How to open a password-protected Form 16 or AIS PDF, and save a copy without the password

The short answer. A Form 16 PDF's password is set by your employer or its payroll provider, and the format is in its covering email. Most use the first five letters of your PAN in capitals followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, such as ABCDE15081990. The AIS password is your PAN in lowercase followed by your date of birth.

Once you know the password, you can save a copy that opens without it, which is what an ITR utility, a loan portal or a CA's software usually needs. This guide covers who sets which password, the official formats where the issuer publishes one, and how to remove the password safely.

Who sets the password

Form 16 passes through two hands, and each one can lock it.

TRACES, for your employer. Your employer downloads Form 16 Part A from TRACES, the TDS portal of the Income Tax Department, as a ZIP file and converts it to PDFs with the TRACES PDF converter utility. TRACES states that the password for that download is the employer's TAN in capital letters. That password is for the employer's file, not yours; the PDFs the utility produces for each employee are separate.

Your employer or payroll provider, for you. The PDF you receive by email is usually locked by the employer's payroll software before it is sent. There is no rule fixing the format, so it varies by employer. The covering email or the payroll portal's help page states it.

The Income Tax Department, for AIS and TIS. The Annual Information Statement you download from the e-filing portal has a password the department publishes: your PAN in lowercase followed by your date of birth (or date of incorporation for a company or firm) as DDMMYYYY, with no space. For PAN AAAAA1234A born on 21 January 1991, that is aaaaa1234a21011991.

The formats people meet

Document	Who locks it	Usual password	Example
Form 16 from your employer	employer's payroll software	first 5 letters of PAN in capitals + date of birth DDMMYYYY (most common; check the email)	ABCDE15081990
Form 16 ZIP downloaded from TRACES	TRACES, for the employer	employer's TAN in capitals	ABCD12345E
AIS or TIS PDF	Income Tax Department	PAN in lowercase + date of birth DDMMYYYY	aaaaa1234a21011991
Salary slip	employer's payroll software	varies; often PAN or date of birth	see the email

The Form 16 row is a common pattern, not a rule. Some employers use the full PAN, some lowercase letters, some an employee number. If the first guess fails, read the email again before trying variations.

How to remove the password from Form 16

1. Find the password format in the covering email or on the payroll portal.
2. Open Remove PDF Password and add the Form 16 PDF. You can add Part A and Part B together if they are separate files.
3. Type the password. Capitals matter: ABCDE and abcde are different passwords.
4. Click Unlock and download the copy. It opens with no prompt from now on.
5. Keep the original file and email too. An unlocked copy is a new file, so a digital signature on the original no longer validates in the copy. The copy is for reading and uploading; the original is your proof.

Without a tool, Chrome or Edge can do it as well: open the PDF, type the password, press Ctrl+P, choose Save as PDF as the printer, and save. That route reprints every page, so selectable text can become harder to copy and form fields turn into plain print; the unlock tool keeps the pages as they were.

Why portals reject a locked PDF

ITR preparation software, loan and visa portals and most document management systems need to read the file without a person typing a password. A locked PDF looks to them like a damaged or unreadable file, so they reject it or upload something empty. An unlocked copy fixes that. If the portal also has a size limit, Compress PDF brings it down afterwards.

What no tool should do

Removing a password needs the password. A tool that offers to "unlock without a password" is either guessing, which for a strong password takes impractically long, or exploiting a weakness in old encryption. Either way, that is not something to do with a document that is not yours. If you have genuinely lost the password and the email, ask your employer's HR or payroll team to resend Form 16. AIS can always be downloaded again from the e-filing portal.

If it doesn't work

• "Incorrect password". Check capitals, check the date format (DDMMYYYY, not DD-MM-YYYY), and check which date of birth your employer has on file; it is the one in the payroll system, which may differ from your certificates.
• The AIS password fails. The PAN must be lowercase and the date must be your date of birth as the department holds it, with no spaces.
• It opens without a password but will not print or copy. It has an owner password that restricts printing. Unlock PDF removes the restriction if you have that password.
• The file is a .zip, not a PDF. If it came from TRACES, it is the employer's download; only the employer should be converting it.
• "This PDF uses a certificate". It is locked to a digital certificate, not a password. Ask the sender for a password-protected or unprotected copy.

Questions people ask

What is the password for Form 16 PDF?

Form 16 passwords are set by your employer, so the covering email is the authority. The most common format is the first five letters of your PAN in capitals followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, for example ABCDE15081990. Some employers use the full PAN or lowercase letters. TRACES itself locks only the employer's ZIP download, with the employer's TAN.

What is the password to open AIS PDF?

The Income Tax Department sets it as your PAN in lowercase followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY form, with no space. For PAN AAAAA1234A and a birth date of 21 January 1991, the password is aaaaa1234a21011991. Companies and firms use their date of incorporation or formation instead of a date of birth.

How do I remove the password from Form 16?

Open the PDF in an unlock tool, type the password from your employer's email, and download the unlocked copy, which opens without a prompt from then on. Chrome's Print, then Save as PDF, also works. Keep the original as well, since its digital signature does not carry over to a copy. A password is always needed; no legitimate tool removes one you do not know.

Can I upload a password-protected Form 16 for ITR filing?

Usually not. Tax software and most portals that read Form 16 automatically cannot open a locked PDF, so the upload fails or reads nothing. Save an unlocked copy first and upload that. Keep the original email and file as well, because the digital signature on Part A, which shows the certificate came from TRACES, validates only in the original.

Is it safe to unlock Form 16 on a website?

Only if the website does the work in your browser. Form 16 carries your PAN, salary and tax figures, and many PDF sites upload the file to their server. Unlock PDF here decrypts the file on your own device, so neither the PDF nor the password is sent anywhere, and the password is discarded as soon as the file is unlocked.

Sources

Checked 5 Oct 2026:

• TRACES (TDS CPC, Income Tax Department): FAQs, Form 16 / 16A download ("The password for opening Form 16 / 16A will be your TAN in capital letters")
• TRACES: E-Tutorial, Download Form 16 (Part A & Part B) (the PDF converter utility asks for the TAN as password)
• Income Tax Department: Steps to access AIS information online (AIS PDF password: PAN in lowercase and date of birth or incorporation as DDMMYYYY)
• The Form 16 format for employees is set by each employer and is not published by the department; the pattern above is the one most commonly stated in employers' covering emails.