, or anyone who needs their own tax identity separate from an employer's or client's PAN. Each taxpayer, individual or business, needs their own PAN to file their own return and claim credit for tax withheld on their own income; you cannot rely on a client's or employer's registration to cover your personal tax obligations.

The application process, step by step

The mechanics are largely the same whether you're applying for a business or individual PAN — what changes is which documents you bring and what underlying registration, if any, you need in place first.

Determine which track applies to you. Business PAN if you're registering on behalf of a company or Sole Proprietorship; individual PAN if you're applying as a person conducting business, freelancing, or earning income that needs its own tax identity. Getting this right first avoids assembling the wrong document set.
Complete your underlying registration first, if applicable. A business PAN application builds on your company registration certificate (for OCR-registered companies) or your Ward registration certificate (for a Sole Proprietorship) — PAN follows that registration, not the other way around.
Gather the required documents for your specific track — see the checklists below. Completeness here is what determines whether your application moves through smoothly or comes back with a follow-up query.
Complete the PAN registration application with your personal or business details, registered address, and the taxpayer office jurisdiction covering your location — your PAN stays linked to that specific taxpayer office going forward, so getting the jurisdiction right at this stage avoids a correction later.
Submit your application and documents to the Inland Revenue Department, either through IRD's application process or in person at your local taxpayer office. For a business PAN, this typically happens right after your company or Ward registration certificate is in hand.
IRD reviews your application for completeness and consistency against your registration or citizenship records — this is a procedural check rather than a heavy multi-stage examination, and a complete, consistent submission is what keeps it moving without a query coming back.
Receive your PAN certificate showing your unique PAN number. This is the number attached to every subsequent tax interaction you have — filing returns, claiming TDS credit, and, if it applies to you, registering for VAT.
Keep your PAN certificate accessible for near-immediate next steps. Opening a business bank account almost always requires it, and VAT registration — if your turnover or business type requires it — builds directly on your existing PAN rather than starting from scratch.

Documents checklist: business PAN

For a company registered through the Office of the Company Registrar:

Company registration certificate from OCR
Memorandum of Association (MOA) and Articles of Association (AOA)
Citizenship certificate or passport for directors and authorized signatories
Passport-size photographs of authorized signatories
Registered office address details

For a Sole Proprietorship, the checklist is shorter, since it registers through the Ward office and PAN rather than OCR:

Ward registration certificate
Citizenship certificate or passport of the proprietor
Passport-size photograph
Business address and premises details

No MOA or AOA is required for a Sole Proprietorship's business PAN application — a common point of confusion for first-time applicants comparing notes with someone who registered a Private Limited company. See our documents required for company registration guide for how the underlying company-side paperwork feeds into this.

If any of these documents are missing or the details on them don't match each other exactly — a director's name spelled slightly differently on their citizenship document versus the MOA, for instance — resolve that mismatch before you submit rather than after. It's a far smaller task to correct at the source than to explain away once IRD has already raised it as a query against your application.

Documents checklist: individual PAN

An individual PAN application is the most straightforward of the two tracks:

Citizenship certificate or passport
A passport-size photograph
Proof of address or current contact details

There's no company-side documentation involved at all, since you're applying in your own name rather than on behalf of a registered entity. This is the track freelancers, consultants, and salaried individuals who need a personal PAN for reasons beyond straightforward single-employer salary should expect to follow. A salaried employee whose entire income runs through one employer's TDS withholding typically doesn't need to separately apply for an individual PAN on their own initiative — but the moment a second income source enters the picture, whether that's freelance work on the side, rental income, or investment income, having your own PAN in place becomes the practical foundation for reporting that income correctly rather than something to improvise later at filing time.

Why the correct taxpayer office matters

One detail that's easy to treat as an afterthought during the application form step is which taxpayer office your PAN gets registered under. Nepal's Inland Revenue Department is organized into taxpayer offices covering different geographic jurisdictions, and your PAN stays linked to whichever office you register under for as long as that PAN is active — it isn't a one-time administrative label that disappears once your certificate is issued. Every future interaction tied to that PAN, from filing your annual return to any correspondence IRD sends you, routes through that same office. Registering under the office covering your actual registered address, rather than a jurisdiction that happens to be more convenient to visit, avoids a mismatch that can complicate filings later — particularly if your business later needs to register for VAT, which builds on your existing PAN and, by extension, on the taxpayer office it's already registered under.

If your business relocates or you need to update your registered address after your PAN is already issued, that's a separate update you'll need to make with your taxpayer office directly — it doesn't happen automatically just because your Ward or company registration records were updated elsewhere.

Realistic timeline

PAN registration is a procedural filing with the Inland Revenue Department rather than a heavily examined, multi-stage process — it doesn't go through anything comparable to the Office of the Company Registrar's document-by-document review of a full company incorporation. That said, we won't give you a fixed number of days here, because the honest answer is that it depends almost entirely on one variable: how complete and internally consistent your documents are when you submit. An application where the citizenship details, registered address, and underlying registration certificate all line up cleanly tends to move through without a follow-up query. An application with a mismatch — an address on your citizenship document that doesn't match your registered office, for instance — generates a query that adds a real delay while it's resolved. The single biggest lever you have over how quickly you get your PAN certificate is making sure everything matches before you submit, not anything about the process itself.

Does it cost anything

PAN registration itself is a procedural filing with the IRD rather than a major cost item, and it's a required step you can't reasonably budget around avoiding — every registered business and most working individuals need one regardless of cost. If you're weighing whether to handle the application yourself or have it managed for you, the value in professional help here isn't in reducing a government fee — it's in avoiding the back-and-forth that comes from an incomplete or inconsistent first submission, particularly if you're simultaneously juggling company registration, Ward registration, and PAN in sequence and want them handled correctly the first time. Our PAN registration service handles both business and individual PAN applications from document preparation through to certificate.

PAN and TDS credit: how they connect

Tax Deducted at Source, or TDS, is the withholding tax an employer or client is required to deduct at the time of payment — salary, rent, service fees — and deposit with the IRD on your behalf. Your PAN is what ties that deducted amount back to you specifically: when a client or employer withholds tax and deposits it under your PAN, that deposit becomes a credit you can claim against your own annual tax liability when you file. Without a registered PAN, there's no account for that withheld tax to be credited against, which is one more reason PAN registration isn't something a freelancer or consultant can reasonably defer even if their income feels irregular or modest in a given year. If you're issuing invoices to clients who withhold TDS on payments to you, confirming your PAN details are correctly on file with them — not just with IRD — is worth doing early, since a TDS deposit made against an incorrect or missing PAN number is a genuinely awkward thing to correct after the fact.

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming an employer's or a client's PAN covers your own tax obligations. Each taxpayer needs their own PAN to file their own return and claim credit for tax withheld on their own income — you can't rely on someone else's registration.
Applying for business PAN before your underlying registration is complete. A business PAN application builds on your company or Ward registration certificate — that needs to exist first, not be applied for in parallel.
Assuming a Sole Proprietorship needs an MOA and AOA the way an OCR-registered company does. It doesn't — Sole Proprietorships register through the Ward office and PAN, and that's a genuinely shorter document list.
Registering under the wrong taxpayer office jurisdiction, which creates friction later since your PAN stays linked to that specific office for future filings and correspondence.
Letting a document mismatch slip through — an address, spelling, or detail on one document that doesn't match another — which is the most common reason a straightforward application generates an avoidable follow-up query.
Assuming PAN registration alone means you're fully tax compliant. It's the foundation, not the whole picture — VAT is a separate, additional obligation that only applies once your turnover or business type requires it, and it doesn't announce itself automatically. See our PAN vs VAT guide for exactly where that line sits.

After you have your PAN

Getting your PAN certificate isn't the end of the process — it's what everything else builds on. A few practical next steps worth planning for immediately:

Opening a business bank account typically requires your PAN certificate alongside your company or Ward registration certificate — have it on hand rather than requesting it from IRD again after the fact.

Assessing your VAT position is worth doing honestly and early rather than waiting for turnover to force the question. VAT registration is required once your turnover crosses NPR 50 lakh for goods-only businesses or NPR 30 lakh for service or mixed businesses, measured on a rolling 12-month basis, or immediately for certain business types regardless of turnover. Our VAT registration threshold guide covers exactly where that line sits and which sectors must register regardless of turnover.

Setting up your annual filing calendar comes next — income tax returns (filed as one of the D01 through D04 forms depending on your turnover tier and accounting basis) are due within three months of fiscal year-end (Ashoj-end), extendable to Poush-end. Our D01 vs D02 guide covers which return form actually applies to your business.

If any part of this — the PAN application itself, the VAT assessment, or the ongoing filing calendar — feels like more than you want to manage directly, our tax registration and filing service handles all three together rather than as separate, disconnected steps.

Frequently asked questions

How is PAN registration different from VAT registration?

PAN is your tax identification number and is mandatory for every registered company and most individuals conducting business. VAT is a separate 13% consumption tax registration, required only once your turnover crosses a threshold or your business type mandates it — it isn't automatically triggered by having a PAN.

Do individuals need a PAN, or is it only for registered companies?

Individuals conducting business — freelancers, consultants, and most working individuals — generally need their own PAN too, separate from any PAN their employer or client holds.

What documents do I need for an individual PAN application?

Typically your citizenship certificate or passport, a passport-size photograph, and proof of your address or contact details.

Does a sole proprietorship need an MOA and AOA to get a business PAN?

No. A Sole Proprietorship registers locally through the Ward office and PAN rather than through OCR, and doesn't require an MOA or AOA at all.

Which comes first — company registration or PAN?

Company or Ward registration comes first, and PAN registration follows immediately after — a business PAN application builds directly on that underlying registration.

Does getting a PAN cost much?

PAN registration is a procedural filing with the Inland Revenue Department rather than a major cost item, and it's a required step you can't reasonably budget around avoiding.

What do I actually need my PAN for once I have it?

Filing income tax returns, claiming credit for tax withheld on your income, opening a business bank account, and, if applicable, registering for VAT, which builds directly on your existing PAN.

Bottom line

PAN registration in Nepal is a genuinely procedural process once you know which track — business or individual — applies to you and have your documents lined up and internally consistent. Complete your underlying company or Ward registration first if you're applying for a business PAN, gather the right document set for your track, and submit through your correct taxpayer office jurisdiction. From there, your PAN becomes the identifier everything else — bank accounts, VAT registration, annual filing — builds on. If you'd rather have someone manage the application, documents, and sequencing for you, our PAN registration service handles business and individual PAN from start to certificate.